Quinn crouched beside her.“You have to use the magic word,kotyonak.”
“Aunt Dede, can I have a fucking juice box?”
I knew I shouldn’t laugh, but a snort escaped.I might not have spent much time around kids, but I’d put money on Tabitha Quinn following in her mother’s oh-so-silent footsteps.
Quinn tore both hands through his hair.“I’m fighting a losing battle here.”
“We’re on the same side,” Ana reminded him, and he took a calming breath.
“Tabby, you shouldn’t say ‘fucking.’The magic word is ‘please,’ remember?”
“Aunt Dede,pleasecan I have a juice box?”
“Sure.Want me to take a picture of you guys?Tabby’s first undercover job is one for the memory book.”
“What did I do to deserve this?”Quinn muttered, but he was smiling as he said it.
Because he cared.
He cared about Ana and about Tabby.
And that…that left me with…feelings.A little envy, but also hope.Quinn was such a regular guy.Not the type of man I’d ever have imagined Ana ending up with.They had a relationship I’d always assumed would be impossible—Quinn knew Ana’s past and her present, and still he loved her.
What if I could have that too?
Alex had called me last night.My first instinct had been to ask, “What’s wrong?”but nothing was wrong.He just wanted to talk.Not about work, but about things of no consequence.My favourite movie (I didn’t have one), places we’d been on vacation (what was a vacation?), how we’d spent Christmas (Alex had wrapped gifts for underprivileged kids while I’d dressed up as a Shadow Trooper to extract a confession from a murderer), that kind of thing.Which was weird, but in the same way that Brooke showing up with cupcakes on her first day at work had been weird.Niceweird.
And that left me even more mixed up.