Page 78 of Feast

Grumpily, it turned out.

“Shit,” he said, and there was such a look of resigned annoyance on his face that Maddie wasn’t sure whether to be offended or amused.

The bombshell had no such problem.

“Hello,” she said, stepping forward and holding out a hand, a cheerful smile on her deep red lips. “I’m Spence’s friend, Esme.”

“Hi,” Maddie said, taking her hand. “I’m Maddie, his stepsister.”

Esme beamed. “Oh, I’ve heard so much about you!”

“Have you?” Maddie glanced at Spence, whose scowl couldn’t quite mask themay-the-ground-open-up-and-swallow-me-wholelook in his eyes. “I’ve only heard one or two things about you.”

“Is that right?” Esme aimed a look at Spence that could’ve sliced open a vein at twenty paces. “All good, I hope.”

“Nothing but,” Maddie assured her just as a large white man with a wild ginger beard came jogging up.

“Okay, I got the book,” he told Esme, then eyed Maddie with unabashed curiosity. “Who’s this?”

“This,” Esme announced, still holding Maddie’s hand, “is Maddie. Spence’s stepsister.”

Maddie didn’t think she’d ever seen a grown man look so delighted. “Really?”

“In the flesh,” Maddie said, and since Spence was slapping himself in the head with a hardcover book and muttering curses under his breath, pulled her hand from Esme’s to extend it to the newcomer. “I’m Maddie.”

“Tuck.” His giant paw of a hand swallowed hers, then he let her go to slap Spence on the back. “I’m Spence’s best friend.”

“No, you’re not,” Spence corrected. “You were, then you left me here to walk into an ambush. Now you’re just some dickhead in a bookstore.”

“Hey, you’re the one who sided with Esme on this thirty-dollar paperweight,” Tuck said, shaking the book he held at Tuck. “This is on you, pal.”

“Oh, blow me,” Spence said and scowled harder when Tuck grinned.

“Don’t mind them,” Esme said, pulling Maddie’s attention back to her. “They do this all the time. It doesn’t mean anything.”

Maddie nodded. “I figured. If Spence wasn’t scowling, would he even be Spence?”

Esme grinned, her dark brown eyes lit with laughter. “That’s our boy. So, what brings you two here tonight?”

“We had dinner down the street,” Maddie said, flicking her gaze to Spence to see if he wanted to jump in. He was still scowling at Tuck, so she assumed not. “And since Spence had a book he wanted to pick up, I figured I’d see if I could find something to read this weekend.”

“What’d you get?” Esme asked, angling closer to look.

Maddie held out the book. “Someone at work recommended it. Historical romance isn’t really my thing, but it sounded so good I figured I’d give it a try.”

“Oh, that is a good one,” Esme said, her eyes lighting up. “But I think the second book in the series is better.”

“Yeah?” Maddie looked at the cover. “Maybe I should get that one instead.”

“No, no, start with this one,” Esme urged. “The villain in this one—well, notthevillain, butavillain—is the hero of the next one.”

“You’re kidding.”

Esme shook her head. “It shouldn’t work, but trust me, it does. I have a copy of book number two, I can loan it to you when you’re ready.”

“That would be great.”

“Spence has my number,” she said and turned to flutter her lashes at him. “Don’t you, darling?”

---