Читать книгу Almost a Christmas Bride - Susan Crosby - Страница 10

Respite, Dixie’s day spa, was like most hair salons or barbershops in small-town America—a place where advice was sought and dispensed, problems debated and solved, and gossip spread, true or speculative. As Kincaid pulled into the parking lot behind the building, Dylan in his truck behind him, he anticipated a small, curious crowd inside. There was no outside access to the apartment, so Kincaid and Dylan had no choice but to enter the female-occupied space. Kincaid and a few other men in town got their hair cut at Respite, but he saw only women today.

“Ladies,” he said. “I’d like you to meet Dylan Vargas. He’s the new upstairs tenant. Be gentle with him, okay?”

“Aw, Kincaid, you’re no fun,” Aggie McCoy said, looking like some kind of alien, with foil sticking out from her head and black dye at her roots. “Dylan, have you met my granddaughter, Posey?”

“No, ma’am, I haven’t.” Dylan nodded to the cute teenager seated in a chair next to her grandmother, having her hair cut and looking embarrassed about the new boy in town seeing her looking less than perfect. Her cheeks flushed pink.

And so it begins, Kincaid thought, stopping short of heaving a sigh. And he’ll have a place of his own. Great….

They’d had the birds-and-bees talk last night. Kincaid had been direct and graphic with the boy, because apparently his father never had been. Dylan was startlingly naive. Kincaid hoped he’d cured him of that. Being armed with information was a whole lot better than ignorance or guesswork.

“Posey’s seventeen,” Kincaid said as he and Dylan climbed the stairs a minute later.

“Got it,” Dylan said.

Kincaid glanced back down and saw all the women watching them. “I think we’d better design a plan to move your entrance to the outside so you don’t have to interrupt the clients in their private domain.”

“Fine by me,” Dylan said, sounding relieved.

The upstairs door was open, so they climbed the child gate and went inside. “We’re here,” Kincaid called out.

Emma came running. Kincaid crouched down in time to catch her as she neared, but she came to a quick stop, keeping her distance.

“Good morning, Miss Emma.”

“No Kinky!”

Dylan laughed. “Kinky? Seriously?”

“Dilly up!” Emma said, raising her arms.

“Dilly? Seriously?” Kincaid said, feeling rebuffed as Dylan lifted her into his arms, looking only slightly uncomfortable at the nickname.

“Dilly, Dilly,” she said, patting his face.

“Where’s Mommy?” Kincaid asked.

Emma pointed. Shana had come up behind him.

“Good morning,” she said. “I’m packed and ready to go, except that I haven’t taken the crib apart. But first, Aggie brought some homemade apple turnovers for all of us.”

She headed to the kitchen, and Kincaid found himself staring at her rear. She was slender but with curves in all the right places. Not that he hadn’t noticed before, but he was finding himself more aware of her than he had been before.

Which probably wasn’t a good thing.

As they dug into the turnovers they talked about the day’s plan of attack. Load her possessions into Kincaid’s truck, unload Dylan’s and haul them upstairs, although he had few possessions. Then they would all head to Kincaid’s to unload Shana’s things and set up the crib.

They traipsed through the salon back and forth, back and forth, until everything was loaded and unloaded. Aggie offered to keep Emma, but Shana thought she should be part of the move. By seeing her crib set up in her new bedroom, she would more readily accept that she would be sleeping there.

“Do you think that’s all it will take?” Kincaid asked as Shana buckled Emma in her car seat to head to his house. “She’ll see her crib and that’s that?”

“I don’t think the house change will be a problem. She’s been babysat by a lot of different people and is used to that. I think the biggest adjustment may come from me not sleeping in the same room with her.”

“She, uh, doesn’t have temper tantrums, does she?” he asked, suddenly wondering what he’d agreed to take on.

“Occasionally.” She shut the car door and faced him. “I know this is going to be a big change for you, too.”

She looked nervous, and he realized he wasn’t the only one worried that they were getting into something neither was ready for. “You already warned me that she’s busy.”

“And noisy. Speak now or forever hold your peace.”

He considered that for a moment. “A deal’s a deal.”

“I’ll try to keep her away from you as much as possible,” she said tightly.

She started to climb into the car, but he stopped her by putting a hand on her arm. The electricity of that one touch made him break contact immediately, and confused him.

“I don’t expect you to keep her locked in her room. Just because I’m paying you a salary doesn’t mean you can’t consider my house your home, Shana. I don’t want you to feel like a visitor. I figure I’ll get married someday and have children. Emma will be good experience for me.”

He’d been trying to make her relax, but her expression indicated he hadn’t succeeded. She frowned in that way she had, where her lips pinched together and her nose wrinkled. He fought the sudden urge to kiss that frown away.