Love, Diamonds, and Spades (Cactus Creek #2)(4)

She knew that. She’d never been one to compare guys to her ex before—that’d be setting her bar for basic human decency way too low. Somewhere around subterranean. Still, what was wrong with giving a wide berth to something that smelled suspiciously like a skunk? “Why are you defending him? You always take my side.”

Luke shrugged. “That’s because you’ve always been right. Until now. I saw the way he was looking at you.”

Oh, so he saw it too. “How…how was he looking at me?”

“Like you were the only woman in the room.”

Dammit. She felt a silly school girl flash of hope over that one statement…which she ruthlessly expunged. “But I wasn’t. That’s my point. He was flocked with women throughout the day. Even if I hadn’t already seen him with two different women in the span of thirty minutes, all his little groupies are enough for me to not want to touch him with a ten-foot pole…even if the pole was double-wrapped in a long-ass condom.” For one very, very brief and fleeting second, she allowed her memories of her ex to tarnish her brain. “One day, the temptation of all those women will be too much. Look at Brody. He cheated on me with his groupies while I was pregnant.”

“Brody was a brainless, heartless dick with no balls,” snarled Luke. “That jackass’s lack of restraint had nothing to do with him being a musician and everything to do with him being an unredeemable lowlife already booked on a first class ticket to hell.”

He didn’t know the half of it.

All the memories she’d worked hard to forget seeped back in for a beat before she shut that flood gate down again. “But it wasn’t just Brody. His band mates, the other musicians he partied with. They were all the same way. Some fought it pretty valiantly. Others at least looked guilty while going off with some random skank. But they all did it, in some awful way, shape or form. And I sat and watched it day in and day out.” A tired sigh dislodged from her throat. “I’m not saying that all musicians are douches. I’m not that narrow-minded. Just…why take the chance, you know? Why set myself up to get my heart stomped on again?”

“Yeah,” he said quietly. “I get it.”

Sadly, he really did. She knew exactly how many times Luke had gotten his heart banged up in the name of love.

But at least he’d had a chance to fall in love…

The jangling bell on the shop door put an end to their little joint pity fest, seconds before an adorable little human came flying at her. “Mommy!”

She grinned down at her son, the one and only good thing to come out of her relationship with Brody. The one tiny little miracle that kept her heart full every day. “Hey sweetie, how was your day?” Waving at her sister through the storefront window as she drove off, Quinn picked Cooper up and squeezed him tight. “How crazy did you and your cousins drive Aunt Penny today?”

“Super crazy!” announced Cooper proudly.

She didn’t doubt it. When Penny’s twins and Coop got together, chaos and Godzilla-like mayhem were a given. Though to be fair, sometimes Penny was the trio’s official ring leader in creating crazy pandemonium.

They still couldn’t show their faces at that toy store in Mesa.

“Aunt Penny said we could come over tomorrow to make Christmas cookies. And to tell you to please bring mac and cheese.” Cooper hopped over to Luke. “Wanna come too? Aunt Penny said you don’t have to bring anything but your dimples!”

Quinn rolled her eyes. Penny adored Luke to no end. He was the baby brother she’d have exchanged Quinn for if she could’ve. And Luke ate up the adoration with a spoon.

“Wouldn’t miss it, buddy.” Luke ruffled Cooper’s hair. “If fact, why don’t we walk over to the store today and get some extra cookie decorations. Your aunt and the girls probably forgot to get the car and dinosaur shaped sprinkles.”

Coop’s eyes grew to the size of saucers. “They always only have the pink hearts and rainbow star sprinkles.”

“Women,” Luke mock-sighed. “Let’s go get some manly sprinkles for our cookies.”

Quinn chuckled. Luke was so great with kids. Cooper really needed a good male figure to look up to, and Luke had been their rock from the day Coop was born.

“Mommy?” Cooper turned to her with all the seriousness of a preschooler. “What are wiles?”

Oh, joy. Her sister had taught Cooper something new today. “What was Aunt Penny saying when she used that word, honey?”

“She said she was going to use her somethin’ wiles on Uncle Peter to get a bigger van.”

Luke chimed in then so very helpfully, “Your aunt was talking about this secret power girls use on us boys all the time.”

Shaking her head, she admonished, “You’re worse than my sister. I won’t be surprised if I get another note from his teacher on Monday about the ‘interesting’ things Cooper tells his friends during snack time.”

Luke just looked even more pleased. Meanwhile, Cooper was studying her with a scientific, highly skeptical brow furrow. “Does mommy have these super powers too?”

She was a teeny bit affronted at how incredulous he sounded, but still answered in complete honesty, “Nope, sorry bud. I’ve lost all my wiles, I’m afraid.”

“Not true,” countered Luke, “your mommy’s still got ‘em.”