Love, Diamonds, and Spades (Cactus Creek #2)(5)

Aw, sometimes the man could be surprisingly sweet.

“She just completely forgot how to use them,” he added. “Since it’s been so long since she’s used them last.”

Aaand, that was more like him.

Cooper nodded disappointedly, visibly unsurprised. “Yeah, mommy’s been forgetting lots of stuff lately. She even lost the ear phones you let her borrow before. Oops, I wasn’t s’pposed to tell you that.”

Traitor. Quinn whistled innocently.

Luke shot her a look. Probably because she’d convinced him the other day that he’d lost those very earphones himself—he fell for it every time. To be fair, he lost way more of her stuff than she did his.

“You know what, though,” continued Luke, with an evil gleam in his eye, “I’m pretty sure I saw mommy using her wiles on a new friend she made today. I think she might actually be using her powers all the time in secret, and just not telling us about it.”

While Quinn was busy giving Luke a dirty look, Cooper wandered over to one of the college-looking kids who was leveling the concrete subfloor. “Has my mommy used her super powers on you?”

The guy turned red and started coughing.

She was certain this was sexual harassment on some horrifyingly weird level.

Despite herself, she felt a smile stretch across her face when, undaunted, Cooper next went straight over to the biggest guy in the room, a mammoth granite counter guy with trunk-like forearms, who promptly proceeded to duck away.

That was a Christiansen trait right there—intimidating giant men who had no business being afraid of them. Like mother like son. She was so proud.

When said granite guy then stopped and stared at her, transfixed, she grew annoyed.

Yes, yes, Quinn had heard that a smile transforms her face. But c’mon. Geez, it wasn’t like she didn’t ever smile. A scowl flitted across her face, and that seemed to break the spell. Big Granite Guy reached over for some tools to start working again, seemingly relieved that he recognized her frowning face again.

Okay, so maybe she could smile a little bit more.

But a few seconds later, she was reminded again just why she didn’t.

The silence that usually filled the shop, suddenly shattered as eight men began talking at once.

“Well, your mom is pretty cute when she takes off her shoes and she thinks no one can see that her feet are dancing barefoot under the desk when she’s working…”

“Hey, what about when she crosses and uncrosses her legs when she’s yelling at someone on the phone? That’s pretty dang—”

“You numb nuts, not in front of the kid!”

More private discussions on her different feminine wiles broke out all around and Luke lifted a fist up to his mouth to cover a cough…which sounded suspiciously like a laugh. When the coughing fit passed, he put his hands over Cooper’s ears and quickly steered him to the door.

“Don’t you dare leave,” hissed Quinn.

It was possible her warning never reached Luke’s ears because it happened at the exact moment when one of the guys asked, in utter reverence, “Holy crap, do you guys remember when she first tasted that new white chocolate Luke came in with the day before yesterday? Lord, I almost dropped my sander over that one…”

Half the room murmured wholeheartedly in agreement, while the other half sounded put out that they’d missed it. The descriptions that resounded to fill in that latter half had Luke’s coughs turning into tear-filled choking spasms.

He could very well keel over for all she cared. She wouldn’t even give him CPR if he did.

And for good reason. Because the insufferable man proceeded to then do the unthinkable.

Eyes alit with mischief, Luke waggled his brows and tsked—loud enough for the entire room to hear, “Sounds to me like you and Rylan might be a good fit after all, you seductress, you.”

She gasped. Hands on her hips, she put the full weight of her artic glare on him, attempting to vaporize him on the spot. It would’ve worked too, she was sure of it, if a whistle from one of the carpenters didn’t make her falter.

“Yep,” the guy muttered to his buddy. “That one’s distracting as hell too. When she does that whole hot scolding kindergarten teacher thing.”

The resulting debate about the hotness of kindergarten teachers and librarians had her jaw dropping open in shock. What was happening to her carefully frozen ice queendom? Where were the averted eyes? The hushed air of fear that always surrounded her like an awesome little bubble wherever she went?

It was like the men were no longer scared of her.

A pair of young lackeys came up to her a few seconds later. “Hey, did he say Rylan? Rylan Grey? We know him. He’s a really great guy. Want us to put in a good word for you?”

That made the entire room start talking, and oh so helpfully, offering the same. Apparently, they all knew Rylan. Fabulous.

Luke, wisely using Cooper as a human shield, made a run for it down the sidewalk then, not even bothering to cover up his laughter at all at this point.

Ignoring all the advice the still-chattering men were giving her about how to ‘land’ Rylan, she spun around on her heel and headed back to the office.

…To dump a huge pile of vendor and inventory paperwork on her now ex best friend’s desk.





CHAPTER THREE