Worth the Fall (The McKinney Brothers, #1)(29)

“Shh. Keep your voice down. I didn’t pick up a man. He’s a friend.”

Angie rolled her eyes. “Honey, I am so sorry for you if I have to point this out. But that”—she pointed toward the guys standing in the food line—“is most definitely a man. I might even say a man and a half.”

“Would you stop?” Abby reached into her bag for the hand sanitizer.

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but…how in the world did you do—”

“I didn’t do anything. Would you keep your voice down? He plays with the kids. We talk. Don’t make it something it’s not.”

“I talked to you every night this week and you didn’t once think to mention that?” She loudly whispered the last word.

“There was nothing to mention.” They scoured the food court area for an empty table. “Then Charlie fell and we went to the hospital and—”

“What?”

Abby shushed her again and gave a quick rundown of events before they reached the men.

“Here ya go.” Joe handed Angie a tray with piles of french fries in white paper pouches. “We’re still waiting on the rest.”

Matt held Charlie perched on one muscled arm, causing his navy T-shirt to stretch around his biceps. His other hand rested on Jack’s shoulder.

Yeah, he was a man. And, yeah, she’d noticed. “Come on, guys. Let’s go find a table.”

Jack eased back against Matt’s legs, beaming up at him like the sun. “I’ll stay with Matt.”

“I stay Matt,” Charlie mimicked.

Big surprise. She and Angie took the girls and found a table. Angie’s older kids were squeezing in a few more runs on the slides. Abby slid onto the plastic seat and finished the story of Charlie and his stitches.

Gracie happily filled Angie in on any details she left out. “Matt had pizza wiff us, watched a movie wiff us.”

“Really?” Angie cocked her head, one eyebrow raised. “Interesting.”

“Annie, sweetie, could you and Emily run and get us some napkins?”

“Sure.” Gracie and Angie’s daughter spun off their seats.

Abby looked pointedly at her friend. “What’s interesting?”

“You and him,” Angie said, pointing a fry in his direction.

“I told you. We’re friends.” It was the truth. A friend who she envisioned kissing her. A friend who said she scared him too. But Angie didn’t need to know this. And saying it out loud would make it all too real.

“Right.” Angie eyed her as if she could see an alternate truth glowing in Abby’s eyes, like a crystal ball.

“What?” Abby tried to sound innocent and busied herself with tearing open ketchup packages.

“Are you serious or are you just pretending to be blind?” Angie asked.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Abby avoided Angie’s stare and turned to Gracie, who’d returned and was saying she was going to die of thirst in twenty-thirty seconds. “No, you’re not. Be patient.”

Angie pointed another fry at her. “He wants you. I can tell. It’s all in the look.”

“What look?”

“The look that says”—she lowered her voice to a whisper for the girls’ sake—“I want to lick your entire body with or without chocolate sauce. Slowly.”

Abby’s entire body went hot at the thought.

“You’re blushing.”

She covered her burning cheeks, knowing a part of her wanted him to want her. Even if that’s all it would ever be. “You’re crazy.”

“No. I really don’t think I am. Maybe at around five-thirty, when everyone’s screaming and the frozen dinner is baking. But”—she waved all that off—“right now? No. This is not a crazy moment.”

“Angie, look at me. I’m a whale.”

“Honey, the only way you could be a whale is if you were carrying sextuplets, and even then you’d probably look like a goddess, and I hate you for it.”

“He’s a nice guy. He’s just having fun.”

“Ha. Just having fun my ass.”

Abby cleared her throat, indicating the kids with her head.

“I meant my butt.”

Angie could be a pain, but she did make her laugh. “I’m serious. I think I remind him of his mother.”

Angie spewed a mist of soda all over her daughter’s fries.

Joe and Matt walked up at that moment, carrying trays of drinks and food.

Joe looked from Abby to his wife. “What did we miss?”

“Nothing.” Abby rolled her eyes. “Your wife is crazy.”

“Really? It’s not even five.”





Chapter 10


The sprinkle sprayer park was a colossal structure—sort of a jungle-gym-meets-water-hose on steroids. It offered fun for tots, big kids, and really big kids like Matt and Joe, who were blasting each other with water cannons.

“Looks like the boys bonded,” Angie said.

“Yeah.” Abby watched them team up when the kids turned against them. Her best friend’s husband and her…friend.

“Mommy!” Gracie ran up, water dripping into her eyes. “You haf to come stand over here. It’s weally fun. I pwomise. And nuffing will happen.”