half-closed eyelids, but she only returned his stare, her mouth flat in a hard line.
He suppressed a sigh and turned to the girl he’d managed to keep out of his head most of the afternoon. Until now.
“Hi.”
Her blue eyes flashed the same sparks they’d held last night on his front porch. “Hi yourself.”
“Gina’s got food coming so I told her she could wait with us,” Jacoby said with a wide grin. Just as quickly as the smile appeared, it vanished. “Oh, shoot, I’ll be right back. Gina, you can sit over there.”
“Hey, where are you going?” Justin asked, overlooking the fact the kid offered the empty spot next to him.
“The bathroom. You said when I had to go I could just go.”
“At the cabin, sure, but out in public—well, you can’t just take off.”
Jacoby tilted his head to one side. “Why?”
Justin didn’t know how to answer that. He looked at his sister, but it was Gina who spoke first.
“Because we’d be worried,” she said. “You need to let Justin, or any adult you’re with, know where you’re going, especially if you plan to go off alone.”
Caution, an emotion Justin had witnessed many times since he met the boy, filled the child’s eyes. He looked from Gina back to him. “You’d be worried about me?”
He could feel Gina’s steady gaze on him, but he kept his focus on the kid. “Ah, yeah, sure.”
“Cool. Can I go to the bathroom now?”
Justin nodded, pointing out the entrance to the restrooms. The kid raced off and a long silence filled the air.
“Oh, Justin, I meant to tell you.” Racy snapped her fingers. “Nikki from the bar said she has a twin bed you can have for free if you can pick it up.”
“A what?”
“A bed. For Jacoby. He can’t camp out on the living room floor forever.”
“Wow, that’s so nice of Nikki,” Gina gushed, crossing her arms over her chest. “But I thought you weren’t interested in anyone’s help?”
He glared at her, trying to ignore how her actions caused a hint of lace and the smooth skin of her cleavage to appear.
“Then again, Jacoby is going to need a decent bed to sleep in,” she continued in a syrupy-sweet voice. “But I’m sure you already thought of that.”
He hadn’t.
Simple things like sneakers and a toothbrush, sure. But a place to sleep? Hell, he still hadn’t gotten the bed he planned to use for himself put together yet.
“No, I haven’t thought about getting the kid a bed.”
“Well, problem solved. You can pick it up on your way home.” Racy wore a quizzical look as her gaze shot between him and Gina. “Aren’t you going to sit?”
“Ah—”
“Here, take my place.” Racy stacked her dishes to one side before sliding out of the booth. “I need to get going. Tell Jacoby I’ll see him later. Bye!”
Gina stepped aside to let Racy get by, but remained standing next to the booth, arms crossed.
“Waiting for an engraved invitation?”
Okay, that wasn’t necessary, but at least it got her to sit. She dropped into the booth, her hands now shoved into the pockets of her jacket. An awkward silence stretched between them, so Justin said the first thing that popped into his head.
“I was an ass.”
That got her attention. “Yes, you were.”
“I’m not talking about just now.” He gave his head a quick shake and reached for his coffee. “Last night, too. On my porch.”
Gina pulled her hands from her jacket and laid them on the table, her silver-tipped nails playing with a stack of unused napkins. “Yes, you were,” she repeated.
The apology he knew he should give stuck in his throat. “Do you think he’s okay in the bathroom alone?” he said instead.
Gina glanced across the crowded diner. “He should be fine. You can see the doorway from here.”
He looked in the direction of the restrooms again, this time noticing their booth seemed to be getting quite a bit of attention from the diner’s other patrons.
“Is it just me,” he said, his voice low as he turned back to her, “or are people staring?”
Without turning her head, her gaze darted to the other tables and booths around them. “Well, it’s not too often a stranger comes to town only to disappear after leaving a child behind. I guess Jacoby is news.”
“And of all people for the kid to be stuck with, it’s me.”
Like he and Gina hadn’t given the town enough to talk about over the last few months? Now he’d have the entire population watching his every move with