when it still didn’t go to the plate, she figured dogs must not like tuna.
Oh well, hopefully the little guy would hold out till tomorrow when she could get proper dog food.
She was about to go grab the plate when something—she wasn’t sure exactly what—caught her attention in her peripheral vision. Something definitely taller than a dog.
“Hello?”
God, there it was. That feeling like the other day. Like someone was watching her.
Her pulse raced as her gaze darted around the darkness. She took a slow step back toward the door and looked around, trying to catch any movement in the moonlight.
Nothing.
“City girl,” she muttered. She was letting her Bostonian mindset run away with her again—she could probably blame her conversation with Nancy for that. There hadn’t been anyone watching her last time she’d felt this way, and there wasn’t anybody now.
But she still couldn’t force herself to go back out to get the plate. City girl or not, she went inside and locked the door.
Chapter Thirteen
Baby couldn’t believe it was happening again.
The last time he’d missed his date with Quinn—and no matter what she wanted to call it, he’d still thought of it as a date—it had been because of three tangoes whose threat he’d been forced to neutralize.
And dammit, it was happening again, but this time, with three very different tangoes.
“Uncle Baby, I’m pretty sure Thomas just did a big number two in his diaper. He’s so stinky.”
Both his eight-year-old nephew Ethan, and his five-year-old honorary niece, Jess, busted out laughing at Jess’s words, the way only kids could when it came to talking about poop.
Baby looked over at two-month-old Thomas, smiling angelically, and took a whiff.
He reared his head back and looked at the children, wide-eyed. Holding Thomas out at arms’ length, he cried, “Good Lord. How in the world can something that smells that bad come from a creature so cute?”
Ethan and Jess looked at each other in absolute glee. That wasn’t good.
“Mom said if Thomas got a dirty diaper that we should make you change it,” Ethan said.
Jess grinned. “Aunt Charlie said it would remind you of the importance of protection.”
The little girl obviously did not have the same adult frame of reference for protection as Charlie had meant, but Jess knew Charlie had wanted to poke fun at Baby in some way so had memorized it verbatim—including the tone and know-it-all pose.
Moreover, Baby was sure Jess and Ethan just wanted to see his reaction to having to change a poopy diaper.
Baby let out an exaggerated sigh. “Remind me never to babysit ever again. Does anybody have any gas masks around?”
More giggles. The kids followed Baby, egging him on about how horrible the smell was. Baby played along, and the kids nearly rolled on the floor in laughter when he questioned if the smell would cling to his clothes.
Baby changed the diaper, acting like he had no idea what he was doing, much to the kids delight. The retching sounds weren’t totally fake. He caught Jess rolling her eyes when he tried to wrap a second diaper around Thomas’ body.
He was babysitting for Charlie and Finn while they took Charlie’s father to a new medical specialist. Charlie’s parents lived with them in their large house.
Mr. Devereaux probably didn’t have much longer to live, so Baby didn’t mind helping out so that Finn could be there to support Charlie and her family. He hadn’t mentioned he had a date this afternoon, because he didn’t want them to ask who it was with, and because they were scheduled to be back long before now.
They’d called after lunch to say the doctor wanted to run a couple more tests while Mr. Devereaux was there. They promised they’d be home by around three. That would be perfect, giving Baby just enough time to run home before he needed to go pick Quinn up for their date.
But then they’d called again to say things were delayed and they wouldn’t be home until dinnertime.
Normally he’d drop the kids by his mom’s house or one of the Linear Tactical guys—who were all family anyway—but every single person he’d called had been busy.
He was going to have to contact Quinn and slide their date back by couple hours. He’d beg for her forgiveness. His stomach dropped, knowing that it would be hard to convince her that yet another emergency had come up.
He barely swallowed a blistering curse that would’ve had the kids tattling on him in a heartbeat when he realized he didn’t actually have