Love, Diamonds, and Spades (8 page)

A shame, really because as she was quickly discovering, a big hard man being a big ole teddy bear to a kid was one of the sexiest things she’d ever seen.

She watched in amusement as the two seemed to be starting in on some serious negotiations on the other side of the yard. Reese was clearly playing hardball, shaking his head while Rylan rolled his eyes. A minute later, the deal must have gone through because the two shook hands. Reese promptly crawled into the tent that was set up in the corner of the yard as Rylan headed back over to her.

“You didn’t have to bribe him to stay by himself.” Quinn looked over at the zipped tent, feeling bad for intruding on their fun night. “I can just catch up with you tomorrow.”

Rylan blinked, startled. “I didn’t. He’s finishing his homework in there. We were just playing a quick game of hide and sneak because he was getting frustrated with his math assignment. The running around helps clear his head.”

Oh. Jesus, he was
so
different from the men she’d dated in the past.

He pulled a chair up for her to sit on. “Can you stay and eat? Or do you need me to pack some food for you to go?”

Well, she did have the next three hours free—it was her one night to do errands. And the food did smell really good; she couldn’t remember the last time she ate camp fire food. “If you’re sure I wouldn’t be imposing. I feel bad I didn’t bring anything.”

“Don’t worry about it. I always make extra so I can pack a sack lunch the next day.”

“That means I’m eating your lunch for tomorrow.” She shook her head and stood back up. “I should go. I have leftovers to heat up at home.”

“Stay. Honest, I’d prefer it if you did.” He grinned, brows quirked. “Because that means you’ll owe me lunch one day in the future. I’ll keep you posted as to my selection of fine dining choices for when that day comes.”

The man was incorrigible.

“So is Cooper with your sister tonight?” he asked as she sat back down, a small smile lighting his face when she did.

She nodded. “Tonight’s my night to pick him up after dinner. Tomorrow, we switch.”

“You’re lucky. My neighbor doesn’t have any family in Arizona so it’s tough for her to balance everything.”

He handed her a fire-poking stick and a juice box.
A juice box.
Like it was the most normal thing in the world. And just like that, this not-a-date night was already better than every date she’d ever been on, combined.

They sat in silence poking at the fire and drinking their apple juice when he cocked a grinning brow up. “So you missed me, huh?”

Just
when she thought he really did get that personality transplant she’d mentioned earlier.

“Not in the least.”

Golden eyes twinkling, his gaze tangled with hers. Then in a voice that wasn’t at all teasing, he said quietly, “I missed you too, sunshine.”

The sound of Reese hooting and hollering from the tent broke up the moment.

“I did it! I did it!”
The tent unzipped and Reese came shooting out, and running toward Rylan, arms raised in triumph like Rocky. “I finished that last page! You were so right, I just needed to try it again.”

“I’m proud of you, little man. Okay, go turn off the light in the tent and be sure to bring your jacket with you. Dinner’s all ready.”

Grabbing a plate and tongs, Rylan loaded up three plates of food with veggie cabobs, ears of sweet corn, hot dogs, bratwursts, and buns. Quinn’s mouth watered the entire time. Over the food, of course.

Although she had to admit, there was something pretty appealing about a guy who grilled.

While they all waited for the hotdogs to cool down a bit, Rylan moved the rest of the food off the fire before handing Reese a ziploc bag of granulated sugar. “Okay, so now my end of the bargain. Try sprinkling some on the fire.” He demonstrated with a small pinches of sugar and Quinn watched as the fire sparkled and flashed in a cool light show of sorts. Reese hopped up and down excitedly. “Not too much though. And remember, don’t pass the line we drew in the dirt.”

Reese proceeded to dance around the fire—behind the line—and hoot and cheer every time he sprinkled more sugar flashes on the fire.

Quinn couldn’t help but watch Rylan grinning at Reese with that eye-crinkling smile of his that did crazy things to her insides.

“Aw.” Reese made a sad puppy dog look and showed them both the empty ziploc bag.

“We’ll do more another time, bud. Let’s get some food in you before your mom comes home. She’ll be here any minute.”

Reese hopped back over and took a big bite out of his ketchup and mustard slathered half of a hot dog. Rylan had the other half on his plate.

“He only eats half?” she asked in surprise. “Cooper can put away and entire hot dog, easily.”

“So can Reese. But I only give him half at a time. I hold the rest hostage so he eats his veggies.” He ruffled Reese’s hair affectionately.

Oh boy, her ovaries just
swooned.

Rylan reached behind him for a long sleeve flannel shirt and handed it to her. “It’s cold,” he said simply.

Her instant melting over his brand of gruff sweetness was when she didn’t just know the truth, but accepted it as well. The same truth she’d been trying to deny on the car ride over here. The same one she’d been ignoring for the past few weeks.

She had a big, insane crush on a gambling musician.

And it was growing by the minute.

* * * * *

AS HE LISTENED
to Reese and Marcy walk back over to their house, Rylan pulled his chair closer to Quinn’s and waited for whatever question had been patiently poised on her lips all night. She’d come over to ask him a question, he was certain of it.

“You said you don’t gamble for money,” began Quinn finally, looking him square in the eye. “So what
do
you gamble on?”

And there it was.

He wasn’t oblivious. Over the past few weeks, he’d seen her flinch every time he mentioned gambling. But he hadn’t wanted to push. The flashes of pain in her eyes following punched him in the gut each time.

So he’d waited, knowing that if she asked the question, then it would mean she cared enough about him
not
to want him doing the one thing seemingly attached to nightmares in her past.

“Chores,” he answered softly. “We bet on chores.”

Quinn shot her eyes up to meet his to see if he was kidding.

He never kidded about chores.

The slow, glorious smile that bloomed across her face. “And this is the high stakes game the town is always talking about?” she asked, amusement dancing across her features.

“You bet,” he replied in an utterly serious tone. “Everyone in my weekly game has a set of chores we absolutely
hate
to do. And every week, at the end of the night, whoever won the pot gets to make the first one who ran out of chips do those chores.”

A relieved, mirth-filled laugh escaped Quinn. “Are we talking take-out-my-garbage type chores or clean-my-swimming-pool-with-a-toothbrush type chores?

“A cross between the two, I’d say. For example, Sienna, surprisingly, really hates washing her car. Belly aches over having to do it. So that’s usually what she wagers every week.”

Quinn raised a brow in surprise. “That doesn’t sound all that bad.”

“That’s because you’ve never seen Sienna’s truck. The time Levi lost to her, he spent an entire NFL Sunday working on that truck, which, apparently had a month’s worth of mud, tree sap, bird poop, and what he suspected was a new species of fungus. Personally, I think she just drove through every mud puddle in the state and parked under every bird-crowded telephone line after he made her wash his two giant German Shepherds, both of whom she’s threatened to get a restraining order against whenever they’re in heat…which seems to be whenever she’s around.”

Rylan proceeded to recite the top ten worst chore bets they had on record—from the house full of dirty dishes to the one that took top honors…outlet mall shopping with Tucker’s wife.

“I love Cindy but I tell you, I make extra sure I don’t
ever
lose to Tucker. We all do. Sadistic woman got Aidan up at six in the morning, and made him drive three hours away to the first of
seven
Outlet Malls. By nine o’clock that night he was calling all of us practically crying.”

At this point, Quinn was laughing just as loudly as he was.

God, he loved watching her laugh.

“So,” he snagged her gaze and held on, “does this officially wipe the slate clean before I see you on Dani’s group date thing tomorrow night?”

The look on her face was priceless—a lip-twitching smile that had just tangled with a sour lemon, if he had to describe it.

She made a show of glancing at her watch in Oscar-worthy shock. “Oh wow, look at the time. It’s getting late, I have to get going.” She backed away toward the gate, a teasing lilt to her voice he’d never once heard before. “I had fun tonight, Rylan. You make a mean s’more.”

“Compliments aren’t going to distract me, woman. Are you going to answer my question?”

“Nope!” She pivoted and closed the gate behind her, hand stretched up in a backward wave.

He grinned. “I’m choosing to take that as a yes then,” he called out, arms draped over the gate as he watched her walk the sexiest damn walk he’d ever seen down the driveway to her car.

“There’s still thirty-six hours between now and the group date,” she tossed back. “I’m fairly certain you’ll find some other way to piss me off before then.”

And then she was gone.

Ah, hell.

Yeah, okay. He lied before.

He definitely wanted to keep her.

CHAPTER EIGHT

QUINN HADN’T KNOWN
what to expect of the group date that Dani had arranged.

The surprise indoor rock climbing part of the evening had turned out to be ridiculously fun, due entirely to the fact that her wearing a skirt had limited her to just climbing high enough to torture Rylan directly below her, but not completely flash the man.

There was just something so enticing about a gruff, granite-hard man doing his damndest to be a gentleman.

Definitely a highlight of the night.

Of course, the dinner and ice cream afterward had been memorable as well. Her ice cream had looked even better splattered on the back of Luke’s shirt than it had on her cone. Four years of softball in high school, thank you very much.

Good times.

But
, without a doubt,
the entire evening simply paled in comparison to this moment right here on her front porch.

Rylan was at it again.

Flashing that special little frown that seemed to be reserved for the many,
many
instances when he was irrationally worrying over her. “Sweetheart, I’m serious, you need a brighter porch light. Better security.” Peering at the door, he added, “And you need a stronger door lock—this one has to be decades old. It’s not so much the case here in Cactus Creek, but break-ins do happen.” He frowned deeper. “I’m going to bring by a new knob and deadbolt set for you tomorrow. One of Lia’s brothers is a security whiz. I’ll have him get me something state-of-the-art.” After jiggling the door knob again, and scanning the dark side yard for any suspicious shadows, she half expected him to get out his phone and call Lia right now.

Holy hell, the man was so unbelievably cute.

She sighed. “You don’t know how hard I’m trying not to kiss you right now,” she whispered softly, trailing her eyes up all six-feet-plus of his gorgeous, sculpted body.

That
effectively erased his adorable frown.

Leaving in its place, a sizzling hot look she felt spark and tingle across every inch of her skin.

He stared at her for a split second before exhaling roughly and taking three steps forward, slowly backing her up until she felt the door touching her shoulder blades.

Palms flat against the door, he effectively caged her in.

“Folks are going to talk if I kiss you,” he murmured, inches away from her lips.

She didn’t doubt it. If she wasn’t mistaken, a car just slowed down in front of her house. That’s when she realized what he was doing. He was blocking her from any nosy onlookers.

Dang it, the man was just so sweet.

She gazed up at him and said the first thing that came to mind. “If you kiss me, just so we’re clear, you’re not coming in this house afterward. It’ll be just kissing.”

Lips twitching to the side, Rylan shook his head. “If I ever find these so called men you’ve dated in the past, I’m kicking all their asses. Every single one.” Then his mouth curved up into a full-blown smile as his hands flattened against the door behind her. “And sweetheart," he murmured, his lips grazing her ear, "I happen to like ‘just kissing.’”