LITMIR.BIZ

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Chief Cooper was off duty this afternoon to accompany his wife to an obstetrician appointment, she doubted the pregnant dance teacher would get much help running errands. Maybe that’s what Mia wanted to talk to her about. But before Carmen could remind the woman she was on duty, the other mom spoke up.

      “Thank goodness you got the city council to okay you using the old theater for performances,” Kylie said to Mia as she rocked her stroller back and forth. She directed her next comment at Carmen. “Sometimes I worry about my girls growing up in a small city with a limited access to culture, so having a legitimate venue for school plays and band concerts is a total win. Last year, when the community center got double booked, we had to watch the fifth grade’s talent show while the bingo club was shouting out B-39 and O-14 the whole time.”

      Carmen smiled politely as the women laughed. She hadn’t been in Sugar Falls very long, so she didn’t share the same memories, but she appreciated these ladies including her in the conversation and not making her feel so out of the loop. Although she was still waiting for them to clue her in on why they wanted to talk to her.

      “You’re from Vegas originally, right?” Kylie asked before reaching into the stroller and unstrapping the infant who’d started fussing. Carmen nodded but averted her eyes quickly for fear that if she watched the tender maternal moment too long, she wouldn’t be able to look away. In which case, they’d probably see the hunger and the desperation in her eyes. She planned to avoid that scenario. Sympathy was never easy for her to handle.

      “Hey, I thought I saw my nieces being wheeled in here,” a masculine voice said from the doorway. Carmen didn’t have to turn around to recognize the speaker. Her stomach’s telltale reaction to his voice already alerted her.

      She told herself it was due to the big lunch she’d just consumed, not his unexpected arrival. Just like it was the sudden crisp spring air rushing in from the open door that caused the shiver to race from inside her starched collar all the way down her spine—not Luke Gregson, himself.

      Maybe if she repeated that lame excuse eight more times, she might actually believe it.

      The tall man was dressed in his blue battle dress uniform, looking like he’d spent all morning modeling in a photo shoot for some Navy recruitment poster. She would think that seeing him in his military uniform would trick her mind into believing that he was just like every other guy she’d worked with over the past ten years.

      But judging from the second shiver making its way down her back, it wasn’t her mind doing the thinking.

      A sudden wail jerked Carmen’s attention from the muscular male legs tucked into shiny black boots and toward the small bundle of pink still strapped in the stroller.

      “Oh, no.” The pitch in Luke’s normally deep voice raised a few octaves as he reached for his other niece, talking to her. “Did your mean ol’ mama pick up your sister and leave you behind all alone in this big contraption?”

      “Luke Gregson.” Kylie stood up even taller than her five-foot-ten height as she faced her brother-in-law. “If you call me or my fashionable stroller ‘old’ one more time, I will drive straight to the school and tell your sons that you promised to take them and five of their best friends camping this weekend.”

      “Aw, come on, Kylie.” Luke’s voice sounded just like his sons last week when Carmen had told them they had to practice their spelling words before she took them to Noodie’s Ice Cream Shoppe. “That’s not cool. It’s supposed to rain this weekend, and you know what happened last time I let them invite a friend—one friend—for a sleepover at the cabin. I still have mustard and toilet paper stuck to the living room ceiling.”

      Carmen laughed. It didn’t take much to imagine how Aiden and Caden had managed that.

      “Hey, Officer Delgado.” Luke finally turned his warm gaze to her. Seeing him holding that precious baby made her stomach drop to her knees, which was the only explanation for why her legs felt so unsteady. “I didn’t expect to see you in here chitchatting the afternoon away with these two.”

      Didn’t he? If he saw his sister-in-law and nieces enter the cookie shop, then he had to have seen Carmen come in right behind them. More than likely, he was probably surprised to see her socializing with other women. Not that she wasn’t a little surprised herself.

      “First, you call me old and now you suggest we’re all just wasting our time talking about important town business?” Kylie tried to sound stern. “Give me my daughter, Luke. She can’t wait to surprise her cousins at school with the news of their fun-filled weekend.”

      Luke maneuvered himself and the pink bundle nestled on his shoulder behind Carmen, as though she were the barrier that would protect him from his brother’s wife, who was clearly only feigning her annoyance. His dimpled smile struck again.

      “Now, now, Kylie. You couldn’t ever get mad at me. That’s just the hormones talking.” When his sister-in-law chuckled, Luke finally moved back into the line of fire. “I remember when Samantha had just given birth to the boys and she called my commanding officer in the middle of the night, reading him the riot act because I was still on deployment and she was out of baby wipes and didn’t have any clothes not covered in spit-up that she could wear to the store.”

      “Your wife was a saint for putting up with you gone on all that secret assignment mumbo jumbo. I couldn’t even imagine what I’d do if Drew got deployed before the girls go off to graduate school.”

      Luke rocked back on his heels but didn’t say a word. He didn’t have to. The sadness in his blue eyes and the steeliness of his jaw did the talking for him.

      “Oh, my gosh, Luke.” Kylie must’ve seen the same hurt expression cross his face because she tenderly stroked his arm. “I am so sorry. I didn’t mean it like that.”

      “It’s okay, Kylie. I know what you meant. And you’re right. Samantha did put up with a lot.”

      If Carmen had felt mildly awkward before, she was downright uncomfortable at being a witness to his heartache. What was she doing here, anyway? Should she even be listening to them reminisce about his deceased wife, a woman who obviously deserved the pedestal they’d all placed her on?

      “So, Mia,” Carmen said, trying to verbally tiptoe her way out of the emotional land mine. “What was it you wanted to talk to me about?”

      “Oh, that’s right. Sorry, I have pregnancy brain and can barely hold on to a passing thought.”

      Carmen, knowing she would never be able to personally relate to such a symptom, had no response to that statement. Instead, she forced a smile toward the sweet woman.

      “You know how we do group exercise classes at the dance studio?” Mia asked but didn’t wait for a response. “Well, I normally teach a yoga class on Monday mornings, but with the baby due soon, I’m trying to find some substitute instructors while I’m on leave.”

      “But I’ve never taught yoga.”

      “Delgado’s a Marine,” Luke said, apparently listening in on their conversation. Kylie must’ve decided to distract him from his grief because now he was holding both babies, one nestled against each thick bicep. Whoa.

      “She’s a devil dog,” he continued. “They don’t do sissy yoga. Right, Delgado?”

      She cringed slightly at the Marine nickname and his inaccurate assessment of her.

      “Easy there, skipper,” Carmen said, throwing a naval moniker right back at him. His use of her last name was all the proof she needed that she’d been placed in the Friendzone. It was also a good reminder that she shouldn’t be lusting over him. “You just got out of trouble with Kylie and now you’re trying to pick a fight with Mia, as well? I think you’re underestimating your battle odds.”

      Mia’s hand shot between them like a white flag of surrender. “That’s not what I meant. I was actually moving yoga to a different day, which leaves Mondays open. So, I was thinking that maybe you could lead some sort of kickboxing

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