The Pegasus Marshal's Mate by Zoe Chant

Author:Zoe Chant [Chant, Zoe]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Zoe Chant
Published: 2019-01-05T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve: Martin

It would have been hard to imagine anything more different from their quiet, intimate, flirtatious lunch the day before.

“I really am sorry about this,” Jillian said sometime after the second crayon had gone flying through the air.

Tiffani maneuvered the crayon out of her glass of iced tea using a spoon and one of the coffee-stirrers. “Honestly, sweetheart, don’t worry about it. This obviously wasn’t your plan. This obviously wouldn’t be anyone’s plan.”

She handed the crayon back to the little boy who had thrown it, who immediately chucked it at someone else’s head.

Punk kids, Martin thought, remembering Colby. Of course, these ones were probably a little young to qualify.

The one good thing about being surrounded by a herd of kindergartners was that it still gave you reasonable privacy. The kids were all so loud and their attention spans were all so short that you could talk about anything you wanted and they wouldn’t hear you. And if they heard and remembered the adults around them talking about dragons and flying horses—well, kids had such great imaginations, didn’t they?

“I don’t even normally handle kids this young,” Jillian said to Martin. “I usually just work with the teens. But someone got sick and then someone else had a family emergency and—well, here we are. They were all promised a lunch out. The two of you can go if you have to, I totally understand. This is not... a relaxing break in the middle of your day, and I know you both have a lot going on.”

Martin couldn’t have agreed more, but he thought Tiffani wanted to stay despite everything. She had told him on their way here that seeing Jillian was always one of the highlights of her week. He wanted the two of them to have their usual time together, even if the circumstances were far from ideal.

Besides, sometimes love meant putting up with the child next to you trying to rub macaroni and cheese into her skin like it was hand lotion.

Theo swooped down on her. “Jessamine,” he said sternly. “We talked about this. Food goes in your mouth.”

Jessamine dropped her overflowing spoon at once. “Sorry, Mr. Theo. I just wanted to have soft hands like Miss Jillian.”

“Well, if you can keep a secret, I’ll tell you after lunch how Miss Jillian keeps her hands so soft.”

He picked up her napkin, dunked it matter-of-factly in one of the glasses of water, and scrubbed her hands clean.

Examining the napkin, he added, “There’s no macaroni involved, though, I promise.”

Jessamine giggled. “Okay.”

“You’re good at that,” Martin said. He hadn’t seen Theo with kids before.

“I have,” Theo said, “a truly excessive number of cousins. And I like kids.”

Jillian turned to look at him, her eyes warm.

“I think I can see where that’s going,” Tiffani murmured to Martin. “And it makes me feel very old to think about Jilly becoming a mom.”

“You’re not old,” he said automatically. “But I have to tell you, I don’t think I’d have the energy for this.”

“I don’t think they usually get popped out in batches of twelve.

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