Did he want her to help him train Tor? Or…had her dismissive comment actually hurt his feelings? Would a guy that hot even have feelings?
She cleared her throat and tried to think about dog training. No easy feat in the face of that…face. “It’s always good to train with a toy he loves,” she finally said. “Does he like toys?”
“For breakfast. Then what’s left of them goes in the trash.” He petted the dog again. “Since they train racing dogs by having them chase a lure, he gets kind of overly focused on things. Like…” He jutted his chin toward Gramma Finnie. “Glasses. And pens. And phones—I don’t have one right now because he ate it.”
“You don’t have a phone?”
“My aunt has to sign for me to get one, and she’s out of town for a few days.”
“On Christmas Eve?” Yiayia and Gramma Finnie asked the question in perfect, shocked unison.
“They had plans,” he said vaguely, looking a little uncomfortable. “It’s fine.”
“Christmas alone is never fine,” Gramma Finnie said.
Oh boy. She was about to issue an invitation to Christmas Eve dinner at Waterford Farm. Pru could hear the words before they were formed in her little Irish head. Oh, lad, ye must come to dinner…
“You’re in my English lit class,” Pru said quickly, hoping to head off the invitation before it was issued.
“Yeah,” he said. “And I can’t believe old Thorgrim gave us homework over winter break.”
“Just reading,” she said. “That’s not work. Although, I guess you…”
He tipped his head. “Contrary to rumors, I can read. And not just comic books and video game screens.”
A splash of shame heated her cheeks, making her swallow and hold his gaze long enough to at least try to let him know she was sorry. “So, did you pick Jekyll and Hyde or Sense and Sensibility?” Gah, dumb question, Pru. Not one guy in the class would read Jane Austen.
“I already read Sense and Sensibility,” he said, making her draw back in surprise. “In fact, I’ve already read everything on the list. Thorgrim said I could pick something else.”
Well, color her…impressed. “California schools must be ahead of North Carolina.”
He lifted a shoulder. “Or I might just read for fun.”
“Jane Austen?” she asked, unable to keep that one inside.
“My, um, friend liked Austen.”
Oh, the movie star girlfriend who broke his heart. Wow, he’d read Jane Austen for her? That was…really stinking attractive.
“Okay, it looks like we’re at the mall,” Gramma Finnie announced as they stared at a line of red brake lights about a mile long after they got off the highway.
“And we might have parked in Bitter Bark and gotten inside faster.” Yiayia let out an exasperated sigh.
“I told you this place would be packed.” Pru checked her phone. Would they have enough time to rack up RACK points?
“While you’re on your phone, Pru,” Yiayia said, “can you check the mall’s website? Maybe they have information about the Santa schedule.”
“Sure, although I’m sure Santa’s already at work,” she said, tapping the screen. “Just let me check the RACK IT UP app real quick.”
“They came to see Santa?” Lucas asked Pru in a whisper, understandably confused.
No, they came to spy on a mobster who Yiayia is considering dating. “He’s…a friend of theirs.”
Another look from Yiayia. Pru flashed one right back. Did she really want to be that honest with a complete stranger?
“I think he mentioned that he may only do the morning shift,” Yiayia said, stress tightening her voice.
“Then he has to go put a hit on his bookie,” Gramma added softly.
Lucas’s eyes widened. “What?”
Pru waved off the question with a nervous laugh. “Inside joke.”
“This is going to take hours.” Yiayia tapped the steering wheel with impatience. “I’m going to miss him.”
Lucas shifted in his seat, no doubt starting to get the idea these ladies were cray-cray. “Take this right,” he said.
“That’s the wrong direction,” Pru told him. “The mall’s over there.”
“Take the right,” he repeated.
“Says the guy from California.”
He just smiled. “The same guy who was here a week ago with his aunt who knows a back way into the Macy’s parking lot.”
Yiayia whipped out of the traffic. “I’m game,” she said.
In a moment, they found a side street, Lucas gave more directions, and before long, Yiayia parked the Buick within sight of the Macy’s entrance.
“You, my son, are a genius!” she exclaimed as she threw the car into park. “I’m so glad we brought you.”
“At least someone is,” he murmured, the soft-spoken zinger hitting Pru right in the gut.
She looked up from her phone, expecting that dark gaze to be nothing less than disgusted with her. But there was just enough of a tease and a challenge in his eyes that her heart flipped around and went tumbling down into the butterfly pit.
Then he winked…and she was toast.
Chapter Four
Agnes checked her reflection in the glass doors as the crew marched into Macy’s at the massive two-story Vestal Village Mall. She smoothed a stray black hair and checked her lipstick, feeling confident and attractive enough to catch the eye of Aldo Fiore.
“Don’t worry, Agnes, you look gorgeous,” Finnie whispered as they stepped into the warm air of the department store.
“Hardly.”
Finnie smiled. “I like when you are humble,” she said. “It’s one of your best looks.”
Agnes smiled, always appreciating Finnie’s unending attempts to help Agnes’s self-improvement efforts. Finnie was one of the few people who knew that a little more than two years ago, a heart attack had had Agnes literally knocking on heaven’s door, only to be sent back with some vague instructions to “do better.” From that day on, Agnes Santorini had set about to change herself, inside and out.
It had been relatively easy to lose weight, have a few injections, dye her hair, and shave a few years off of Agnes Santorini. She’d never felt healthier or stronger. But, oh, the inner changes had been a little more challenging.
It hadn’t been easy to soften a sharp tongue or dial back her natural sarcasm or even reserve judgment after a lifetime of passing it on everyone and everything. But each year, especially since she’d forged a friendship and family connection with sweet Finnie and her loving clan, Agnes had gotten closer to what she thought was a changed life.
And now, for the first time in years, she longed for another change, this one with a man. She had no desire to get married again, or even fall in love, nothing so permanent or serious. But all the family matchmaking she and Finnie had been doing had awakened something Agnes had thought had gone to sleep for good.
Now, she sometimes opened her eyes in the middle of the night and ached for the feel of her dear Nik by her side. She remembered the thrill of having his warm lips on hers and the deep comfort of threading her fingers through his. She liked the smell of a freshly showered man, the power of a deep voice, and the sense of balance in her life when it included a loving man.