“My favorite!” Rob attacked the bags like he hadn’t eaten in a month. Morgan shot Sunshine a look that said, See what I mean?
Sunshine had to grin despite the tension that had gripped her most of the day. Carl’s offer had played in her mind over and over again. She’d thought over her options so many times her head was spinning. All she wanted was a hot bath and to fall into bed.
“Good ol’ American takeout.” Cole fell on his food with almost as much fervor as Rob did. “You can’t get anything like it in Europe. Even at the places that are supposed to be American chains.”
Sunshine rolled her eyes. “I didn’t let him eat at any of them,” she told Morgan. “I was too busy taking him to the best restaurants Europe has to offer.”
“Men.” Morgan ruffled Rob’s hair as she carried Jack over to his high chair. She got out a small container from the fridge and put it in the microwave. A few seconds later, she took it out again and dished out small pieces of meat and mashed potatoes onto a plate for him. Jack grinned when she put it on the tray of his high chair.
“Where were you?” Rob asked.
“And why are you wet?” Cole glanced up as he took another bite of his burger.
Sunshine finally managed to peel off her coat and gloves. She washed her hands at the kitchen sink and joined him and Rob at the table. “Just… playing with my hair.”
“She needed a new style,” Morgan improvised, feeding Jack.
Cole raised an eyebrow. “Looks exactly the same as it did when you left. Except wet.”
“It didn’t work, so I took it out again.”
“Women,” Rob said, leaning back in his chair and reaching out to ruffle Morgan’s hair.
“Weren’t you in town? Isn’t that why you got takeout?” Cole asked.
“Uh…” Sunshine thought fast. “Actually… we were with Autumn.”
Both men stopped eating. “Ethan said Autumn was watching Jack.” Rob put down his burger and wiped his hands on a napkin.
“She was,” Morgan said quickly. “For part of the time.”
“So where were you when she was watching Jack?” Cole asked.
“At… Claire’s,” Sunshine said. Really—what was with the third degree? Couldn’t the men just eat their food?
“Jamie said Claire had gone out,” Cole said. He put down his burger too. Both men’s expressions told her they were caught up in the puzzle.
“We weren’t there the whole time,” Morgan said.
“You’re hiding something,” Rob said to her, leaning back in his chair. “That’s your hiding-something face. What gives, woman?”
“It’s Christmas. I have secrets.” She popped the last bite into Jack’s mouth, wiped him with a napkin and put the plate on the counter.
“Nope.” Rob wouldn’t let it go. “That’s not your Christmas present face, that’s your ‘I’m doing something I’m not supposed to do face.’”
Morgan flashed a helpless look at Sunshine. Cole looked from one woman to the other and his expression grew grim. “What’s going on? Sunshine?”
“Nothing.”
“Baloney. Spill it.”
Sunshine panicked. Cole rarely got stern. When he did, it flustered her. “We… we…” Her mind was blank. What could she say they’d been doing? She needed to throw Cole completely off her trail. “We… formed a rock band,” she blurted and immediately wished she hadn’t. A rock band? Where had that come from? She stammered on, “We were practicing, okay? Do you have any more questions or can you leave well enough alone for once? Because I don’t want to talk about it.”
You could have heard a pin drop in the stunned silence that followed her outburst.
“We weren’t going to tell you about it because we don’t want anyone to know,” Morgan suddenly said. She grabbed a banana, peeled it and sliced it into rounds with a knife. Placing them on the high chair tray, she washed her hands and joined them at the table.
“Because we aren’t any good right now,” Sunshine added. “But we will be. Soon. Probably good enough to go on tour.”
Morgan frowned. She opened her mouth and closed it again.
Both men stared at them like they’d lost their minds.
Which they had, apparently.
“A band? Do you even play an instrument?” Cole asked slowly.
“Yes.” Sunshine was affronted. “I’m awesome at guitar.” She knew three chords. Sort of.
The men looked to Morgan.
“Tambourine.” She fluttered her hand back and forth. “It’s a skill.”
Jamie rubbed a hand over his mouth. “When do we get to hear you play?” he asked finally.
“Never,” both women said at once.
“Well, maybe someday,” Sunshine said. “When we’re on tour. But not anytime soon.”
After a long moment, Cole shook his head. “If you’re so good, I don’t think you should hide your talents. I think you should give a Christmas performance, don’t you, Rob? You two can pull at least one song together by then, can’t you?” He raised a challenging eyebrow and Sunshine quailed. She knew that look. He wasn’t going to back down.
She didn’t even have a guitar—hadn’t owned one in a decade at least. “I… guess,” she faltered.
“Good. Can’t wait to hear you. Christmas Eve should be a good time for you two to play—when we’re all together at Ethan’s place.”
Chapter 5
Cole couldn’t believe Sunshine thought she was fooling anyone. A rock band?
Please.
The two women were obviously up to something, and Morgan especially looked guilty as hell.
So did Sunshine.
He didn’t like this one bit. Rob was right; if this was about Christmas, Sunshine would have laughed the whole thing off and told him to quit fishing. She was up to something that went much further than a simple gift, and he wanted to know what she was planning. If only he didn’t need to spend so much time at the restaurant, he could have followed her the next time she went out, but he’d already planned to meet his friends in town the following day.
He’d have to ferret it out of her tonight.
Before he could continue his line of questioning, however, Sunshine went on the attack.
“Where were you this afternoon?” she asked suddenly and pointed toward the back door. “The snow on your boots hasn’t even melted yet. You must have gotten in minutes before we did.”
Fuck.
He was careful not to look at Rob, who’d just taken another bite of his burger, but out of the periphery of his vision he saw his friend duck his head guiltily. Cole hoped like hell Rob didn’t give him away. “We weren’t anywhere in particular,” he said at the same time Rob blurted, “We went out for a ride.”
“On horseback? In this weather?” Morgan looked from one to the other. “It’s been dark for nearly two hours.”
“We were slow putting the horses away.” Rob dropped the remains of his burger on his plate and went to grab a beer from the fridge.