Hang Tough(76)
“Mama! Up!” a girl with curly, dark hair strapped into the shopping cart yelled, and lifted her arms into the air.
“Nice try, but you’re locked in for a reason.” She pointed at the little girl. “Hands on the cart.”
“Okay, Aunt Celia.”
The woman looked at Tobin and stepped around her niece. “It has been a while. I don’t get out as much as I used to. Seems my husband’s goal in life is to keep me knocked up.”
Tobin acknowledged her baby bump with a chin dip. “How you feelin’?”
“Happy.”
That answer surprised Jade. She’d only heard pregnant women complain.
“Last week when I saw Kyle he mentioned . . . twins?”
She smiled. “Oh yes. Two for the price of one this time. Holt is starting on the addition next week so it’s done before calving starts. What a zoo that’ll be.” Then she focused on Jade. “I’m sorry; I’m usually not so rude.” She offered her hand. “I’m Celia Gilchrist. This hooligan is my niece Brianna and this is my daughter, Ashlyn.”
“Jade Evans. Nice to meet you.”
Celia cocked her head and her long braid swung to the side. “Evans. Garnet’s granddaughter?”
“Yes.”
“I heard—”
A loud stomp sounded out followed by an equally loud, “Hey!”
Jade glanced down at the freckle-faced, pigtailed girl who studied her suspiciously. “Hello, there.”
She said, “Hola.” When Jade didn’t respond right away, she sighed. “You look kinda like her but you don’t talk like her.”
This ought to be interesting. “Who?”
“Dora the Explorer. She’s on TV. She speaks Español.”
“Sorry to disappoint you, Brianna, but even though I am Hispanic and Asian I don’t speak Spanish or Chinese. I was adopted as a baby so I just speak English.”
“I could teach you Español,” she offered.
“How kind of you to offer. Thank you.” Jade looked at the girl’s aunt, but her focus winged between Tobin and Jade.
“So . . . what’s goin’ on with you two? Did I see PDA in the grocery store?”
Tobin grinned. “Yes, you did. We’re new at this couple thing. In fact we haven’t told Miz G yet, so is there a chance you can keep it on the down low?”
“I can, but Kyle gossips like the Mud Lilies and there’s no way I’m keeping something this juicy from him.” She smirked. “’Bout damn time you got a woman of your own, Tobin.”
Jade saw Tobin blush again.
“Just keep Kyle from telling Sherry, until me’n Jade get this squared away, okay?”
“Okay. But you know Mr. Romantic will be grilling you at the Split Rock first thing Monday mornin’.”
“I figured.”
Just then the little girl let out a bloodcurdling scream and started kicking her legs against the shopping cart.
“That’s my cue to go,” Celia said.
“Can you handle all this by yourself?” Tobin asked. “Do you need help with loading the groceries or the kids in your truck?”
“You’re thoughtful to offer, T, but I’ll be fine. Kyle can help me once I get home.” She smiled at Jade. “Nice to meet you.”
“Same here.” Then Jade waved at Brianna. “Adios.”
She grinned ear to ear. “Adios.”
Tobin stole a kiss as soon as they’d walked away. “Let’s get this done so we don’t miss Miz G’s conference call.”
Jade put her hand on his chest. “Back up. We got sidetracked.”
“From?”
“From you telling me how you know all the items on GG’s week one grocery list.”
He lifted his cowboy hat and ran his hand over his hair. “Here’s a little-known fact about me. I have a photographic memory.”
“For real?”
He nodded. “It’s not something I talk about because people either think I’m lying or they act as if they have the right to test me. Like I’m some kind of lab monkey that should be happy to perform on demand.”
Jade stared at him.
“What?”
“I don’t know if I’ve ever been so jealous of a person in my entire life. Do you know how handy that would’ve come in for me? When I had to memorize a Shostakovich piece and twenty pages of a Kabalevsky concerto in the same week?”
Relief crossed his face. “It came in pretty handy for mapping genomes and DNA sequences. It still does for the genetics work I’m doin’ on the side.”
She poked him in the sternum. “See? That’s another thing I didn’t know about you that Riss mentioned last night.”