Kiera emerged from the kitchen. “Are we talking about shoelacesagain?”
Quinn laughed. “How did you guess?”
Before they could catch up in earnest, Kiera’s wife, Xinxin,arrived home from work. Grace abandoned her to relay the big news of her dayand Quinn turned her attention to her sister. “Anything I can do to help?”
“Nope. I was waiting to throw these on the grill.”
Xinxin dropped her bag and shed her jacket. “Please tell me we’rehaving tacos.”
Kiera picked up a platter of shrimp lined up on skewers and senther wife an air kiss. “Be right back.”
She headed out to the grill and Quinn pulled out the corkscrew toopen the wine. In a matter of minutes, the four of them sat around the table onthe back deck. Quinn polished off her first taco and licked a drop of sourcream from her thumb. “Thank you for saving me from takeout.”
Kiera shook her head. “You realize you could make these yourself,right? It’s literally five ingredients.”
Quinn grinned. “Maybe I’ll attempt them one day, but today wasn’tgoing to be that day. And since I didn’t have takeout tonight, I can have ittomorrow and not feel bad.”
Kiera rolled her eyes. “You’re impossible.”
“It’s a lifestyle choice,” Xinxin said.
Quinn could always count on her to be magnanimous. “Exactly.Besides, I prefer hopeless.”
“Speaking of hopeless, I have someone for you to meet.”
Quinn groaned and Xinxin laughed. Quinn glared at her. “You’renot helping.”
That only made her laugh more, which got Grace giggling, eventhough she had no idea what they were laughing about.
“Her name is Lisa and I met her at yoga.”
“Regular yoga or goat yoga?” It didn’t really matter, but it sortof did.
Kiera scowled. “Goat. Is that a problem?”
The real problem was her sister’s obsessive need to set her up.Hell, everyone’s apparent need to set her up. Not only did it usually go badly,the whole concept was beginning to make her feel incompetent and borderlinepathetic. “Deal breaker.”
“She’s a director of HR, not some hippie.”
“I don’t have anything against hippies. Or HR directors.”
“So you’ll meet her?”
The thing was, saying yes would let her off the hook for at leasta month. And it wasn’t like she was opposed to meeting up with a woman forcoffee. And if she was a director of anything, chances were good she was atleast forty. Which, in her book, was a bonus. “Maybe.”
“She moved to Ithaca a few months ago. She could probably use newfriends as much as dates.”
Quinn wasn’t clamoring for new friends, but she could appreciatetrying to navigate a new place. “Are you sure she’s a lesbian?”
Kiera huffed out a breath. “That only happened one time.”
“But I’m still scarred,” Quinn said. Kiera swore up and down shehad no idea how the wires got so crossed, but the woman in question had notbeen any degree of queer. Nor had she been gracious about it.
Xinxin, who refrained from getting involved for the most part,angled her head. “Do you want to be dating?”
Such a loaded question. One the people trying to fix her uprarely bothered to ask. She didn’t not want to date, which was maybe a hair shyof actually wanting to date. The bigger issue was she didn’t seem to click withany of the women she went out with. Whether it was her, or bad luck, or maybenot being ready to wade into those waters, she wasn’t sure. “I don’t know.”
Kiera visibly deflated. “I’m sorry.”
Her own discomfort evaporated and the desire to smooth featherskicked in. “Don’t apologize. I know your heart is in the right place.”
“It is.” Kiera cringed. “I may have already told Lisa I’d setsomething up.”
Quinn scrubbed a hand over her face. “Okay. I’ll go out with her.But maybe you could lay off for a while.”
She perked up. “Deal.”
Xinxin shook her head, but looked at Kiera with affection, thenat Quinn. “And I’ll do my best to hold her to it.”
“Thanks.”
“Can we talk about me now?” Grace asked with her mouth full.
Quinn turned her attention to her niece. “I think that soundslike a fantastic idea.”
Chapter Three
As much as Amanda hated leaving work early, she wantedplenty of time to shower and put herself together before making the drive toRochester. Not that she didn’t always want to be put together, but Mel andBella run-ins required full armor.
Tonight would be just that. Her daughter’s final recital of thesemester meant she’d be seeing her ex and her ex’s wife. Close to ten years ofpractice made it easier to be in the same space, but it didn’t mean she wasever comfortable with it. Or that she managed to tune out entirely the factthat Bella was twenty years younger, a professional powerhouse, and could havebeen mistaken for a supermodel. Ugh. She was so not in the mood.
Instead of moping, Amanda did what she did best: she pulledherself together and got on with it. Forty-five minutes later, she was dressed,hair done, and putting on lipstick. Not model material but more thanpresentable. And as the mother of a college freshman, it was exactly the lookshe was going for.
She headed downstairs, pleased to see Cal dressed and with aduffel bag slung over his shoulder. “Ready?”
He nodded. “We’re going to eat first, right? I’m starving.”
“Yes. Our reservations are for five so your sister can come tooand we’ll have plenty of time to get her to the concert.”
“I guess I can wait that long.”
“Didn’t you eat something after school?”
He groaned. “I did, but that was like an hour ago.”
What he referred to as a snack, she jokingly called second lunch.Oh, to have the metabolism of a teenage boy. “Horror. Why don’t you grab agranola bar to tide you over?”
“I had one after my burrito.”
Of course he did. “Then I’m thinking you’ll survive.”
“Fine. But I’m having an appetizer. And dessert.”
He said it like she ever denied him either of those things. Well,dessert, sometimes. But even that was rare. “Deal.”
They got in the car and headed north. The drive took less thantwo hours, but she’d reserved a hotel for the night so they could move Daniellaout of her dorm the following day. Not having to make two trips, or drive
