Page 16 of From the Start

“Are you going to leave the door open all day and let all the flies in?” Dad – my very own reason for not leaving Smuggler’s Hideaway – complains.

“Do you want to come in? I’ll share my cookie with you.”

“You’d share a cookie with me?”

I frown. “I know how to share.”

She snorts. “Which is why you got detention in second grade for refusing to share your crayons with Sophia.”

“Sophia broke all of her crayons and threw them at Flynn.”

She rolls her eyes. “Those two were destined for each other from a young age.”

Sophia – a friend of ours who is part owner of the local brewery – was a year behind us in school, but in a place the size of Smuggler’s Hideaway, everyone knows everyone. And everyone knows everything about everyone.

“I heard you got in a fight yesterday. I thought you’d have a shiner.”

Told you. Everyone knows everything about everyone. But the details are often a bit fuzzy.

“I didn’t get into a fight.”

She lifts her eyebrows.

“It was a scuffle at most.”

“And Kai Raider came to your rescue.”

I scowl. “Kai Raider didn’t come to my rescue.”

“I heard he jumped off stage, ran to you, and picked you up and carried you to the ER when you got knocked out.”

“I did not get knocked out,” I growl. “And I didn’t go to the ER.”

“But he did jump off stage and pick you up?”

I grunt. There’s only one reason why she’s being this persistent. “Are you seriously betting on whether Kai and I will get together?”

She shrugs. “The man has been pursuing you hard for the past few months.”

“Man? Are we still discussing Kai?”

“He’s twenty-four. Legal.”

“Holy smugglers. You make me sound like a cougar.”

“If the claws fit.”

“I do not want a younger man. I want a man who will help lighten my load, not make it heavier.”

“Sorry.” Her nose wrinkles. “How’s your dad doing anyway?”

“I’m being assaulted by two thousand angry flies who got into the house because my daughter doesn’t know how to close a door,” Dad shouts from the living room where he’s sitting on his favorite chair watching television.

“And there’s the answer to your question.”

Parker giggles. I don’t find the situation amusing, but I keep my growl contained.Pirates Pastriesis struggling. She could use a bit of laughter in her life.

“Do you want to come in? I’m making pancakes.”