Page 88 of Not Your Average Vixen
“Hey, Judge,” he said, gaze bouncing between the man and the others running into the woods.
“Walk with me,” the judge replied.
“What about the game?” he asked, gesturing to the others.
“Just for a moment, then we’ll catch up. There are a few things I’d like to say to you.”
He nodded and did his best not to appear rattled.
While the judge was a kind and impartial man, he wasn’t one to mince words either.
Whatever he had to say to him in private wouldnotbe good.
12
Soren
He gave the man the once-over. Maybe he was overreacting. The judge was in his eighties. He probably wanted someone to walk with and shoot the breeze. But the elder Abbott’s neutral expression didn’t give away anything.
“Are you feeling okay? Would you like to sit down, Judge?” He pointed to a tree lying across the snow. It wasn’t that cold out. There was a nip in the air, but it wasn’t frigid.
The judge patted his arm again. “No, no, Scooter, I’ve got at least a few more years left in me. But let’s hang back for a moment.”
The muscles in Soren’s body tensed. “Sure, we can do that.”
He and the judge passed a cluster of sturdy evergreens as the sound of the men hunting for a spot for the flag grew farther and farther off.
“Curious happenings at the bakery,” the man continued.
Dammit! He should have known that this was coming.
He didn’t talk to the Abbotts about his work. Not really. Of course, they knew what he did, but when they were together, it didn’t come up that often. And in the off chance it did, he’d become a master at guiding the conversation in another direction, which was damn near impossible today when his work life, his personal life, and his Abbott life collided like three submarines headed straight for each other, full speed ahead.
“What a coincidence, right? It’s too bad about Mr. and Mrs. Angel,” he replied, surprised that he actually did feel bad about it. He shook off the emotion.
“Meeting the Angels was interesting, but I was talking about Birdie,” the man corrected.
“Birdie? What about her?”
The ghost of a grin pulled at the corners of the judge’s lips. “She’s quite something.”
Russ and now the judge! Was every unattached male Abbott into this woman?
“Yep, she sure issomething.”
Infuriating. Hard-headed. A taskmaster in the kitchen. A vixen in the bedroom. Heaven in his arms.
No, he could not go there!
“She reminds me of Alice,” the judge said, his blue eyes growing a touch glassy.
Soren stopped in his tracks “Your Alice? Your wife?”
“Oh, yes, there was only ever one Alice. She was magnificent from the first moment I saw her. And would you like to know something else?”
“Sure.”
“I’ve never told anyone this, not even my sons, but Alice despised me when we met,” the judge said with an amused chuckle.
