The Mighty Quinns: Jack Read Free Page A

crutches. He would have been here, but he can’t drive. So he asked me to look for your mother.”
    “Well, she’s waiting outside. Let’s go,” Jack said, nodding at her.
    She gave him a coy smile. “All right.” They wove their way back through the crowd and strolled out the door. But as they made their way back to the Mercedes, Mia took off at a run. The security officer was bent over the hood of the Mercedes, slipping a ticket beneath the wiper.
    “No!” she cried, grabbing it and holding it out to him. “I’m here. I’m right here. We’re leaving.”
    He held up his hands and shook his head. “Sorry. You can’t leave your car unattended. There’s no parking allowed here at all. You can circle and load, but no stopping to wait.”
    “But I had to—”
    “Nothing you say is going to make me rip up that ticket. You can mail the fine in to the address on the back.”
    Mia shook her head as he walked away. “Great,” she shouted. She glanced down at the ticket. “A hundred and ninety-seven dollars? For five minutes?”
    Jack walked up and took the ticket from her fingers. “Don’t worry. I’ll take care of it. It was our fault.”
    “No!” she cried, grabbing the ticket back. “Don’t be silly. It was my fault.”
    “It was my mother you were picking up,” he countered.
    Their gazes met again and for a long moment, Jack lost track of where he was and what he was doing. God, she was pretty. He gently took the ticket from her fingers, then cleared his throat. “Maybe we should get in the car,” he said.
    “Right,” she said.
    He dragged their luggage to the rear of the vehicle as Mia popped the trunk. And when he’d finished loading it, he circled back to find that his mother and Ben’s daughter had made their introductions and Elyse had taken a spot in the backseat. Jack opened the front door and slid into the luxurious interior, taking a spot next to Mia.
    She glanced over her shoulder and pulled away from the curb. “Seat belt,” she whispered to him.
    “Where is Ben?” his mother asked.
    “He sprained his ankle playing tennis this morning.” Both Jack and Mia answered at the same time and he chuckled softly. He saw a smile twitching at the corners of her mouth and wondered what was going on inside her head.
    Was she as attracted as he was? Jack hoped that her duties for the weekend didn’t end with a ride to their hotel. He was going to be alone, for the most part. It might be nice to spend some time with a beautiful woman like Mia McMahon.
    * * *
    M IA ’ S WEEK OFF HAD NOT started out the way she thought it would. She’d planned to spend the afternoon painting the spare bedroom in her small condo in the Mission District and later, joining a group of friends for dinner.
    But a frantic call from her older sister had sent her racing out to the family home in Marin County to help her father get to the doctor after a fall on the tennis court. After that, she’d been tasked with the job of picking up her father’s “houseguest” from the airport.
    “We’re staying at the Stafford Hotel on Union Square,” Jack explained. “It would probably be best if we checked in first and—”
    Mia frowned. “The Stafford? Oh, no. Actually, you’re staying with us. My father said I was to drive you back to the house.”
    “But we have a reservation,” Elyse said. “We couldn’t possibly impose.”
    “Oh, it’s no imposition. We have a guest cottage. You and your— You and Jack will be very comfortable there. And you’ll have your privacy, as well. And with my father’s injury, he won’t be driving for a few days. It really would be more convenient.”
    “Well, then,” Jack said, grinning. “I guess that’s settled.”
    “No, it isn’t,” Elyse said.
    Mia looked at Jack, then glanced at his mother in the rearview mirror. “Really, the drive back and forth is almost a half hour. Hotels in the city are ridiculously expensive. You’re our guests. And it’s absolutely no