Sweets and Sinners began life as a hardware store in the 1950s back before Lancome became just another Tulsa suburb. Several businesses had come and gone in the space over the years before it became a retro candy store in the 1990s. Parker and Hardison had bought the store last year and except for the collection of antiques (now science fiction and television related toys) not much had really changed. They'd added some sodas to the lineup, mostly orange and a few types of gummies (Eliot actually hadn't believed there were any more types considering they already stocked 50) but that was really it.

Weekday mornings during school were generally slow. Sometimes you got mommas with their preschool aged children coming in for a treat or people buying last minute birthday presents for work colleagues. When Hardison bought the place, he added an online store, so Eliot knew he'd probably be busy filling orders. It had done wonders for their business and they still only sold about a quarter of their inventory online. Hardison was hoping to add more, but they'd have to hire on more people for that.

As predicted, the morning was fairly quiet as far as walk in business went. Eliot kept busy filling Internet orders and a large order of wedding favors. He was busy enough but the relative lack of physical customers meant that he could frequently check out what Dash was doing. Eliot had thought about sending Dash to preschool but with all the upheaval during the last couple of years, he'd finally decided to try homeschooling. Dash was bright and was moving steadily through the preschool curriculum. The toughest part was really getting him to stay still. Parker and Hardison were actually helpful when it came to that, Parker was always hyper and Hardison was smart in creative ways. So between the two of them, they helped Eliot figure out ways to teach numbers, shapes and letters that he doubted anyone else did.

Dash was sitting at a table in the corner of the store and after Eliot went over the shapes and letters the boy was coloring to make sure he remembered, he left the boy to get back to his artwork. It was always a good idea to take advantage of any time the child was sitting still.

He'd been busy talking to his son so he hadn't seen the woman come in. She was standing in front of the display of hard candies, looking lost in thought. He could only see her in profile, long red hair, skinny jeans, blue sweater. He'd always had a thing for redheads and he couldn't quite stop himself from checking her out. He'd always appreciated a pretty woman.

She grabbed a bag and took the lid off a jar and he shook his head. That was the vastly inferior of the two varieties of that flavor that the store carried. He'd argued with Parker and Hardison on deaf ears not to carry it. "Some people love it," they'd said and he'd rolled his eyes and said, "well, some people are wrong," but he'd been ignored. Well, he wasn't going to let this girl leave with terrible candy.

He walked over, noting that she was intent on her task and hadn't noticed him. "Excuse me, ma'am?"

The redhead jumped a little and then turned to him, gasping just a bit. She had pretty blue eyes which widened a bit as she looked at him.

"Sorry, bout that, didn't mean to startle ya. I'm just thinkin' that ya really don't want those."

Her look of shock faded and she narrowed her eyes at him. "These are my favorites."

Eliot tried and failed to keep from rolling his eyes and now she was looking irritated. He couldn't have that at all. Couldn't lose a customer even if she was a fool.

"Have you ever had these?" he asked, tapping the next bin and trying a different tactic.

She looked at him strangely and shook her head. "No."

"Try it, trust me, you'll never want those again."

She looked at him skeptically as he handed her a piece. "Doesn't that sign say no sampling?"

"Oh that," he laughed. "I know the owners. Runnin' the place today. We just don't want the kids to take one of everything, we'll give ya a sample if you ask nice. Go ahead, try it."

"Oh . . ." she blushed, it was rather becoming. He guessed she must have thought he was some weirdo hitting on her. She took the offered piece and carefully unwrapped it and then gave it a thoughtful chew. Her eyes widened and she looked at him. "Oh, wow."

"See? I tell my sister and her husband that this is the far better product, but they tell me that one is a better seller. So I gotta spread the word, person by person."

She smiled, she really was pretty. "Well, the next time a stranger tells me I'm making a bad candy choice, I'll listen."

He smiled back at her. "You uh, need help pickin' out anything else?"

She grinned, that was definitely a flirtatious grin, this day was looking up already. It had been a while since he'd flirted, wondered how rusty he was at it, he figured the answer was very. But he was willing to give it a try anyway. "Yeah, actually, the selection is rather overwhelming, someone who knows it would be helpful."

"So I take it you've not been in before?"

"No, I'm not from around here. Visiting my uncle for a few weeks, but he's working today so I thought I'd explore."

Eliot nodded. "Well there's been a store here since the 50s. It's been a candy store since the 90s, my sister and brother-in-law bought it last year. They didn't change much really, somehow managed to find more gummies but otherwise, it's just as crazy and jam packed as ever."

"How can you find more gummies?" she asked, wandering over to them. "There must be 50 different kinds here!"

"57," he said. "Each is very distinctive."

They were going around the store, him showing her all his favorites. He had a feeling she'd had no intention on buying as much as she was looking at but he really didn't mind. It felt good to know he hadn't completely lost it. He was thinking about asking her name about the time that Dash wandered over. His son was good about not interrupting when there was a customer but he'd left him alone longer than normal.

"Daddy, I gotta bathroom." Dash had some problems using the bathroom at the store, the door was a little tricky to open, something that he'd been planning on coming over some weekend and fixing before they got in trouble with some inspector.

The woman smiled gently. "Go ahead, I'm going to look in the fudge case."

"Thanks," he grinned back and escorted Dash to the back.

Cora took a deep breath as she collected herself in front of the case. Flirting with him had been far easier than she expected. Uncle Nate was right, Eliot did seem like he was a bit desperate to have a grown up to talk to. What she hadn't been prepared for was how good looking he was. Rugged good looks and those eyes and that smile and god, those eyes. He was very particular about things, he'd rankled her at first when she was supposed to flirt with him. But he had an odd sort of charm and she found that she genuinely liked him. His little boy was adorable too and so well mannered, he'd sat in the back coloring for most of the time. Four year olds in her experience, not that she had much, were a lot more hyper than that. Especially in a candy store. She wondered what the little boy's name was. Eliot referred to the boy as "Champ" on the blog and there hadn't been a name in the file. Probably hadn't occurred to Sophie to dig that hard.

Also as intriguing as she was finding Eliot Spencer, his personality didn't mesh at all with the personality expressed on his blog. That was really odd but then again she didn't know very many bloggers. And with the exception of her uncle, the authors she'd met on her job were completely different from what you'd expect from their books. Nate, on the other hand, was exactly what you'd expect. She stifled a giggle at the thought as father and son rejoined her.

She smiled at them as they approached. The boy grinned at her, "I'm Dashiell and this is Daddy."

"Eliot," the man supplied but Cora didn't miss the weird look that crossed his face when the boy said his name. There was a story there. But Dashiell was still talking.

"But everyone calls me Dash, except Daddy usually calls me Champ. What's your name?"

"Cora," she grinned. "Cora McRory. Everyone calls me Cora."

"You have my favorites!" Dash exclaimed.

He then excitedly told her all about his favorite candies and then proceeded to take her on a four year old's version of a nickel tour of the store. Cora couldn't understand half of what he was saying, he was so excited and talking so fast, but he was adorable. She found she didn't mind. Eliot kept looking apologetic but she just shook her head and followed Dash.

They were standing in front of a wall display that was completely full of cereal boxes.

"These are Auntie Parker's. She won't let anyone touch them."

Eliot shrugged behind them. "I still think they bought this place because they ran out of room for her cereal collection and needed a place for them."

Cora giggled. "Well I collect elephants, so everyone has a hobby."

"Oooh, I love elephants!" Dash exclaimed and ran to show Cora a picture he'd just colored of them.

"I am so sorry," Eliot said. "He gets excited sometimes. We uh don't see a lot of people."

"It's fine, I love kids." That was a bit of a white lie, but Dash really was adorable.

Time did fly and Cora still hadn't paid for her bags of candy yet. She'd been too busy chatting with Dash and flirting a bit with his father.

"Hey," a female voice said as the bell above the door rang. "We're back."

"My store still in one piece?" came from a male.

Cora looked over from where she was seated with Dash to watch Eliot greet a blonde woman and a tall African-American man. Judging from the man's comments they must be Eliot's sister and brother-in-law. Parker was the sister, she remembered from Dash's comments about the cereal.

She decided to concentrate on Dash, looking like she was eavesdropping too much was going to give her away.

Eliot really hadn't realized the time slipping away. That was a little unsettling, he was always aware of everything, habit from the military that had never gone away. But Cora had somehow distracted him. He had found her as easy to talk to as his son had. She was sweet and pretty and reminded him a bit of Aimee. Not the same, Aimee was a rough and tumble country girl, Cora had a bit of small town in her, but the sheltered girl next door type. But she had that red headed spark about her and she was really refreshingly that notch below odd that he'd been hoping to talk to. He'd kept her in the store way too long though. He was sure she had things she needed to do.

He got up from the table when the Hardisons returned.

"Hey," he walked over to the counter where Hardison was stashing his bag. "I got all of the favors packaged up and all but one of the Internet orders filled."

"Who's she?" Parker asked, pointing toward the table where Cora was sitting with Dash.

"Her name is Cora, she's a customer."

"Uh huh, pretty mama there don't look like she's buying anything."

"Well," Eliot was pretty sure he blushed and that was the wrong thing to do with his sister.

"You like her!"

"Maybe?" Eliot was not sure why his voice was coming out so high pitched. What had happened to him? He used to be so smooth. "Wait, Parker!"

"Hi," Parker bounced over to the table. "I'm Parker, Eliot's sister."

Cora smiled up at her even as Eliot inwardly cringed. "Hi, I'm Cora McRory. You have a fantastic store here. I'm already buying way too much candy on your brother's recommendation."

"Huh," Parker said. "You married? Got any kids?"

"Uh . . . ."

"Parker!" Eliot said, putting his hands on her arm. "She's a customer!"

"But, I mean if you . . . ."

By this time, Hardison joined the group. "C'mon on baby girl, let's let Cora here get her purchases together. She's gotta pay."

"Oh, I do like money," Parker said, letting Hardison drag her off. Eliot rolled his eyes, both of them seemed way too interested in the newcomer.

"I'm sorry about that," he said to her. "My sister . . .she's different."

"It's okay, really. But I really should pay for these."

"Yeah," Eliot watched her gather up the bags that had been lined up on the table and headed over to Hardison at the register. "Ok Champ, time to get your stuff. I promised you a trip to the playground."

Dash bit his lip and then looked up at his father. "Daddy?"

"Yeah?"

"Can Cora come to the playground with us?"

"I don't know, Champ, she's got stuff to do."

"We can ask, right?"

"Dash . . . ."but Eliot was always helpless against those puppy dog eyes. Aimee's eyes. He sighed. "Alright, but ask her politely."

"Yay! Thank you Daddy!" Dash tore off to the counter and Eliot didn't even bother to tell the boy not to run.

Eliot chuckled a little. This was either going to be the best thing that happened today or a total disaster.