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He knew what she wanted, but damn, memories of the one and only time he’d been in this kitchen were like a splinter digging into him. He hadn’t been welcome here then, he thought. What would make him think he would be welcome now.
“Best pick her up, Jack,” Cole Porter advised him from the doorway. “If she starts her caterwauling, we’re gonna blame you.”
Jack looked back down at the little girl, whose smile had begun easing from her face.
Bending, he placed his hands under her arms and lifted her gingerly from the floor. She was light as a feather and so damned fragile he was almost terrified of breaking her.
Easing her to his chest, he was shocked when she wrapped her arms around his neck and laid her head on his shoulder.
“Wow! She doesn’t like anyone but Aunt Poppy,” one of the boys breathed. “Uncle John and Evan can’t even hardly hold her.”
The little girl seemed perfectly comfortable with her head on his shoulder and jabbering at him below his ear.
He looked at Poppy helplessly as she rose to her feet, obviously silently laughing at him.
“She’s a very picky little girl,” she agreed with the boy standing in front of her. “But Jack’s very nice.”
“Jack’s very big,” the boy breathed out. “Like a mountain or something.”
She did laugh at that. “Jack, these two little heathens are Benton and Kenneth Myers, my sister Jackie and her husband Ted’s boys. There’s two more hiding around here somewhere. Alice and her husband Blake Thomas’s sons, John and Mason. And that little sprite is Eliza Poppy Porter.”
“And she’s mine.” Mac-Cole stepped into the room, shaking his head at the little girl lying so comfortably against Jack’s shoulder.
He hadn’t heard Mac had married, or that he had a daughter.
“Da…” the little girl jabbered happily as her head lifted and she stared back at her father with one of those bright smiles.
Thankfully, she held her arms out for him.
“Come on, squirt.” He took the child from Jack’s hold and cuddled her against his shoulder. “Nap time for you.” To the others he explained, “When she starts wanting to be held, we know what time it is around here.”
“It’s the only time she stops moving.” Poppy laughed, unpacking the box Jack had placed on the counter as he came in.
“Hello, Jack.” Melissa Ann stepped into the room, her smile welcoming. “It’s so nice to see you here today.”
Poppy resembled her mother. Melissa Ann Porter’s hair was more gray than red now, and her face was older, but there was no doubt the two were mother and daughter.
“Ma’am.” He nodded his head, then grudgingly turned to Poppy’s father. “Mr. Porter,” he greeted.
“My name’s Cole,” her father informed him firmly. “I told you that more than once, Jack.” He turned to Poppy. “Give us a hug, sweetie.” He opened his arms to his daughter, hugging her tight before releasing her. “Your sisters are currently fussing at their husbands in the family room for forgetting the beer. You’d think boys their age would remember.”
“There’s beer in the ice chest in the truck, Dad,” she told him. “Jack picked it up yesterday to bring, but he had his hands full of food coming in.”
Jack didn’t observe a lot of social rules, but the “bring beer where men and meals are concerned,” his teammates’ wives had taught him early on.
“I’ll get it now.” Jack turned for the door.
“Just bring it out front, Jack. We have a lack of giggling and girlish confidences out there. In other words, peace,” Cole said.
Poppy’s mother laughed at him. Cole Porter kissed his wife on the cheek, then looked back at Jack expectantly.
Jack glanced at Poppy to make sure she didn’t need anything else from the truck.
“Go on,” she told him, unwrapping the food she brought. “Jackie, Alice, and I will help Mom with the meal. It will be a while before everything’s ready.”
He felt as though she were sending him to his execution. What did he know about dealing with a woman’s family?
He returned to the truck, hefted the filled ice chest from the back, and at the last minute grabbed the extra case from the back floorboard. Locking the truck, he carried everything around the house to the front porch, where Poppy’s brothers, minus Mac, and her father sat waiting.
