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“What are we talking about?” Ev questions, digging into the conversation.
“The pretty lady who likes Daddy,” Bear supplies easily, swiping his sauce-coated fingers over hisThe Amazing Spider-Mant-shirt.
I cast murderous eyes at Deuce, who needs to remember that we’re going to be related forever and my memory is long. He snaps, breaking the spell of the conversation.
“I got you a shirt for the trip! I almost forgot!” he says, jogging around the island to the foyer, disappearing outside.
“You ready to go to the creek?” Bear asks as I take a bite of pizza.
“Yeah, buddy, let me finish my pizza and we’ll be skipping stones in no time, all right?” I rifle my hand through his hair as Deuce runs in, a black t-shirt balled up in his fist. He throws it at me, and I catch it with one hand, shaking it out to display the front.
Ev squints, reading it aloud slowly. “Blow me for good luck.”
My hands jerk down to cover Bear’s ears. “Dude.”
Ev snarls at her fiancé. “Deuce,” she scolds.
“What?” He laughs. “It’s not like he knows what getting blown means.”
My eyes find their way to a very quiet Dolly. She’s leaning toward Bear, willfully distracting him from the conversation by doodling a little stone on his paper napkin. That makes something at the back of my brain tingle a little.
“All right,” I say, folding up the shirt and dropping it on the counter. “I’ll bring it.”
“You’ll wear it,” Deuce says. “And who knows, maybe you’ll get your groove back in Vegas.”
I narrow my eyes at him, shaking my head. I’m too old to feel embarrassed and yet right now, I wish Dolly wasn’t witnessing the pathetic attempt of my sister’s fiancé trying to get me laid.
“I never lost my…” I’m not sayinggroove.“Never mind.”
“Oh,” Dolly says, her light voice breaking the tension in my chest. “Bear, I forgot. I brought you something.” She reaches into the small bag by her feet, one I didn’t even notice she brought in. Maybe that's because my old pervy eyes were all over her hot little body.
Jesus Christ, Hudson. Get your thoughts under control before you get a hard-on in front of your kid and your sister.
She rifles around until there’s a heavy plunk on the counter. Bear’s hands tear into the brown package, immediately revealing a small, desk-sized easel, his own paint palette, and a bundle of brushes with a red ribbon tied around them.
His eyes fill. “Is this for me to keep?”
She nods, and I notice her eyes are wet, too. “Yep. Your very own. You can be an artist at home like me,” she says excitedly, adding to Bear’s already untapped excitement. He hugs her so tightly she grunts a little, and Deuce nudges me.
In a private voice he says, “God, look how obsessed with you she is.”
I eye him. “Shut up.”
I’ve given Bear a thousand hugs and kisses, but it still doesn’t feel like enough. He’s four years old but I’ve never spent a night away from him. Not a single one.
I tug my flannel up over my nose, looking for his scent as I wait in the passenger seat. Deuce has been making out with my sister on the front porch for way too fucking long, and I’m a moment away from honking the horn to break up the damn tonsil hockey when a car appears at the top of the drive.
Afamiliarcar.
“Fuck,” I groan into the cab, peering back up at the house.
Deuce is right.
I was wrong, off and just plain hopeful if I thought Dolly was sending off any certain… vibe. But still, I find myself glancing between Tiffani’s approaching car and the house, hoping that Ev will go back inside and distract Dolly.
It’s ridiculous but something in my gut still flares at the idea of Dolly… It’s irrational and senseless, but I find myself reactively ducking beneath the doorframe, sliding my big ass out of Deuce’s truck. I meet Tiffani at her door as she’s putting her car in park. She came by yesterday night to drop off the casserole. I didn’t want to see her then. I stifle a sigh.
“Looks like I made it just in time,” she says, stepping out of her car in… pink high heels.
