“Your house.” Harley strode to the coffeepot and poured herself the last mug of coffee. Teagan waited until her sister doctored it with cream and sugar—two things Teagan rarely allowed herself—then snatched the mug right out of Harley’s perfectly manicured fingers.
“Rude much?” Harley asked.
“Make your own pot,” she heard herself say. “You should be thanking me. Caffeine makes you gassy.”
“Apparently, it makes you grumpy.” She turned to Poppy. “How about you start banging out that solo.”
Poppy got one smack to a pan before Teagan grabbed the spoon. “Can you go play with your sister while Mommy and your auntie talk?”
Poppy looked at Harley as if she were a source of authority. “Seriously?” Harley gave an innocent hands-up, to which Teagan replied with adon’t test melook moms around the world held sacred.
“Sorry, kiddo. I was dying to be the Anna to your Elsa, but you got to take it up with your mom. She is the keeper of all the rules,” she said and Poppy groaned. “I feel your pain, Popcorn.”
“Keeper of all the rules?” Teagan repeated. Harley made her sound like some uptight, helicopter mom with nothing better to do than inflict protocols and busybody rules on fun-seeking children.
“You’re the one holding the spoon.” Harley lifted Lily off the chair and set her on the floor. “Why don’t you two go play on my free-hanging hammock.”
Two sets of blue eyes looked hopefully up at Teagan. Tired of being the bad cop—she’d had four years of that in her marriage—she ignored her inner safety guard. “Why not. Just be careful.”
Both girls jumped up and down in unison before running over to thank—yup—Harley. They hugged Harley’s legs, Lily on one side, squeezing so hard she scrunched up her face until her eyes closed. Poppy on the other, holding on with one arm, the other tiny fist pumping the air like a bull rider on a bronco. “Aunt-tie Har-ley! Aunt-tie Har-ley! Aunt-tie Har-ley!”
She eyed Aunt-ie Har-ley who gave aWhat?shrug. But her smug grin said she knew exactly what she’d done.
The girls bolted, tearing through the kitchen—but not before giving Aunt-tie Har-ley butterfly kisses.
Teagan’s heart gave a painful bump in her chest. Butterfly kisses weretheirthing. Frank didn’t even get butterfly kisses and he was the OGC—Original Good Cop.
“Be safe and don’t spin too fast,” she hollered after them.
Harley hopped up on the counter. “What are you going to say next? You’ll shoot your eye out?”
Growing up, everything in Teagan’s life had been out of her control. Which explained a lot. Her parents met young, married young, and their relationship never outgrew the drama of young love.
Her mom was a small-town girl with small-town dreams. Her dad was a bigger-than-life guy with a bigger-than-life existence. He wanted to tour the world. Her mom’s world was a tidy five square miles. She once said marrying Dale was the craziest and stupidest thing she’d ever done.
Which was why Teagan avoided crazy. Because it usually led to stupid. And she might be a lot of things, but stupid wasn’t one.
So she’d gone to the right college, earned the right degree, married the right kind of man. Which was why she wasn’t prepared for Frank to secretly gamble away their house, their savings, even the family bread business. The last part was the straw that broke their marriage.
Broke her heart.
“I thought you were taking the swing down?” she said, measuring out exactly three cups of flour.
“It’s a chair, not a guillotine.” The girls’ laughter faded into the background until Teagan had to admit, for the first time that morning, it was actually quiet. “Aren’t you glad I didn’t?”
No, she was not. Having a moment of quiet was nice. Having her sister judge her parenting was the exact opposite of nice. In fact, the only thing that would make Teagan truly happy was for her unwelcome guest to pack up and move out. At that thought a whisperedLiar, liarflitted around her head.
“It’s a trip to the ER waiting to happen,” Teagan explained. She didn’t have arbitrary rules. Each and every rule in herPARENTS GET PARENTINGbinder was there for a reason.
Teagan pulled a tray of Brioche col Tuppo from the oven and Harley snagged not one but two Italian sweet rolls before Teagan set the tray on the wood cutting board. She watched as Harley pulled the cute little top off a roll and popped it into her mouth.
Breathing steam out of her mouth, she panted, “Hot. Hot.”
“Then maybe you should wait until they’re on the cooling rack before stealing one. Or hey, how about leaving my rolls alone? Or cleaning up after yourself. I had to clean the kitchen this morning before I could start breakfast.”
Harley ignored her. “Oh my God, these taste exactly like Nonna’s.”
The compliment warmed her heart. She worked hard to uphold her family’s legacy and do her nonna proud. Teagan had dropped the ball once, allowing Frank full control of the back end of the business, and the results were devastating. It was a mistake she wouldn’t make again.
