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Luke chuckled. “Me and you both, brother.”
Rex grunted and slid away from the cabinet housing the large basin. “Do you wanna give this a try? Mrs. Carpenter threatened to quit, you know. She claims she’s slipping and sliding whenever she enters the kitchen.”
“I ain’t worried about her. She’s been sayin’ she was leavin’ since we were teenagers. Trust me. She ain’t going anywhere now that Lucy’s back. She’s been dyin’ to see this thing play out since we were boys.”
Rex snorted at that, rose to a seated position, and dropped his hands between parted legs. “Me, too.” A beat later he added, “So how does she look?”
“Good enough to eat,” Luke replied, waggling his brows.
“Did you go over and say hello or just tighten the strings on your bib?”
Luke shrugged. “Thought I’d give her a minute to readjust to her surroundings again. Besides, I don’t need to remind ya of what happened the last time we saw Lucy, do I?”
Rex shook his head. “I can’t hold your hand and walk down Memory Lane. You’ve graduated from diapers to briefs, so if you wanna think about the past, you go right ahead. You’re a big boy.”
“And you’re a smart-ass.”
“I try.”
“Don’t put forth the effort. I hate to see ya struggle.”
Rex smirked and went back to work, tugging at pipes and twisting rings.
“Think she ever forgave us?” Luke asked, probing for reassurance while thinking Rex still hadn’t gotten over the heartache of losing Lucy once. What if they couldn’t win her hand again? What if Lucy refused them a second chance?
“Doubt it. You know Lucy. She always held a grudge.”
“I don’t know many women who would’ve put up with the likes of you two for as long as that sweet Lucy did,” Mrs. Carpenter said, entering the kitchen with her arms loaded down with grocery bags. “Poor child chased you around this place from the time she was able to walk and what’d you do? I’ll tell you. The two of you brought some cheap wo-man in here and made her thin
k she had a future with you.”
“Let me help,” Luke said, rushing the older housekeeper with arms wide open.
“I’ve got it,” Mrs. Carpenter snapped. “If you wanna assist someone, help yourself. Clean yourselves up and get on over there to the Malone place before Lucy thinks too much about what you two forced her to watch the last time she saw you.”
“Nobody asked her to spy on us,” Rex pointed out.
“Maybe not, but a woman has a right to look at what she’s got, and Lucy thought the two of you belonged to her.”
“That was her first mistake,” Luke informed her, quickly adding, “considering our ages and all. We were too young for a commitment.”
Rex started to say something but instead ran his palm down the length of his face. Luke kind of figured Rex knew they were beat.
Mrs. Carpenter placed her hands on her hips. “I want to invite Lucy to dinner. Y’all drive over there and tell her we’ll eat about six or seven. I’d love to see the little darling. It’s been too long, you know?”
Luke narrowed his gaze on their housekeeper. Mrs. Carpenter was like family, but at times like these he really wished she wouldn’t meddle. She’d been advising them on their relationship with Lucy since they were kids. Now that Lucy had returned home, the last thing he wanted was advice from a woman who spent half her life avoiding the husband she claimed to have married because he was the only one who asked.
“I got a better idea,” Rex said, shooting Mrs. Carpenter a wide smile. “Let me finish up here and then I’ll take you over to the Malone place so you can ask Lucy to dinner yourself.”
“Oh no, you don’t, Rex McDavid. You got yourself into this mess. Get yourself out of it. You and Luke owe that girl an apology. She loved you with all she had to give. You and your brother did her plumb dirty. Now it’s time to say you’re sorry. Ask her to find it in her heart to forgive you, and maybe then she’ll pull up a seat and break bread with you. If she’s willing, I’ll fix the best meal that kid has seen in a decade.”
“Let’s get one thing straight right now. Lucy Malone is not a child,” Rex said firmly.
“Maybe not to you,” Mrs. Carpenter snapped. “But she’ll always be a baby girl in my eyes. I still remember that precious little angel bouncing in here with the prettiest long, dark curls I’d ever laid my eyes on. She had these big dimples—still has ’em, I imagine—and the cutest button nose.”
Rex returned to the task of fixing the sink while Luke revisited lost days, the good times he recalled fondly and frequently. He could listen to Mrs. Carpenter go on for hours and hours about the girl who stole his soul before he realized he possessed one to borrow or own.
Rex and Luke shared a long and torrid history with Lucy, and it was a past they couldn’t leave behind. There was a reason for that.
