Page 74 of His Brown-Eyed Girl

“Uncle Lucas!” Chris shouted.

“You know how in movies where parents can never get it on because the kids are always knocking on the door or yelling about spiders in the kitchen?”

“What movies do you watch?” she joked.

“I know how they feel. And the really crappy part is neither one of us have kids. We should be pulling the covers over our heads right now and pretending the world away.”

The image popping into her head made her body hum. Oh, to be under a set of soft sheets with him.

Whoa.

Addy fanned herself and demanded her body take a chill pill. Pointing to where Chris and Michael stood, looking as if they might trade blows, she murmured, “One day. Maybe.”

“Oh, you can bank on my getting you alone, Addy girl. We got unfinished business. A little tea sipping to do.” And then he turned and strode toward his brother’s children who had emoted into a couple of wild dogs snarling next to an oblivious hopping bunny whose bow had finally fallen out.

Addy scooped up the bow and glanced over at Lucas. “Fine. I’m in the mood for a hot cup of tea.”

Lucas’s smile could have melted the ice caps. “I could drink a gallon.”

Lucas carried a sleeping Charlotte out of the theater and watched as his nephews excitedly discussed the movie with Addy. None of them had been here during Hurricane Katrina, but they’d heard tales to accompany the educational movie which depicted life on the bayou and the catastrophic results of the storm on the coastline and wetlands. But to Addy, the effects were much more personal.

Before the movie, he’d spent quality time with Michael and Chris, talking to them about their father’s once upon a time dream of being an astronaut and sharing funny stories about their days of growing up in New Orleans.

Funny how being home made the relationship with his estranged brother seem less tenuous. When he remembered the boys they’d been, nearly the same age difference between them as Chris and Michael, he didn’t remember the squabbling and resentment between them, he remembered dressing up as their favorite WWF wrestlers and reenacting matches on the trampoline or sun-streaked days of baseball in the empty lot across the street from their parents’ house. He remembered gelatos at Angelo Broccatos and eating Tastee Donuts at the Mardi Gras parades. Plum Street Sno balls and swimming at the Metairie Country Club. Late nights playing Tetris and Christmas mornings eating their mom’s special cinnamon rolls and playing football in the yard in their jammies.

All those memories soaked in bitterness for years… but yet the good ones still came to him with a golden haze, sweetened like sugary jam.

He and Ben had loved one another, faced off against neighborhood bullies together, and grown up with love bestowed by a mother and father who both adored their boys.

How had it come to the present state?

Why had that betrayal seeped so deep inside him, especially when he could see fate had given them both what they needed in the long run? It was as if a boulder sat between them, and he had no clue how to move it.

Maybe he couldn’t move it… maybe he needed to climb over it.

“I’m starving,” Chris said for the umpteenth time.

“Okay, let’s load up and head for lunch,” Lucas said, balancing Charlotte on his shoulder so he could fetch Addy’s green umbrella and hand it to Michael. The skies had cleared and the sun made an appearance as they walked back to the truck. Lucas wound his free arm around Addy’s shoulders.

“Are y’all like going out now?” Michael asked shaking the umbrella and casting a glance at them.

“Maybe,” Lucas responded, sliding his eyes to her. She could see he had no better explanation. Neither did she. She didn’t really know what they were, but that was okay.

“Oh. That’s cool,” Michael said, taking longer steps so he could catch up with his brother. He wrapped a congenial arm around Chris’ shoulders. Chris looked up and said something to Michael with a grin.

“Aww, look,” Addy said, pointing at the boys. “They’re actually being-”

But then Chris pulled out from under his brother’s arm as Michael threw a right jab at him. Chris immediately jumped on Michael’s back and tried put him in a head lock.

Lucas snorted before jogging up to catch the back of Michael’s shirt and pulling him off. “Enough.”

“He said I liked Addy, and you was snakin’ me. He’s the one who likes Addy,” Chris said.

“I don’t like Addy. I have a girlfriend,” Michael said.

“Hey, you two.” Lucas released Michael. “Wait, you have a girlfriend?”

His oldest nephew actually blushed. “Hannah Leachman.”

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