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“You’re going to get sweatier. Throw on some deodorant, we’re all good.”
“Why am I paying… again?” Ted said twenty minutes later, he’d insisted on a shower, as they parked outside Phil’s.
“You’re rich, I’m not.”
“Such a mercenary, and I happen to know you do all right,” Ted said, getting out of the car. “All that share trading and investment property portfolio shit you Trainers have going on. You’re just really good at playing dumb.”
Jack just smiled that wide, women-love-me smile and slapped Ted on the back.
His cousin Piper ran and owned Phil’s Cafe along with the other Trainers. She and Ted had once had an uneasy relationship, but it was better now that she was married with a child and another on the way.
He liked Phil’s, it was all clean lines and serviceable spaces. Yet the decor worked. Mostly white with plenty of plants, it had a counter and stools, which was where they headed.
Piper was behind it, tall, elegant, a woman who had beauty etched deep in her bones. She was confident and loud, pretty much the anti-Mandy. She also had a seriously large stomach.
“Hey you,” she said to Jack, then came to hug him hard.
And maybe that was part of the reason he’d struggled with Piper too. She was a sister to his friends, and he often wondered what his life would have been like if Emily was still in it.
She’d softened him once. Being a brother to Emily had pretty much been the best thing Ted could lay claim to in his life.
“Hey there, Teddy Bear.” She kissed his cheek, which was a first. He took it in his stride and gave her a gentle hug.
He’d tried to keep his distance from them, the people he now called friends. They hadn’t allowed it.
“Not you too? Any chance we can settle on Ted?”
“I like it. Teddy Bears are big and cuddly. You have the big part… we’ll work on the cuddly,” Piper added.
“Like hell,” he said, taking a seat at the counter next to Jack.
“And here’s my man and baby! Hey, sweetie.” She kissed Dylan and Grace, their little girl.
“Waffles, Mama. Daddy burned mine.”
“We talked about this, sweetheart. You don’t tell tattle to Mom.” Dylan kissed a soft cheek. “But yes, I burned lunch.”
Grace would be about four now. Her hair was blonde ringlets, and she had bright eyes and an inquisitive personality. He’d watched her grow since the day her mother had brought her home. She was the daughter of Piper’s friend, and Piper had been given custody when the woman died. They’d then adopted her.
Hers had been a rough start in life, but unlike many, she’d found a home and people who cherished her.
“Do you want the works breakfast, Ted?” Piper called to him.
“Sure, why not. It’s lunch time, but I can handle that.”
Ted remembered Emily when she was Grace’s age; she’d had this thing for dolls and the same movie on repeat.
“Here’s your coffee.”
“Thanks, Piper.”
Swallowing a mouthful, he wondered why he was thinking about his sister so much all of sudden. Maybe because Anthony had shown up here in Ryker. He’d gone; Ted had checked.
He tested around inside him to see if he felt any guilt over the fact that he wanted nothing to do with his brother, and there was some. They were different people, but they were blood. Each of the Hoskings had coped with Emily’s death differently. Ted had run and not looked back.
“Hi.”
Looking down, he found Grace, dressed in purple shorts with some kind of fairy logo and matching top that he guessed were the latest “in thing” for small people.
