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“Oh?” Delaney asked, and I was sure she was wondering what made her special.
Mom smiled. “You’re a joy. I’m happy to watch you anytime.”
“Really?” Delaney asked, her gaze flitting from me to Mom. Was she insecure because her father left her? Did she think it was her fault or that she wasn’t worthy of his attention? I hated that for her.
Maggie’s mom had done something similar. She’d moved to Maryland for a job and never returned. She rarely visited. I was sure there would be some residual abandonment issues, but we worked hard to make Maggie feel wanted and loved. She had Sam and now Alice, my family, and Alice’s family.
“You’re fun,” I said to her. “My brothers wouldn’t have handled losing as well as you did.”
“It’s a little crazy when the boys get together. You’ll see,” Mom said as she wiped the flour from the counter.
It warmed me that Mom had already included Delaney in future family gatherings and that she still called us “boys.” “You know we’re grown men now, right?”
Mom finished spooning out another tray of cookies and put them into the oven. When the oven door was shut, she set the timer and waved a hand at me. “You’ll always be my boys.”
“I’d love a little brother or sister,” Delaney said, popping another cookie into her mouth.
“Be careful what you ask for. My brothers are—”
Mom shook the wooden spoon at me. “Don’t you dare finish that sentence.”
“Mean. That’s all I was going to say.” If she were older, I might have said the devil or evil. “I know how to talk around kids.”
Mom gave me a look that said she didn’t believe me.
“I control my language around Maggie,” I insisted, although I wasn’t so sure about that.
Mom shook the wooden spoon at me. “That’s not what I hear.”
“Is Sam telling on me again?” I whined.
Delaney giggled. “You sound like a kid.”
“That’s what I’ve been telling them since they supposedly became adults and moved out. They’re overgrown children.”
Delaney laughed so hard she almost fell off her stool.
“It’s not that funny,” I said seriously when she sobered.
“I can’t wait to meet your brothers.”
“Tyler, the middle one, is a troublemaker, and Sam is the youngest, the immature one.” Although that wasn’t really true anymore. He had to grow up when Felicia left him with Maggie.
“Oh, he is not,” Mom said, placing the cooled cookies into a container. “He’s a perfectly sweet boy.”
“Tyler has classic middle-child syndrome that you desperately tried to make up for, and Sam was babied.”
“Oh, I did not. You three were always jealous of each other. I suppose that’s typical with siblings, brothers especially. There wasn’t anything they didn’t compete to do. Who can spit the farthest, run the fastest…”
It wasn’t a good idea to mention our peeing contests. She’d have a fit if she knew about those.
Tyler was a bit more charming than the rest of us. He was skilled at avoiding my parents’ radar, frequently getting away with pranks and tricks. My mom used to say that the oldest and youngest were the most demanding, so she needed to give Tyler special attention, which did not go over well. We made Tyler’s life hell for it. But I couldn’t tell Delaney that.
I helped Mom box up the rest of the cookies. She reserved a smaller box for me and left the large one in the kitchen.
“I’m going to clean up. Thanks for playing with me, Delaney. I had fun.”
“Will you play with me again?” Delaney asked with such expectation in her voice I couldn’t say no.
