“She wouldn’t think about snickerdoodles. She doesn’t care about snickerdoodles. Mom says she only cares about looking good and that’s why she’s always gettin’ her nails done,” Grady authoritatively told Dylan.

“She has pretty nails,” Ellie told me. “I like her nail polish even though it’s almost always red. She should try pink.”

Although I was nowhere near processing the information they’d provided me, Grady kept spouting it. “She brings Rex and Joel to the family reunion every year and she stays and Mom says she stays even though she’s not family anymore just to show off her fancy outfits and be a wet blanket. I can’t say why Uncle Levi said she does it because most of the words are bad.”

Uncle Levi clearly had a mouth much like his brother.

And Brock Lucas had an ex-wife and two sons. A pinchy-faced ex-wife who had a perma-manicure and two sons.

This, I did not know. This, a thing you shared. This, I did not know what to do with.

To be fair, I had known Brock as Brock for three days.

Still.

“Can I be your flower girl when you marry Uncle Slim?” Ellie asked.

Again, my body, lungs, and heart went completely still and then the latter two started pumping and when they did this, they did it hard.

Damn! Now how did I answer that?

I decided on honesty.

“Right now we’re just seeing each other, Ellie, but I’ll keep a line open to you if it looks like it’s getting serious,” I promised and she giggled.

Then she placed her order. “Okay, but I want my dress to be pink.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” I told her and she grinned at me.

She had a milk mustache too.

I grinned back.

The door swung open and people flooded through, starting with Laura and ending with Fern, Brock sandwiched in the middle. He came direct to me, eyes on my face and my eyes slid away. Fern went direct to the table to gather glasses. Laura started herding kids.

“All right, kiddos,” Laura started, snatching a towel from a rack, “wipe off those milk mustaches and inspect Uncle Slim’s living room for your stuff. We’re packed up and in the car in five minutes. March!”

Grady grabbed the towel, swiped his face, tossed it vaguely in his mother’s direction, and raced out. Dylan followed suit. Ellie skipped to her mother like she had all the time in the world to tiptoe through the tulips, rubbed the towel across her face once mostly smearing milk and not lapping it up then she skipped out.

“So sorry about crashing your date, Tess,” Laura said, pushing the towel back on the rack. “We were just driving by, saw Slim’s truck and bike, and that’s unusual so we took our shot. We’ll be out of your hair before you know it.”