“What if it’s somebody delivering you something?”
“Well, it won’t be something delivered. I didn’t order anything because I don’t have any money to order anything.”
He sighed, opened the front door, then glared at her. “Say hello.”
She looked at the stranger in front of her, her mouth automatically doing as he asked. She stopped in shock. “Oh no,” she said, shaking her head. “Oh, no.”
“Meet Nick,” Mack said, “my brother. And you can’t avoid it.”
“See?” she said. “It’s always bad news to open the door on a Sunday.” And, with that, she turned and walked back into the kitchen.
Chapter 9
Doreen couldn’t stop glaring at him. Finally Mack sat her down in the living room and told her in a sharp tone, “Be nice.”
She upped the wattage of her glare and shoved her chin even higher. He shook his head and shook his finger in her face. She wanted to reach out and snap it off.
“No, I did not set you up,” he said. “No, I did not trick you either. And, yes, you need to deal with this.”
She gasped. “I was dealing with it.”
“Ignoring the whole thing is not dealing with it,” he thundered.
That shut her up, but she crossed her arms over her chest and tried to glare harder, but she’d reached her limit. When she heard an odd sound, she shifted her gaze. Looking over, she saw Mack’s brother leaning against the front doorjamb. He wore a huge grin on his face, and his shoulders were quaking. She gasped and jumped to her feet. “Are you laughing at me?” she cried out.
He immediately wiped the smile off his face, but he couldn’t hold it and started to laugh again. “No. I’m definitely not laughing at you,” he choked out, “but I am absolutely loving the interaction between you and Mack.”
She frowned. “What has that got to do with anything?”
“Everything,” he said, with a gentle smile. He stepped forward into the living room, then stopped, and, in the softest voice she could imagine from a guy his size, he asked, “May I come in?”
She frowned and then nodded grudgingly. “You’re already here, so you might as well.”
“Oh, gee, how very polite,” Mack said. “You might remember that he is my brother and that you do owe him at least some respect.”
She crossed her arms over her chest again and said, “Fine, but remember. I’ll be true to myself and not to you.”
He closed his eyes, pinched the bridge of his nose, and said, “What on earth does that mean?”
“It means that I’m no longer listening to what men like you say.”
His eyes snapped open, and he glared at her. In an ominous voice, he said, “Men like me?”
She shoved her hands on her hips and went up on her tiptoes, so she could be a little closer to looking him in the eye. But she had failed miserably and couldn’t even reach his chin. “Okay, men like my ex.”
“Surely you’re not lumping me in with him?”
“Fine.” She raised both hands in surrender. “Of course not,” she said, “but I spent an entire lifetime of marriage being told what to do and how to act.”
“Being polite to somebody who’s gone out of their way to help you is just being a decent person,” he said, obviously striving to keep his temper under control.
She sighed, her shoulders sagging, as the stuffing went out of her. “Fine,” she said. Then she looked at Nick and said, “You’ve apparently caught me at a bad time. I apologize for being impolite.”
At that, Nick burst out laughing. “Nope,” he said, “I wouldn’t miss this for anything.” She narrowed her gaze as he held up a hand. “I’m not Mack, and I’m not your husband. I am simply someone who might be able to help you.”
“Lots of people have helped me in the last few weeks,” she said, clearly trying to be more gracious. “It would be very nice if you could too.”
“I’ll take that as an olive branch,” Nick said. “Now Mack said you make great coffee.” She stared at Nick in shock, then turned to Mack and said, “I make what?”
He sighed. “You do make great coffee now.”
She rolled her eyes at him, as she stormed into the kitchen. “Meaning, after you taught me.”
“Hey, everybody has to learn from somebody. No reason not to have learned from me.”
She groaned, then stepped back into the living room with a glass of water and said, “You can come through to the kitchen.”
“Thank you,” Nick said in that same gentle voice.
“How come you guys come so big?” she complained.
“We’re a matched set,” Nick said, “with two years between us.”
“Are you older or younger than Mack?” She held up her hand. “No, wait. I already know you’re younger.”
“Why would you say he’s younger?” Mack asked in surprise.
She glared at him. “You are far too dominating to let anybody be older than you.” And, on that note, she turned and huffed off into the kitchen. She heard them talking in the background and knew that they were probably laughing at her again. She honestly didn’t have a reason for being so upset, except that she had thought that she could get out of this. She knew she was being difficult, but there was just something about seeing Nick all of a sudden like that, without warning …
Joining them, she looked over at Mack and said, “You know we don’t have time for this now.”
His eyebrows shot up. “We have to make time for this.”
She turned to Nick. “We do have a rather important case to be working on.”
Nick looked at her in delight. “That’s wonderful,” he said. “What’s it about?”
At that, Mack stepped in. “There is absolutely no end to this discussion,” he said, “so we’re not even starting down that path.”
She glared at him. “It involves me, so that makes it important.” Just then, Thaddeus, as if awakened, came from where he’d been sleeping in the kitchen, flying right toward her. When he saw Nick, he stopped, landing on the ground. He looked up at Mack, then at Nick. “Big guy, big guy.”
She chuckled, then bent down and scooped him up, putting him on her shoulder. “Thaddeus, this is Nick, Mack’s brother.”
“Nick,” he said. “Nick.” And then he reached out a foot, as if to shake his hand.
In absolute delight, Nick gently touched his finger to the bird’s foot. “Hi, Thaddeus. Nice to meet you.”
Thaddeus immediately bounced his head up and down, up and down, up and down. “Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you.”
Nick chuckled. “He’s quite the character.”
“He is, and he disappeared yesterday for a few hours and came back with a message on his ankle, which was a cry for help,” she said quietly. “So we’re supposed to be”—and she turned to glare at Mack—“looking for this person.”
Almost defensively Mack said, “Remember? There’s a whole team in my office.”