Still, would he put up with it for Jill?
Absolutely.
“Okay,” Zander said. “Then you probably don’t want to talk about the jelly I gave her.”
Zeke’s frown intensified. “The what?”
“I totally gave her my jelly,” Zander said. “A whole bunch of it. Really sticky and sweet, and—”
“Knock it off.” Zeke knew Zander was just fucking with him but he still wanted to punch his brother in the mouth. Even the thought of another guy messing with Jill raised his blood pressure.
Zander laughed. “Relax. She came over to borrow a screwdriver for a lamp that got delivered and then we talked about Chuck a bit and she mentioned she needed grape jelly. So I traded with her. I got her strawberry, she got my grape.”
“And you gave her a dog catcher’s pole to use on Chuck?”
Zander chuckled. “That girl isn’t going to get that close to Chuck.”
“She said you told her she could at least poke him with it. Dammit, Zander, you can’t have her thinking that’s the way to defend herself with alligators.”
Zander gave him a long look. “Jill’s smarter than that. But I thought it would help her to feel a little safer if she had something in hand.”
He was right, of course, about Jill being smart. Zeke blew out a breath. “Yeah. Okay. I just…”
“You want to be the thing that makes her feel safe,” Zander filled in.
Yes. That was what he wanted. But it made him sound like an asshole out loud. “Yeah. But I don’t want her scared just so I can feel like some big hero.”
“I get it. And I like it. You’ve never gotten to be the big hero. Looks good on you.”
No, he’d never gotten to be the hero before. He’d never really wanted to be. That seemed like it came with a lot of expectations and responsibility.
But a lot of things had changed since Dr. Jillian Morris had come to town.
“I just want her…to know I’m there for her. To know she can depend on me.”
“She knows.” Zander lifted his beer bottle to his lips again. “I asked if she needed help with the lamp and she said if she did, she knew where to find you.”
Zeke felt the corner of his mouth curl. “Yeah?” It was just a lamp, but that still made him feel good.
“Yep. She even cut me off when I started to make a joke about screwing.”
Zeke’s grin grew and he glanced at the woman he’d accidentally gotten pregnant.
Best mistake ever.
“Just one thing you should know about your girlfriend, though,” Zander said.
“What’s that?”
“She’s allergic to strawberries. That’s why we traded jellies.”
Zeke frowned. “Why didn’t she tell me?”
“She thought you were being sweet and she didn’t want to hurt your feelings.” Zander leaned to set his beer bottle on the table. “But since she has to put up with you long term now, you should probably know that and try not to kill her.”
“Shit.” Zeke looked at Jill. “They can kill her?”
“Nah. Probably not. She said she breaks out in hives if she touches them though.”
“Oh, shit.”
“What?”
Zeke held up his bandaged hand. “She put Cora’s burn cream on me.” The cream that had strawberry juice in it.
“Oh, shit,” Zander agreed.
They both looked over at Jill. She was scratching the palm of one of her hands and they could see little red welts starting to show up.
“You know what,” Zeke said. “Never mind what I said. Keep helping. Any time you think we need you to step in. Jill and I both definitely need help.”
Zander laughed. “You’ve got it, baby brother. I’ve always got you. And now Jill. No matter what.”
“Here you go, darlin’,” Cora said, bustling over with a jar of blueish white cream. “This will help with those hives.”
Jill looked up, then down at her palms. She’d been so caught up in her thoughts about Zeke and the baby and the penguins that she’d barely registered how itchy her hands were.
“Wha—”
Suddenly Zeke was scooting his chair so he was facing Jill’s and taking the jar from Cora.
Cora smiled at him. “Just rub it in right over the hives. They should clear up quick. The itching will get better within a few minutes. Reapply as needed.”
“Got it.”
He unscrewed the top and took one of Jill’s hands, cradling it on top of the bandage over his burn. He dipped the fingers of his other hand into the cream and smoothed it over Jill’s palm, rubbing in small circles until the cream soaked into her skin.
“Thanks,” she said quietly.
“Always better when someone who loves you puts it on. So I’m told.” His eyes met hers.
She wet her lips. Then swallowed. “Feels better already.”
“And I made a note about the strawberries,” he added.
“It didn’t even occur to me to say anything.”
“I’ve got you covered from here. I’ll eat your share of all the strawberry shortcake and strawberry pepper jam right along with mine.”
She laughed softly. “My hero.”
His gaze intensified at her words and his voice was husky when he said, “Damn right.”
“We’re here!”
They were interrupted by a woman’s voice calling from the front of the bar.
“Addison! Dana!” Ellie got to her feet, clearly delighted to see the two women who were headed for the back tables.
The women stopped and looked around.
“Darn, I think we missed them,” the brunette said to her friend.
They smiled broadly at one another.
Laughing, Ellie pulled them both into a hug.
“Were you girls sittin’ in your car waiting for your children to leave before comin’ in here?”
The shorter woman with the lighter hair put her hand on her chest and gave a little gasp.
“What? Are you insinuatin’ that we would sit outside, hidden around the corner of your bar, waiting until our gaggle of loud, rambunctious children left to go get stinky and muddy before coming in here where we could drink our liquor in peace?” She waved her hand. “Why I never,” she added with a thick, clearly exaggerated, southern accent.
“I wasn’t insinuatin’ that at all,” Ellie told her. “I was sayin’ exactly that.”
They all laughed.
It was clear from the way the Landrys all greeted the women that they were well known and well liked.
“That’s Gabe’s wife, Addison, and Logan’s wife, Dana,” Zeke filled in for Jill.
“That’s Stella’s mom?”
“Yep.” He grinned. “They’re awesome.”
“Victoria Landry, you get over here with that pretty little girl,” Dana said, motioning to Tori.
Laughing, Tori got up from her seat with Ella. She was enfolded into a group hug as the women include lots of oohs and ahhs over the baby and asked Tori how she was doing as they led her away from the huge group of Landrys to a smaller table a few feet away.
Jill was shocked when, on her way past, Tori snagged her hand and tugged her to her feet.