Emma giggled and joined in briefly before telling Tamara seriously, “We’re the three bears, Mama.”
Caleb lifted his coffee, hiding a grin behind his cup. The entire family was so comfortable and real, and Ginny was glad to be back in the thick of it.
Dustin leaned around Shim to get Ginny’s attention. “Hey. You coming out to the lake to cheer us on? Shim and I are clearing the ice after breakfast.”
“I thought I’d look in the basement for my old skates,” Ginny confessed. “It’s been a while, but I think I still remember how.”
“Want to be on our team?” Shim asked.
Dustin groaned. “Oh, please. Don’t.”
A snort escaped Ginny, but she covered it up the best she could. “Was that don’t for me or Shim?”
“Shim,” Dustin said instantly. “And you. There’ll be way too many guys on the ice. You should skate somewhere safer.”
Sasha had been listening intently and now leapt into the conversation. “What does that mean? It won’t be safe to skate?”
“Uh,” Shim’s head swung back and forth as he tried to keep up with the conversation. “I just thought—”
“Papa, we want to skate, too,” Emma interrupted, sadness dripping from her little voice.
“We do. We will.” Sasha glanced at her little brother. “I need to teach Tyler how to skate.”
“Of course you do, pumpkin. That’s why Dustin will clear a second rink space for you and Emma and your friends to use. Right?” Caleb lifted his gaze to his youngest brother.
“Sure.” Dustin leaned forward again. “You can skate on that one, Gin.”
“Gee, thanks, Dus.”
He glared. “That’s not funny.”
“It’s hysterical,” she returned before ignoring him and carefully piling three pieces of bacon on top of each other. She held it up and made eye contact with Emma. “Know what this is?”
“Stop playing with your food,” Caleb grumbled, but he was clearly amused.
“You’re not playing hockey with us,” Dustin growled, sounding remarkably like Tyler.
“A bacon….” Emma frowned. “I don’t know.”
Sasha tilted her head as she announced, “A triple-decker bread-less sandwich?”
“Too much to put in your mouth at one time?” Tamara said at nearly the same moment.
The longer the rambunctious and chaotic conversation continued, the bigger Shim’s eyes got, his grin growing as well.
This time Ginny was the one who leaned on the table, easing around Shim as she waggled the bacon in the air at Dustin. “This is a super-skater vitamin, which means in a minute, I’ll be unstoppable.”
She crunched down with vigour. The bacon shattered into teeny delicious pieces in her mouth, and Sasha and Emma crowed with delight.
Unfortunately, the bit still in her fingers also shattered, spraying poor Shim with a fine coating of crispy fat.
He laughed even as he brushed off crumbs and glanced around the table. “You guys are awesome.”
“You’re an only child, aren’t you?” Caleb said dryly.
“Yes, sir.” Shim coughed as Dustin hit him in the chest. “Ouch, what was that for?”
“He’s not a sir, he’s my brother,” Dustin drawled then met Caleb’s eyes. “I mean, you are awesome and everything, bro, but jeez.”
Caleb’s lips twitched, but he ignored Dustin and looked his friend over. “You can call me Caleb if you want, but whatever makes you comfortable. I don’t mind.”
The young man nodded. “Thanks.”
Ginny didn’t remember Caleb ever smiling this much before. Now he all but smirked as he waved Dustin and Shim off. “If you’ve had enough to eat, get working on clearing the rinks. The rest of the crowd will be here before you know it.”
They shot to their feet, thanked Tamara for the meal and headed for the door.
“Well, that was the quietest and most peaceful meal we’ve had in ages,” Tamara said as Tyler started to complain. She hauled him out of the highchair and handed him to Caleb. “Here, sir. A child for your entertainment. Leave the dishes. I’ll take care of them in a bit. Right now, Ginny and I need to go find some skates, because she’s got a game to get ready for.”
“Damn right,” Ginny said, followed immediately by, “Oops. I mean, darn tooting.”
Emma giggled, and Sasha laughed. Caleb shook his head, but he kissed Ginny’s cheek then rounded up his children. “Come on. Your mama deserves a break. You can be my clean-up crew.”
“Which means you and I have treasure to find,” Tamara told Ginny firmly as they headed down the stairs.
Treasure. A reminder of the mysterious present and the puzzle Ginny needed to solve. But right now, this was more important. Time with family, with her nieces and brothers.
Time to whup her younger brother’s ass. She could hardly wait.
Tucker didn’t bother to knock upon reaching Luke’s house. He did, however, peek around the corner before marching into the kitchen, just in case. No use scaring the daylights out of anyone.
Well, except maybe Luke. Scaring him would be priceless.
The coffeemaker was on, but no one was in the room. Tucker strode forward and made himself at home, filling a cup to the brim and fixing it up just right.
He turned around and nearly jumped out of his skin. Luke stood inches behind him, grinning like a feral beast.
“Fucker,” Tucker grumbled as hot coffee sloshed over his fingers. He changed his cup to the other hand and forcibly jammed his palm against Luke’s shoulder to spin him out of the way. “Good morning, you jerk.”
“Good morning, sunshine.” Luke grabbed his own cup of coffee. “Did you find the food I put in the fridge? I saw you had some stuff in there already, but I figured what the hell. May as well leave it.”
“Yeah, thanks.” No need to expand on that comment.
Luke gestured him toward the two easy chairs in front of the fireplace. They were positioned to one side of the general living room, a cozy place for two people to spend a morning.
“Sit for a minute,” his friend ordered.
“This is a nice spot.” Tucker looked around in appreciation. Nothing too over the top. The house construction was solid, but all the furnishings looked as if they’d been picked up at a secondhand store. “I bet this is where you and Kelli sit in the mornings when you get a chance.”
“You got it,” Luke agreed. Then he made a face. “Of course, both of us having the morning off happens only a couple of times a week. Ashton does his best, but it’s nearly impossible to keep from scheduling one or the other of us for a morning shift.”
“Maybe that’s something that can change.” In fact, if Tucker had anything to say about it, it was something he would make damn sure happened.
Yeah, his uncle had years of experience, but if things were going to change for the better, this was something that needed to happen.
Luke looked confused. “You know some way to cut chore time in half? Or some way to add hours to the day?”
“I know a perfectly simple way to cut your work hours,” Tucker said dryly. He paused, took a sip of his coffee and made an appreciative noise. “Damn. That’s good.”