Tastes Like Candy

Three

Three

Amarillo, Texas

Candy

"Today?" Jenny exclaimed. "Why didn't you tell me she was coming today?"

He shrugged and shoveled in more breakfast. Sausage and leek quiche with grits and fried ham on the side. If he didn't know better, he'd think Darla was trying to kill them all with hypertension. "You've been busy," he said around a mouthful. "Figured you had more important shit to worry about."

His sister folded her arms and gave him a look of mixed exasperation and disapproval. "Yeah, I've been busy. I'm always going to be busy now."

Jack, making laps around the common room in his father's arms, gave an unhappy squeal to reinforce her point.

"See?" Candy said. "That's exactly why I didn't bother you with this. It's not your problem."

"Derek." If anything, motherhood had made Jen more ferocious. Some of those soft, uncertain edges of her post-Riley mentality had been filed down to precise angles. This was more like the Jenny she'd been growing up; the girl who'd stepped in to replace their deceased mother. If he was honest, it was a refreshing change. His little sister had been a ghost after Riley got done with her. "Since you don't have an old lady, the hostess duty falls on me. And Darla, to some extent," she granted. "Which means if Michelle gets here and the place is a mess, that makes me look bad."

"And image is everything, right?" he challenged, grinning.

Behind her back, Colin rocked Jack and pressed his lips together to keep from smiling.

"Of course not. But the poor thing's coming all the way from London, and terrible shit is happening over there, apparently, and I want her to have a nice room ready when she gets here."

"So go get one ready, then," he returned.

Her eyes bugged and she made a low growling sound in her throat. "Ass."

"Aw come on, now. Make Pup..."

But she was already marching from the room, caddy of cleaning supplies in one hand.

Candy looked over at Colin. "Okay, what the hell was that about?"

Colin's face cycled through a comical sequence of emotions. "It might be my fault."

"She caught you with your hand in someone else's cookie jar?"

"No!" His dark brows slanted down in stern disapproval of the suggestion and Candy wanted to laugh.

"So what then?"

"I..." Colin took a deep breath and patted Jack when he started to squirm. "I bought her a ring."

His bite of quiche hit his stomach like a cannonball. Jenny and Colin were together now. Old man and old lady. Hell, they had a baby together. But there was something in his big brother heart that still cringed every time the two of them took big relationship steps in front of him. That sense of being a bad brother, letting her be grown up and have sex and other things he didn't want to think about.

"You're damn right you bought her a ring," he said, two beats too late. Then... "Wait. That pissed her off? What, was it too small?"

"Jen's not like that," Colin said, still scowling. "No, it..." Uncertainty stole over him, and he glanced down at the baby, one huge tan hand cupped against the back of his tiny head. "She said she's not going to get married again."

The quiche cannonball in his gut did a somersault. "What?"

"That's what I said." Colin sounded grim. "And then I said, 'What, are you gonna have a baby with me and then marry some other guy'?"