Emily laughed. “Maple was made one-way five or six years ago, Lucas.”
“Yes, I know that now.” He turned to face his sister, studying the changes in her. “You look... great,” he said lamely, shoving his hands in the pockets of his jeans in an awkward gesture that mirrored his discomfort.
She beame
d at him, her face still flushed with excitement. “Thank you. You look exactly the same as I remember you.”
Time had obviously played tricks with Emily’s memory. Lucas was well aware that he bore little resemblance to the skinny twenty-year-old he’d once been.
Emily had just started to speak again when they were suddenly interrupted by a child’s voice. “Daddy! Miss Em—er—Mom and me had hot fudge sundaes for dessert. With whipped cream and cherries on top!”
A snub-nosed boy with flame-red hair wrapped his arms around Wade’s waist. “And we watched Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman . Who’s that?”
Since the question was asked without a pause for breath, it took the adults a beat to catch up.
Emily spoke first. “This is my brother, Lucas McBride. Lucas, this is Clay Davenport.”
Looked as though Lucas’s little sister was about to become a stepmom. Lucas was finding it hard to adjust to so many changes at once. “Nice to meet you, Clay.”
The boy studied him curiously. “You’re her brother?”
“Yes.” Lucas saw no reason to explain that he and Emily shared the same father, but different mothers, making them half siblings.
“She told me she had a brother, but she hasn’t seen you in a long time. Where’ve you been?” the boy asked with the simple directness of childhood.
Lucas felt the corners of his mouth twitch with a slight smile. “Here and there.”
“Does this mean you’re my uncle?”
Lucas was struck by the question. He’d never been anyone’s uncle before. “I suppose I will be, after my sister and your dad are married.”
“Cool. I’m getting a new bike for Christmas.”
That easily, the boy had accepted Lucas’s presence.
Wade chuckled and ruffled his son’s red hair. “Being kinda’ cocky there, aren’t you, boy? You’ve only asked Santa for a new bike. You haven’t actually gotten one, yet.”
Clay didn’t look particularly concerned.
Emily hit the side of her head. “What am I thinking, leaving everyone standing this way? Please, sit down. Can I get you anything? Coffee? Iced tea?”
Lucas didn’t particularly want anything, but he needed a few moments to recover from this unexpectedly enthusiastic reunion. “Iced tea sounds good.”
Wade also asked for tea.
Wade settled onto the sofa and nodded toward the two chairs grouped nearby. “Have a seat.”
It was more of an order than an invitation. Lucas thought it was pretty obvious Wade Davenport wasn’t overjoyed that his future brother-in-law had reappeared.
Lucas couldn’t really blame the guy. Davenport had probably heard talk around town about the infamous Lucas McBride, generally believed to have literally gotten away with murder.
Having little experience making polite conversation with cops—and no experience with future brothers-in-law—Lucas didn’t know quite what to say to fill the taut silence. “I, er, was sort of surprised that Emily recognized me. After all these years, I’d half expected her to have forgotten me.”
“She’s never forgotten you. Never stopped wondering why you left without telling her goodbye.”
“I had my reasons,” Lucas said coolly, keeping in mind that young Clay was watching them curiously.
“I’m sure you did. Just as I’m sure you have a reason for coming back.”