FOUR
Keith watchedthe fire he’d started lick at the dry wood. There were definite perks to living where he did. He didn’t need to worry about yard maintenance or shoveling out his car if it snowed. When large ticket items like the central AC or the heat died, it was someone else’s responsibility to repair it. One downside, though, he couldn’t crack a cold one and relax outside with a fire like he was doing now. At his place, the best he could do was sit on the small balcony off his living room and watch the cars coming and going from the parking lot below.
Satisfied the fire was good for the moment, he grabbed the beer he’d left on the table as his sister placed a tray containing cups, a carafe of coffee, and a plate of desserts on it.
“Hey, where are the chocolate éclairs? I bought two.” They were his favorite pastry, and neither were on the plate. His sister loved them too, and he wouldn’t put it past her to eat them before anyone else got a chance.
With his preferred dessert not present, he eyed the assortment, which consisted of various types of cannoli, lemon squares, and the seven-layer magic bars he’d picked up. When it came to cannoli, he was picky. If made the traditional way with ricotta cheese, he never touched the things. But earlier, he’d noticed the box from Sugar and Spice, so these were from there. While the bakery sold ones filled with cheese, it used cream for its chocolate ones. And if Keith had a weakness for any single food, it was chocolate, no matter the kind or how it was served.
“If you ate them, you need to go get me more right now,” Keith said, selecting a mini chocolate cannoli for now.
“Relax. Everything didn’t fit on one plate. Maddie’s going to bring out the rest. She got a phone call from her mom.”
“They better be.”
“I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that.” Jen glanced back at the door as she added cream and sugar to her coffee. “You were right. I like Maddie a lot.”
Although Jen had insisted she didn’t need him to come home when the bullshit story about her being arrested as a kid came out, he’d taken a few days off and gone to see her anyway. It hadn’t mattered to him that she had the support of Brett and the Sherbrooke family, as well as their parents. She was his kid sister, and he needed to make sure she was okay. During a late-night talk that involved pints of chocolate ice cream topped with crushed-up double chocolate chip cookies, he’d first used the words “Maddie” and “girlfriend” in the same sentence. Girlfriend wasn’t normally a word in his vocabulary, so he’d expected Jen to be surprised or maybe even accuse him of joking around. Instead, his sister told him it was about time they got together and then explained how she’d known for months that he had it bad for Maddie.
“Mom and Dad are going to love her. Kristen too. Is she coming to Thanksgiving with you?”
Keith hadn’t thought much about the upcoming holiday, and Maddie hadn’t mentioned it. Unfortunately, he’d probably missed more Thanksgivings in the past twelve years than he’d made it to. A perk of leaving active duty and taking the position with Elite Force was the ability to see his family, maybe not for every holiday, but at least most. Assuming an assignment didn’t prevent him from traveling to New England, he’d like to celebrate Thanksgiving with his family and Maddie. She might want to spend it with hers, though.
“We haven’t talked about it, so I don’t know what we’re doing for Thanksgiving yet. But next week we’re going to Maine for the weekend. So we’re going to stop and see Mom and Dad then.” With Jen’s question answered, he bit into the chocolate-cream-filled pastry.
About to take a sip of coffee, his sister paused at his announcement. “Considering it must be at least an eight-hour drive to Maine from here, it’s an odd choice for a weekend getaway.”
“Colby is getting married, and the other night, he asked me to be his best man,” Keith explained as he licked chocolate cream off his thumb. “We’re flying into Providence Friday night and then driving up to Ogunquit.”
“Typical Colby, waiting until the last minute to ask you.”
The guy had been a permanent fixture at their house in high school, so Jen and Kristen had gotten to know him well. And Colby was the king of doing things at the last moment.
“Sorry about that. Mom was chatty tonight.” Maddie handed him an éclair before putting the rest of the desserts on the table. “Why didn’t you ever tell me you were in a band, Keith?”
Considering the intel Jen could’ve divulged about him, the fact he’d played in a band while in high school and college wasn’t the worst.
“Just didn’t think of it.” His days performing seemed like a lifetime ago, and he rarely thought about them.
“I’ve got some videos of you performing, including when you played at the talent show your senior year. And when I get home, I’m going to dig them out and send them to Maddie.”
He’d rather have his sister share videos of him with his old band than ones Mom probably had of him as a baby walking around in a diaper.
“Not before I get a chance to watch them.” Brett selected the other éclair before Keith could get his hands on it and held it up as if to toast him before splitting it and handing half to Jen.
Damn it.
He should’ve ordered only éclairs instead of getting an assortment of desserts. “Share whatever you want. Just remember, I can do the same. And I remember some pretty bad high school yearbook pictures.”
“When was the last time you saw your picture from freshman year?” Jen asked.
Thanks to the varsity football players, it had been his worst school photo ever. And that was saying something.
“Can’t be any worse than mine,” Maddie replied. “I don’t think there is a person alive with a good freshman yearbook picture.”
“You’d be surprised. The varsity athletes, well the boys, used to do what they called freshman cuts on the morning of school pictures. Keith has random sections of his hair shaved off in his picture. Mom was furious when she saw him.”
“High school boys aren’t known for their intelligence.” Maddie nudged him with her elbow. “Did you do it to freshmen when you were an upperclassman?”