Marie opened her mouth, but Jane headed her off. “Marie picked out some nice things and she looks really cute in them.” Well, except that studded belt. “Caroline helped her out. I’m not any good at fashio
n stuff or that whole color chart thing. That’s why I wear a lot of black.”
Luc moved to lean his behind into the counter. “I thought it was because you were the Queen of the Damned.”
She glanced into his smiling eyes and frowned. “No, rude guy,” she said and turned her attention back to Marie. “The next time I go get waxed, you should come along. I used to shave, but I’m a wax job convert now. It hurts like hell… ah, I mean the dickens… but it’s worth it.”
“Okay.” Marie smiled at her brother. “Can I keep one of your Visas, Luc?”
“Hell, no.” He crossed his bare feet and folded his arms over his wide chest. “You’ll buy twenty pounds of candy and bad Britney Spears CDs.”
Marie was back to glaring. “That only happened once, and it wasn’t twenty pounds. And I don’t buy bad CDs.”
“Twice. All that sugar is bad for you and Britney Spears is a mind-suck.” Tension strained the air, yet Luc didn’t seem to notice. Either that or he was just good at ignoring it. He straightened and checked on their meal. “Someday, when you still have all your teeth and your brain hasn’t turned to Jell-O because of Britney, you’re going to thank me.”
By the look on Marie’s face, that someday was a looooong way off.
By the time they all sat down at the dinning room table, Marie had pretty much gone mute. Even though Jane had been a teenage girl once, she didn’t recall ever being so moody. Then again, she didn’t have a brother who told her her pants were too tight and her music sucked. Just a father who used to aggravate and creep her out by blaming everything on her “woman’s time.”
Luc sat at the head of the table with Jane and Marie on opposite sides. Three glasses of milk sat beside their plates, even though Jane recalled telling him she didn’t drink milk when he’d asked. No one had served her milk since grade school, she thought as she placed her napkin on her lap and dug into her meal. She’d had men try to force alcohol on her before, but never milk.
Not only had Luc managed to make cooking look good, he made it taste good also. A guy who looked good enough to eat and could cook? If it wasn’t for his Barbie collection, and forcing milk on her, he’d be too good to be true.
“The chicken is wonderful,” Jane complimented him.
“Thanks. The secret is in the orange juice.”
“You make the marinade yourself?”
“Sure, the stuff-”
“Did you know,” Marie interrupted, “that dolphins are the only mammals other than man that have sex for pleasure?”
Luc’s fork stopped in midair and he looked at his sister. Marie was purposely baiting him and Jane was interested to hear his response, to see if he’d freak out and give her the reaction she wanted.
“Where did you hear that?” he asked.
“My biology teacher told me. And a kid in the class went to Disney World and swam with the dolphins, and he says they’re really horny.”
The fork continued to his mouth and he chewed thoughtfully. “I don’t remember learning about horny dolphins in school. We just dissected frogs.” He turned his attention to Jane. “I feel cheated.” Then he took all the wind out of Marie’s sails. “What about you, Jane? Did you get to learn about horny dolphins?”
She shook her head and tried not to smile. “No, but I saw on the Discovery Channel that they found some homosexual monkeys in Africa. So they’re fairly sure some species of monkeys also mate for pleasure.”
Luc’s brows rose up his forehead. “Homosexual monkeys? How did they determine that?”
She laughed and shook her head.
A smile pushed up the corners of his mouth and little lines appeared at the corners of his blue eyes. “Black-rimmed glasses and cow pajamas?”
“Don’t start that again.”
“What?” Marie wanted to know.
Jane returned his smile as she dug into her pasta. “He thinks I have ugly glasses.”
“And pajamas.”
“How do you know what Jane’s pajamas are like?”