I have no desire to break her heart. No desire at all. But is it already out of my control?
After placing a few sausage links on my plate, along with some bacon, two eggs, and a mountain of toast, I eat with one hand and keep the other planted on Belle’s lap, our hands tangled together.
If we were at a restaurant, I’d have probably let my fingers do some flirting, but Ma will serve me up on the table if there’s any funny business going on between us and, oddly enough, I’m more than happy for her to just hang out with my sisters, who aren’t being their usual pain-in-the-ass selves around her. Me? Sure. But with her, they’re being nice.
As they joke and tease each other like they’ve been friends for decades, Clan Frasier’s females drawing her deeper into the conversation, which is more G-rated now that Ma’s around, I’m hit with a strange truth—she fits in with my family.
Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing, I’m not sure yet, but whatever it is, it puts a smile on my face.
15
CADE
“Why doyou give Kitty such a hard time?”
The question has my brows arching. “You want to talk about my sister? Right now?”
She chuckles, and the soft sound has me grinning even as I tuck her closer to me. Gravity has only just left my dick out in the cold so, Kitty? Definitely not my conversational topic of choice.
“I just wondered,” she murmurs.
“Wonder another time when we’re not both lying in the wet spot.”
With a snort, she buries her face in my throat. “She’s a great sister.”
“She’s a great pain in my ass.”
“She loves you.”
“And I love her.” My lips twitch. “We just give each other shit. It’s what we do.”
“Why do you think she wanted to be a nurse?”
“You mean, aside from hercaringandcompassionatenature?”
She snickers. “She doesn’t have the kind of personality for it, does she?”
“No, but she’s damn good at her job.” I know I sound proud. Hell,I am. “She’s the first and only one of us to go to college.”
“What made her want to take that route?”
“Neev got high on molly when she was in high school. We tried to keep it from Ma at the time because she’d,we’d,” I correct, my voice suddenly thick with the emotions of years past, “just lost Vinny. I think it hit home with her how important nurses are, you know?”
“Yeah, they are. And they get none of the glamorous jobs either.”
“No, they don’t.”
“I can imagine she’s terrifying when she’s working, but I bet she’s the one you want to be at your bedside in a crisis.”
I hum. “Ma got sick last year. Had some issues with her stomach. No one bosses her around. You’ve seen that already—”
“Kitty did?” she inquires.
“Yup. She got her straightened out, told her the new order of how things would work since she was in charge now—”
“Bet Patricialovedthat,” she teases.
“Oh, about as much as you’d expect. She said she got better just to take Little Ms. Dictator off her high horse. But Ma was proud too. We’re a pretty healthy family all things considered, so we never had much of a chance to see her work. Until then.