“Tragedy of the first order. Basketball? Baseball?” he asked hopefully.
Madeline shook her head. “Soccer.”
“Wow,” Leo said, wincing. “That is the one sport I could care less about. All that running around for a point?” He shook his head. “Okay, how about video games? I have a new game, ‘Hounds of Hell.’ It’s dope, man. You have to kills these giant dogs before they kill you. Come on, let’s play.”
“I don’t know how,” Madeline said quickly.
“You don’t have to know how,” he said. “You’re playing a guy with useless arms.” He grinned crookedly. “The controllers are over there.”
Madeline stood up and collected two controllers and placed one in his lap as he instructed. Leo did a quick little tutorial about how to work the controller as the game booted up. “Remember,” he said. “Kill the hounds. Ready?”
“I guess,” she said uncertainly.
The game started, and the hounds were released from their cages, galloping right at them. “Okay, fire! Fire!” Leo shouted. In a moment of panic, Madeline had to study her controller again, remembering which button was the Fire button. By the time she punched it, the hound had leaped at her.
“Oooh, you’re dead,” Leo said sympathetically, and somehow managed to fire and kill several of the beasts in the next minute. “I’ve never seen anyone die so fast,” he said, impressed. “You know what that means, right?”
“No, what?” Madeline asked.
“A guy with useless arms in a chair beat you.” He laughed gaily.
His laugh was infectious. Madeline grinned at him.
Leo moved his crippled hand from the controller. “So what do you like, Madeline? There has to be something you like.”
“Movies,” she said. “I like movies.”
“Now we’re cooking with grease! What kind? Sci-fi, thriller, dramedies, period films?”
“I lean more toward romantic comedies.”
“A fine genre and one that happens to be my favorite, too,” he said loudly. “Let me guess—you’re a Love Actually kind of girl.”
“Nope,” Madeline said, smiling. “More like a Knocked Up kind of girl.”
“Ack! That was going to be my second guess. Get this, Knocked Up is Luke’s favorite, too.”
Madeline must have looked as surprised as she felt because Leo said, “It’s a little known fact that Luke Kendrick loves a good looooove fest.” He waggled his brows at Madeline.
“You’re kidding me.”
“I would not kid about something as unmanly as that. He also cries at baby and puppy commercials, too. Loves the little buggers.”
Madeline laughed. “I don’t believe you. I don’t think he has time to watch movies.”
“Well maybe not in Denver. But when he comes here, we watch a lot of tearjerkers, believe me.”
“Does he come to Pine River a lot?” she asked.
“Probably a whole lot more than he wants to. I mean, it’s not hard to figure out that Luke is the Kendricks’ go-to guy.”
She nodded. “I can see that.”
“Yep. I’ll let you in on a family secret. Dad and I aren’t the most efficient team in the world. If it weren’t for Luke, we would have either killed each other by now or be living on the streets with our pet monkey. Luke’s always pulling our bacon out of the grease, you know? And the great news is, he’s a good sport about it. I mean, think about it—it took him about six years to finish his architecture degree because he had to keep dropping classes to come home and fix this or that problem. Yep, that’s my brother. He comes home to save the day, then he watches movies with me and plays ‘Hounds of Hell.’ And he’s way better at it than you.”
Madeline smiled. She liked Leo, very much. He had a great personality, and he was a straight shooter, which she appreciated. “He must be good if he’s better than me.”
Leo laughed. “I think I like you, Madeline from Orlando. And in case Luke hasn’t said it to you, he likes you, too.”
“Leo, Madeline, time for dinner!” Patti called, popping her head into the living room.
Luke squeezed around his aunt into the living room. “Okay, genius,” he said to Leo. “Time to strap on the feed bag.” He smiled at Madeline as he stepped up behind Leo’s chair. “He hasn’t told you any wild and unbelievable tales, has he?”
“Not a single one,” she said honestly.
“That’s because I haven’t even begun to talk,” Leo said as Luke took hold of his chair.
“He’s not kidding,” Luke said. “Consider yourself forewarned. We’ll meet you out back.” To Leo, he said, “No hot-rodding, buddy.”
Madeline watched him roll Leo out. She stood up and walked to the collage of pictures that hung on the wall. Yes, it was plain to see that Luke was the cog in this family wheel, trying to right his dad’s mistake, taking care of his brother. He was a good man, Madeline thought, and she felt a yearning unlike any she’d ever felt in her life—for that. For family. For a hero.
TWENTY-SEVEN