“Also heard you struck out.”
So he’d been talking to Josh. “A swing and a miss maybe, but I’m still at bat.”
Apparently finished inspecting the stairs, Ryan turned to face him and shoved his hands in his pockets. “I’ll be around a bit. Maybe I’ll get to know her and see if she’ll let me steal a few bases.”
“You take so much as one step toward first base with Paige Sullivan and I’ll break every bone in your body. And I’ll mess up your pretty yuppie clothes while I’m doing it.”
Ryan just laughed at him. “I knew it.”
“Knew what?”
“Forget it. I’m going to go rummage around the kitchen.”
“Like I said, we can head down to the diner and—”
“I don’t want to go into town. I’m tired and I’ve had enough of sitting in a truck. I’ll just make some sandwiches or something.”
Ryan made it as far as the front hallway before Rose came flying down the stairs. Mitch watched her hug his younger brother as though he’d been away at sea rather than in Massachusetts, growing more aggravated by the second.
Of course Rose fussed over Ryan. He hadn’t committed the unforgivable sin of offering a good man some honest work. And Mitch didn’t want Ryan anywhere near Paige. He knew Ryan had only been screwing with him, but his younger brother wasn’t bad looking, he was a nice guy and—unlike the rest of them—he was as steady and solid as a slab of granite. What if Paige was willing to break her no-dating rule for him?
It would be embarrassing, for one thing. Mitch would never live it down. And Ryan wouldn’t just romance Paige and move on. He wasn’t wired that way. Mitch loved women in the same way he loved cheeseburgers and the Die Hard movies and a good football game. Ryan loved in a forever and ever, amen kind of way, and Mitch had never known him to be casual about a woman.
“I made you shepherd’s pie,” Mitch heard Rose tell Ryan, and he followed them toward the kitchen.
“Mitch said you didn’t.”
“Mitch doesn’t know everything. Of course I made you shepherd’s pie. And there’s banana bread, too.”
“I told you I smelled banana bread and you said it was an air freshener,” Mitch said, trying not to sound too pouty.
“I lied,” she said, opening the oven door to show a huge glass casserole dish of shepherd’s pie.
“Is that all for Ryan, or do we get some, too?”
“Of course you can have some,” she snapped. “I’m not twelve.”
Biting down on the variety of smart-ass responses that popped into his head, he started setting the table while Rosie continued to fuss over the golden boy. He was almost done when Josh showed up and rescued Ryan from the maternal smothering. More back slapping and jokes ensued, but Mitch knew there were some tough conversations in their future.
They only made it halfway through the first helping of shepherd’s pie before Ryan turned serious. “Josh, why didn’t you tell us things were getting tough up here?”
“Why didn’t you ask?”
Mitch winced. Under the belligerent tone was a hard truth. They hadn’t asked. They’d lived their lives and run their businesses and just assumed Josh was holding down the fort. “We should have. And we should have come back more often and we didn’t, but we’re here now and—”
“Temporarily.”
“We’re here now and we’ll work together to get the place back on track.”
Josh snorted. “You’ve got some magic fix for the economy and the gas prices? Because that’s what it’s going to take.”
“We’re going to prioritize. Sink some time and money into what needs to be fixed first and slap some bandages on the rest. I was thinking I could ask Chelle, the woman who handles the website for Northern Star Demolition, about revamping the lodge’s site. Maybe boost it on the search engines and build a Facebook page. Get the name out there a little more.”
Ryan was nodding. “People don’t pick up pamphlets at restaurants or rest stops anymore. They pull up the information on their freakin’ phones.”
Mitch waited to see if Josh would contribute, but he was busy stuffing shepherd’s pie into his mouth. Instead of looking encouraged, their youngest brother looked even more sullen. “We’re going to step up, Josh.”
All that got him was a shrug, and Mitch took a big bite of mashed potatoes, hamburger and corn to keep from pushing at Josh. It wouldn’t get him anywhere, and he didn’t want to escalate dinner conversation into a shouting match when Rosie had gone to so much trouble to welcome Ryan home with a nice supper.
Tomorrow they’d start getting truly hands-on, and Josh would come around when he saw that his brothers truly intended to pull some of the weight for a while.
“Are you seeing anybody?” Rosie asked Ryan in an obvious bid to change the subject.
“Nope. I heard the woman that bought the diner is pretty hot, though.”