His sister twisted a dish towel in her hands. “Well, it’s been over a decade, but I finally paid you back for interrupting my first kiss with Vaughn.” Both he and Jasmine drew up short at the mention of her ex’s name, but River waved the towel at them. “Don’t look at me like that. I can say his name out loud, can’t I? Anyway, nothing can ruin my mood tonight. I get to have dinner with my two favorite people. Even though they were getting ready to make out on my walkway.”
Jasmine turned to him with a raised eyebrow. “See, you get to leave and avoid the jokes. I have to stay and live with them.”
Sarge laughed, but the sound was void of any actual humor. Thankfully, neither Jasmine nor River seemed to notice as they entered the house. Jasmine’s quip had been a nice little reminder that she would be just peachy once he left. No pining on her end. Just his, as always.
Unless he did something about it.
His dark thoughts were obliterated when a tiny blond fairy sprinted across his line of vision, before skidding to a halt and falling with a plop onto her butt. At first, he couldn’t see her face because the tumble had loosened her ponytail and covered her face with hair. Hands covered in paint scrambled to push it out of her eyes. Eyes that locked on him like big blue spotlights. Sarge felt his heart grow about fifteen damn sizes inside his chest…
“Mommy, who’s that man?”
…and then it up and shattered all over the floor like a glass balloon.
River helped her daughter stand. “Remember, Marcy? I told you Uncle Sarge was coming over to eat dinner at our house. Uncle Sarge is Mommy’s brother.”
Her tiny nose wrinkled. “Celia’s brother is little. Why is yours big?”
“Celia is her friend from school,” River explained before kneeling down beside her daughter. “Sarge is much older than Celia’s little brother. Someday her little brother will grow up, too.”
Marcy gave Sarge a once-over. “Can I hold this one in a blanket?”
The two women covered their mouths to hold in laughter, but Sarge had no such problem. He was too fascinated by the miniature version of his sister to consider laughing. When he realized the silence had gone on too long and everyone was staring at him, he shook himself. “I have a thing. A, uh…thing.” He swiped the jewelry case out of his back pocket, held it awkwardly for a few seconds, before holding it out to Marcy.
After looking up at River for permission, Marcy took a few steps closer, snatched the box, and retreated just as fast. He expected a little girl’s prerogative to be to rip off the paper as fast as possible and ask questions later, but she turned it over in her hands, inspecting it like a diamond appraiser. Sarge felt Jasmine watching him and turned to catch her eye, but she snapped her attention back to Marcy before he got a fix. The wrapping paper hit the floor a moment later, and after a small struggle, Marcy pried open the box with River’s help.
Oh Lord. I’m a goner. Marcy beamed up at him through a gap in her wispy strands of straw-colored hair, and regret that he’d missed the first three years of her life smacked him in the face. Had anything he’d done on the road been worth it?
Marcy tried to fit the necklace over her head without unfastening it, grunting when it got stuck above her nose. “You’re better than Celia’s brother, I think.”
When River nudged him in the shoulder, Sarge realized he was smiling like a goofball, but it vanished when he saw tears in his sister’s eyes. “Come on, you necklace-giving jerk.” She sniffed, taking his elbow and leading him out of the entryway. “Dinner’s ready.”
For Sarge, meals were usually unceremonious. Grab a sandwich between recording sessions, stealing a slice of pizza from whoever had taken the trouble to order food. Old News had an unspoken rule that food was a communal entity. Unless it came to James’s ever-present box of Triscuits, then God help the poor soul whose hand breached the opening. Sarge had learned that lesson the hard way.
Dinner with three women—okay, two and a half—was an entirely different affair. They took their time, actually breathing between bites, not even arguing over the last dinner roll. Sarge started to protest when River dumped a third helping of mashed potatoes onto his plate, but stopped himself. The more he ate, the happier his sister seemed to get, so he kept packing it away. Until he saw River and Jasmine exchange a covert glance, their amusement obvious.
“Oh, I see. This is some kind of conspiracy.” He dropped his fork with a clatter onto the plate and collapsed back in the chair. “I guess there are worse ways to go than overdosing on mashed potatoes.”
River burst out laughing. “It wasn’t premeditated, but you just kept going.”
“Who are we to question that kind of dedication?” Jasmine said, smiling into her Diet Coke. “It was like you were competing in a contest against yourself. We hereby declare you the winner.”
“You even got Marcy to sit still for a whole meal.” River nodded at her giggling daughter. “I think she’s in shock.”