Page 5 of Sweet Surprises

“Of course I’m going to fuss over her,” Mom put in. “She’s Alice Lee’s best friend.”

Allie predictably wrinkled her nose at the use of her full name. She might have been named after Great-aunt Alice Lee, but she had been Allie from the moment she was old enough to state a preference.

“Speaking of fussing over her,” Allie said, narrowing her eyes. “I don’t want any of you guys sniffing around after Charlotte. She’s been through enough this year.”

“What are you talking about?” Tripp scoffed.

“What has she been through?” Zane asked at the same time, his brother’s boisterous voice nearly drowning out the gentle question.

Tripp and Zane were only a year apart in age, and had always been joined at the hip, in spite of their very different personalities.

“You know she had to drop out one semester before graduation to take care of her dad while he was dying,” Allie said.

Tag actually hadn’t known that. It gave him a pang of real sympathy, and he felt sort of bad about calling her a dropout, even if it had only been in his mind.

“And then her slimeball of a boyfriend dumped her,” Allie went on. “She basically had to leave her job because of it, and shetold me that she definitely needs a break from dating, so that’s why I’m saying it again, boys,let her be.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Tripp declared, feigning innocence.

Allie was right to be afraid. If the girl was pretty, Tripp would be flirting with her shamelessly within minutes.

“You knowexactlywhat I’m talking about, Tripp Lawrence,” Allie scolded him. “Tell them, Tag, no funny business.”

“You heard her,” Tag growled at his brothers, inwardly cringing at having been called out for the job instead of being included in the warning himself.

Sure, he hadn’t dated since losing Iris. But that didn’t mean he was dried out or dead inside. He had definitely noticed that gorgeous girl with the Mustang at the gas station this afternoon.

The image of her flashed through his mind, and for a moment, he was standing in front of her again, taking in her innocent eyes and blushing cheeks as she babbled away at him.

Of course, all the babbling in the world couldn’t have begun to distract him from how pretty she was. And she had great taste in cars, too.

But he hadn’t even asked her name, because Tag always put his family first. And that meant setting thoughts of dating aside until his kids were up and running. After all, he was all they had now.

“Oh no,” Chance yelled suddenly.

That was all the warning Tag got before a big bowl of buttered green beans rained down on his lap.

“Oh, buddy,” Tag sighed, crouching to gather the fallen beans and collect them back in the bowl. At least the bowl hadn’t broken. It was one of the nicest ones from his mom’s foray into throwing pottery.

“I’m sorry,” Chance wailed, sounding genuinely ashamed.

“Nice shot, Champ,” Tripp chortled, offering his nephew a high five from across the table. “You nailed him.”

The high five went unanswered as Chance melted into tears.

“You’re okay,” Olivia said quietly to her brother. “Dad knows you didn’t do it on purpose.”

“Of course not,” Tag told him, stopping mid cleanup to reassure the boy.

He wrapped a hand around the tiny upper arm and nuzzled the mop of dark hair that was so much like his own had been at Chance’s age. But the boy was despondent.

Help me, Iris.

But his soft-spoken wife would never help them again. It was up to Tag to lead his family forward from here.

“First of all, Grandma’s bowl is just fine,” he told Chance as cheerfully as he could. “So don’t worry about that.”

“And second of all, you saved me from the green beans,” Tripp added from across the table, his voice a stage whisper, as if he were trying not to let Mom hear him.

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