Page 18 of Falling for Brody

He nodded. "Okay." He stepped inside. "Thanks."

He walked across the living room and saw the Moms in the kitchen.

"Hey Moms!"

Both Helene and his mom, Louise, turned around to look at him. They both smiled, even though his mom looked a little tired.

"Brody!" "Son..."

He leaned in and gave his Aunt Helene a kiss on her cheek and then wrapped his arms around his mom before giving her another cheek kiss. "I'll wash up and help."

He moved to the sink and washed up.

He heard his Aunt Helene laughing a little. "I can tell you're working in the medical profession."

"Yeah?" Brody looked up over his shoulder, smiling. "How so?"

She nodded her head toward the sink. "You wash your hands like a doctor. Joshua does too, since he's trained from the fire department. Gabriel? He's more spartan about it."

Brody looked askance at her.

"Oh, he does a good job, but he's more utilitarian about it." She tilted her head to the side with a thoughtful look on her face. "Come to think of it. They were like that before they took their jobs. Maybe it's a thing."

Brody shook his head. "Not for me. I was always trying to do things fast to get them over with and onto the next thing. It wasn't until I started training as an EMT that I got the whole thorough isn't thorough enough bug."

Helene nodded in surprise. "Oh? Was that what it was like for you?"

Brody frowned and then he realized that his aunt wasn't talking to him.

He turned to look in the other direction and saw Rhea and Chip coming down the stairs.

Rhea tore her gaze away from him and looked at Helene, smiling. "Hand washing?" She smiled and her cheeks pinked. "Not really. I was always a nervous kid. I washed my hands a lot. I didn't like getting dirty."

Chip looked up at his mom. "Is that why you're always checking behind my ears?"

The room relaxed and Chip moved closer to Brody, waving his hand. "Hey, Brody! Mom and I are staying here tonight!"

"Oh, yeah?" He crouched down a little. "That's cool!"

Chip brightened up like a fluorescent light bulb. "Super cool."

Helene beamed at them both. "Brody, can you help the kids get settled at the table?"

Brody put out his hand and Chip took it with a big grin. "Come on, bud. Let's get you seated."

Brody smiled as Chip almost skipped alongside him. Almost, because he didn't seem to know exactly how to skip, but he was happy while he did it and that was okay.

Better than. The kid was practically beaming.

And damn. It felt good.

He stopped short of the table when he remembered there was Sarah's chair with a booster and Jack's high chair, but what was he going to do for Chip?

"I... I brought his booster in from the car. It works for the table, too."

Rhea was standing beside him, looking at him.

For direction probably.

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