Page 43 of Falling for Brody

He ended the call and continued on the street.

"Did your husband have family? Are they nearby?"

She didn't say anything, but he caught sight of her shaking her head in his peripheral vision. "It's part of the reason I wanted this job. It's hours away from them."

They pulled up at the curb in front of the diner and Brody put the rig in park. Before he could get his boots on the asphalt, Sandra was pushing the door open with her shoulder. When she reached the ambulance, she handed the drinks through the window and once Brody handed Rhea her shake, he took the box from Sandra.

She waved at both of them as she headed back inside.

"Talk about customer service. Another reason I'm glad I moved here."

When he put the cup in her hand, he smiled because she had to grab it with both hands. "Heavy."

He grinned and put his own cup down in the drink holder. "Wait before you start. You have more that goes with it."

She smiled at him. "Oh? I get to share some of your fries?"

He laughed out loud. "Of course. I'd never keep anything away from you if you want it." A little bit of a look crossed over her features, but he decided not to worry about it at the moment. "You have something that goes with your shake."

Reaching into the bag, he pulled out a little package and held it out to her.

"Here."

Rhea took it from his hand and he saw the hesitation in her movements.

She drew the package closer and opened the top wider. "What?"

He saw her smile and felt it in his chest.

And other places.

"Did you know..." She reached her hand into the package and pulled out a Nilla wafer. "That it was coming with these?"

He shrugged. "I've never had a banana shake from there, but Sandra always puts those wafers in the banana pudding so I guessed it goes with a banana shake too."

Rhea held onto a wafer with one hand and pulled the top off the top of her cup with the other.

With a spark of mischief in her eyes she scooped the shake up with the wafer and swept it into her mouth.

"Oh, my..." She scooped more up and finished the wafer, chewing with a kind of childish glee that made him smile.

"I bet Chip looks like that when he's eating dessert."

She nodded as she chewed. "He gets," she swallowed, "quite a few mannerisms from me. But I'm not sure if he got them genetically or if he's just copying me."

He smiled back at her. "Sarah is her mom in looks, but so far, her mannerisms seem more like Thomas, but we'll see how she grows and changes over the years."

"And Jack," Rhea agreed. "It'll be interesting to see how things change in both of them." She took out another wafer and delved back into the cup. "Do you think they're planning on having more kids?"

Brody finished another sip of his shake and stopped to think about an answer. He'd never really asked Kay about it.

"It's okay," her words rushed out, "I don't think you should answer. I'm not... I'm not part of the family. Or even Kay's friend, I'm-"

He reached out and took hold of her wrist since her hand was busy with the milkshake cup. "Rhea. It's okay."

Her owlish gaze called him a liar.

He shrugged and took another sip of his shake while he carefully took his hand off of her arm, because he honestly didn't want to let go and that was a whole other problem.

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