Page 40 of Long Road Home

Which soured my mood so much that I was the one being quiet and sullen. The only girl I’d ever loved had a crush on my sister’s fiancé. Wasn’t that a kick in the nuts?

“That’s incredible,” Rebecca said, still talking to Toby. “You going to do it?”

“We’ll have to see,” Destiny said, cutting in. “We haven’t talked about it much, but it still shows his talent, even being invited.”

She grinned at her boy.

From across the table, she turned to me and her grin flat-lined. My look most likely matched my mood. All of it still meant they were heading back.

Rebecca pushed the conversation forward and grinned at Cooper. “We should get a basketball hoop at the ranch. We could settle one in between the barns where there’s that cement pad. It’d be the perfect spot, wouldn’t it?”

Cooper took a drink of his beer. “Sounds good to me.”

She looked down at Toby. “That’d be fun, wouldn’t it? And then when my friend’s kids come over, it gives them something else to do too.”

“Yeah. That’d be cool.” He shoved his garlic bread into his mouth and with a mouth full of food asked, “How old are they?”

“Toby—” Destiny whispered. She gestured with her hands for him to close his mouth.

He turned pink and glanced at Cooper who was laughing at him. “Don’t worry about it, man. Sometimes life is too exciting for manners.”

He nodded, still with a mouth full of bread and chewed.

“They’re six and ten. Nathan’s birthday is in the fall and he’ll be eleven,” Rebecca said, answering as if nothing had happened. “I bet Nathan would love to play ball with you.”

“You could get one of those hoops that can be lowered, to make it easier for Oliver.”

There was something about that statement, his willingness to do something good for kids he’d never met that pinched my heart. I wasn’t the only one who noticed because both Rebecca and Destiny were staring at him with soft eyes too.

He was a good kid. It was a small thing, but it spoke volumes.

“I’ll look into those,” Cooper said and set down his silverware. “Damn good dinner, Jordan. If I knew you could actually cook I would have stopped letting Rebecca feed you long before this.”

“I don’t come for the food. I come for the pleasant company I always get from you idiots.”

“Yeah,” Rebecca said, laughing. “The food in my fridge you always pilfer has nothing to do with it.”

She was right. I wouldn’t admit it. I could cook, but with the restaurant at the resort and Rebecca, I had little need.

“It really is very good,” Destiny said. “Thank you.”

“Tillie gave me the recipe,” I said. “It was always your favorite meal with her.”

And I knew that because I’d sat at the table in Tillie’s house for years with Destiny eating it.

The table went silent at the admission, and I couldn’t take it back before anyone heard it. A quick sweep of everyone there told me I’d shoved my foot in my mouth, big time. Not because for once I was being a dick, but because I was admitting exactly how much I remembered over the years.

“Anyway,” I said, shoving my plate away. “I figured a family dinner tonight should have included her.”

“Thank you,” Destiny said, her eyes were wet with unshed tears. To my side, Rebecca sniffed, and I knew if I looked her eyes would be the same.

Still, I didn’t break my gaze with Des. “Anytime.”

I said it so softly I didn’t know if it reached her ears.

Cooper cleared his throat and grabbed my attention. “How about us guys go take a swing around the course and we leave the chicks to the cleaning.”

“Sounds like a good plan to me.”

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