"I'll try one next time," she replied.
How was it possible that Brody Murphy was raising such a sweet girl? As I recalled, he'd been a complete hellion by the time I met him. Then again that was when he was eleven, so most of his sweetness had probably worn off by then.
"And you?" I asked Brody.
"I'm eating some of hers."
"Daaaaaad."
He looked down at her. "What? You won't finish it."
"Yeah, but you need to get your own. That's what you always tell me when I try to eat your food."
I chuckled at that. Brody did have a weird quirk about people eating off his plate. As in, he hated it. It was also good to know that he hadn't changed that much.
"He was always like that," I told Jacks. "One time, my brother, J.J., decided he really wanted the pasta your dad ordered when we all went out to this super nice Italian restaurant, so—"
"That's enough of that story," Brody interrupted.
"What?" I asked, trying to arrange my face into the picture of innocence.
"You know what. She's bratty enough as it is. Don't give her any ideas."
"Don't talk about my new friend like that," I retorted and pointed a finger at him. "She likes my favorite ice cream, which automatically makes us besties."
Jacks laughed, the sound light and musical. "He doesn't think I'm a brat," she said to me. "He just likes to pretend that I am."
Seeing Jacks and Brody together made my chest tight. When Brody told me about his ex and how she didn't want motherhood to interfere with her social life, it broke my heart for Jacks. But being around them today, I felt better. Their relationship seemed both loving and fun. It was clear that she was the center of his universe.
I imagined she would miss having a mother around as she got older, but I could see that he would do everything in his power to keep her from feeling the true depth of that absence.
"I'll take that brownie fudge sundae you mentioned with the vanilla hazelnut," Brody said.
I nodded and set to work getting Jacks' order first.
Her eyes lit up when I handed her the cup. "Thanks, Cam!"
"Go ahead and grab us a table. I'll be there in a few minutes."
She was too busy stuffing ice cream in her mouth to speak, so Jacks nodded and walked over to an empty table.
I tried to ignore the way my skin tingled as I set to work making Brody's sundae. I knew he was watching me. When I was younger, it made me uncomfortable because I was certain he was picking me apart in his mind, finding things to comment on.
Now, I wasn't so sure.
I put the finishing touches on his sundae, including a pretty flourish of whipped cream.
"How many cherries?" I asked out of habit. The way he looked at me made my cheeks flush, but I rolled my eyes. "Grow up, Murphy."
He grinned and more than my cheeks heated. How was I going to keep from drooling over him now that I actually liked him as a human being? He was off-limits. Our history was too twisted and fraught with harsh words.
"Three, please."
I topped the sundae with three cherries and handed it to him across the counter.
"How much do I owe you?" he asked.
I shook my head. "On the house. As the father of my new bestie, you don't pay when I'm here."
