Didn’t have to turn to know when to duck this time. Little sister was also predictable.
“I’m calling Momma.”
He was thinking eggs weren’t all that great of an idea for breakfast. Likely to wear more of ’em than he’d get in the pan, the way Louisa looked. But he had all the fixings for biscuits and gravy and grits, and he had a mighty big appetite this morning.
The bedroom door clicked open.
He stuck his head back out of the fridge. Louisa watched the kitchen entrance with undisguised interest.
Considering he’d made sure she’d never met any of his girlfriends, he couldn’t blame her. And he had to check his grin knowing what she was about to see.
But he was more curious how quick Anna Grace would put it together.
Pretty fast, turned out. She took two blinks at Louisa, then raised a brow at him. “Kissing cousins? Kinky.” She swatted his butt. “Quit rednecking me.”
“Didn’t mind last night,” he murmured.
She blew out a girly huff.
Louisa, for once, was speechless. Anna walked up to her, crazy hair, big purple bruise spilling over her temple and all, and stuck her hand out. “Hi. I’m Anna.”
“She’s aYankee? Does Momma know about this?” Louisa looked her up and down. “You bake biscuits? ’Cuz Jacksondon’t need any more of those.”
“Don’t pay Louisa no mind,” Jackson told Anna. “She thinks being old enough to vote means she doesn’t have to use her manners anymore.”
Something flashed across Anna’s face, but those worry marks on her forehead faded as quick as they’d appeared.
Louisa glared at him, then gestured to her own temple. “He do that to you?”
Before he could defend himself, there Anna Grace went being fourteen feet tall again. “I’m sorry, have youmetyour brother?”
“Thought so, but he told me y’all got married yesterday, and you better believemybrother ain’t the marrying kind.”
“He does like a good joke though, doesn’t he?”
He hid his grin in the freezer while he went digging for Miss Dolly’s mailman’s girlfriend’s niece’s biscuits to toss in the oven. He came home thinking he’d learn something about his family. Hadn’t struck him they might learn a thing or two about him too.
Louisa was still eyeing Anna. “You bake him any biscuits?”
“I don’t like to talk about my biscuits,” Anna said as though she were sharing a secret.
Jackson wasn’t so keen on the two of them having any secrets. He pulled a gallon of milk and some sausage out of the fridge. “Louisa. Grab me a skillet down there.”
Her eyes rolled all the way up to her forehead, but she bent down and yanked the cabinet open.
Then shrieked like a girl.
Anna leaned over and peeked in, then gave Jackson another girly look. “And you wantedmeto make breakfast?” She pulled out his armadillo. “How you doing, Enrique? Kinda dark in there, isn’t it?” She checked to make sure the label she’d slapped on him with ENRIQUE in all caps was still on his bottom, then plopped him up on the counter. “So much better for all of us, isn’t it?”
“She named the armadillo?” Louisa hissed.
He grabbed his own skillet and set about makingbreakfast. “Yep.”
“She name anything else?”
He worked up an old look of Daddy’s and stared at her. She shrunk a couple inches. He gestured to the pantry. “Momma teach you to make grits?”
“What can I do?” Anna asked.
