“So it was a good opportunity for you and your brother to spend some time together,” Ray yelled back across the aisle and two people.
“Yes.”Amy smiled up at her brother.“We haven’t seen each other in a really long time.”
It was somewhat similar for him and Tish.She’d been home only a couple of times since moving to Los Angeles five years ago and then only for a short visit.And Ray had hardly recognized her.The shy teenager who’d immersed herself in movies to liven up the starkness of life on the farm was now a confident, sophisticated woman.
“I came in a few days early so Doug and I could hang out.”Amy squeezed her brother’s arm.“I’m so excited to have my big brother back.And a new sister.”She smiled at Emily.
“Not quite yet but we’re working on it.”Doug reached across the aisle and grasped his fiancée’s hand.“When it’s right, it’s right.I knew the second I laid eyes on her—” He stopped, looked at his sister and then at Ray.His stone-faced expression altered slightly.
Ray couldn’t tell if it was a frown or an outright glare, but it was definitely negative.He wasn’t sure why.He and Doug had seemed to hit it off and get along well.Had Ray done something to offend—
Amy.Ray looked across Doug to the woman who’d captured his interest at his first glance but couldn’t avoid her older brother’s glare.Obviously Doug didn’t trust Ray to keep his hands and other body parts to himself.Perhaps with good reason.
Nevertheless, Ray continued to talk with Amy across the aisle, both of them leaning forward to talk around Emily and Doug.The engaged couple, sitting back in their seats, carried on their own conversation.Occasionally Doug leaned forward to say something to Ray, but his body language suggested his intent was to physically block Ray’s view of Amy.Or maybe Ray was just being paranoid.The four continued two or three conversations, bobbing their bodies forward and back, until the bus stopped for lunch.
“Where’s the restaurant?”Ray asked, stepping down to the gravel.All he saw was a collection of picnic tables.
“It’s that truck over there.”Emily pointed to a large covered pickup across the parking lot with an awning over a wide-open window.A dozen people waited in line to order.“This is one of the most famous shrimp trucks in Hawaii.”
Shrimp truck.The only food trucks Ray was familiar with sold tacos or ice cream, but he was willing to try something new.After they’d reached the front of the line and gotten their food, he carried his plate of fried shrimp, dipping sauce, and fries back to a table where his sister sat with Courtney, Lisa, and Matt.
“We can make room for you, Ray.”Lisa scooted closer on the bench to her husband, but there was still barely enough room for Ray’s plate, let alone his broad shoulders and hips.
“Plenty of room here,” Emily called out to him from the next table.“Please, join us.”She indicated the empty bench seat across from her and Doug.
Guessing who would soon be sitting on the same bench seat with him, Ray tried to look offhand and casual as he slid across from the engaged couple.“Thanks.”
When Amy walked over with her lunch, she looked pleased to see him there but only smiled and nodded.She slid onto the bench beside him, leaving several inches of space between them.But Ray could still sense the warmth of her body.No, that was crazy.It was just damned hot out here.
“Best shrimp I ever ate.”Amy wiped her mouth with a paper towel.
“Agreed.”Ray’s attention was diverted by a couple of shirtless surfer dudes, tightening their boards to the roof of their Woody wagon.They strode with long steps toward the shrimp truck but slowed as they neared an oil drum garbage can where Tish was depositing her used paper plate.
Ray didn’t like the looks on their faces.He still couldn’t get used to his sister being a knockout.Back in Oklahoma, before she’d replaced her thick glasses with contact lenses, slimmed down, and toned up to an hourglass figure, she’d just been his awkward teenage kid sister.
He extricated himself from the bench and started toward them, puffing out his chest and flexing his arms.But his interference wasn’t needed.With a polite but firm put-down, Tish easily dismissed the horny jerks.
When Ray returned to the table, Doug flashed him an understanding grin.
Yeah, I get it.Ray sent his silent message to the other man.Doug was as protective of his younger sister as Ray was of Tish.The two men had a lot of things in common.Too bad one of them was Amy.
