“Hey, big brother.” She hugged him. “I’m fresh out of wine and was hoping you’d bring some.”
Her cat, named Fluff for his white fur-ball appearance, meowed and butted Sly’s leg for attention. He bent down and scratched the tom behind his head. “Hey there, big guy.” Disapproving of the girlish name Dani had stuck the male cat with, he never used it.
The animal purred happily.
Sly sniffed the air. “Do I smell homemade mac-and-cheese?”
Dani nodded. “With ground beef.”
As much as he loved the stuff, he knew what it meant. “Uh-oh—your trademark breakup dish. This can’t be about Cal—you two split up weeks ago. Who’s the bum this time?”
His sister filled two glasses with wine and handed him one. “I wasn’t planning to go into that just yet. I’d rather talk about something else.”
“May as well get it out of the way.” He straddled a chair backward at her little kitchen table. The twenty-pound cat jumped onto his lap.
“All right, we’ll get it out of the way.” Dani plunked into the other chair and raised her glass. “But first, a toast. Here’s to a fun evening together—eventually.”
She had no idea how badly he needed a distraction. He saluted with his glass. “I’ll drink to that.”
When they set their drinks down, his sister sighed and cut right to the chase. “Paul dumped me.”
“I know he took you home that night we played pool at Clancy’s, but I didn’t realize you two were seeing each other.”
“We were.”
“I’m glad to hear he’s out of your life. He was bad news.”
“I didn’t think so.” She picked at the label on the bottle. “I really liked him.”
“I have no idea why. He wasn’t good enough for you.”
“You say that about every guy I date.”
“Because it’s true.”
“Hey, I don’t do that to you.” When he remained silent, she added, “At least I’m out there, trying. You aren’t even dating.”
His errant thoughts wandered to Lana. The baby. He wished to hell that?—
“What’s wrong?” Dani asked.
“Nothing.” He schooled his expression into bland calmness, but his sister appeared unconvinced. Impossible to fool her.
“Nothing I’m ready to talk about. Let me top off that wine.”
She held out her glass. “So, I have to talk about my problems, but you don’t have to share yours? No fair.”
“Too bad.”
“Stubborn man. Fine. How’s the lawsuit going?”
“At the moment, nothing’s happening.”
“Bummer,” she said with sympathy. “Now what?”
He thought about the loan application he had yet to fill out and silently swore. He couldn’t really afford the added debt, especially with Lana pregnant. The one thing he knew with certainty was that he wasn’t going to let her pick up the tab for anything.
Carpenter had to pay up, period.
