“Rich!”
Lucky snapped around to face his sister. “What?”
“Would you please stop twirling? You’re freaking me out.”
“I’m not twirling.” Whatever the hell twirling meant.
“Yes, you are.” She cupped Lucky’s face between her palms. Her high boot heels put her right at eye to eye. Finally, someone shorter than him! “This is me. No matter how long it’s been, I’m still Char, you’re still Rich.” Her peck on his cheek brought back a thousand memories.
“But so much has changed.”
Her evil grin didn’t bode well for him. “I can still kick your ass.”
One minute he stood upright, the next she had him in a headlock, rubbing her knuckles over his scalp.
“What the…” Bo dropped the suitcase just inside the door. “Lucky? Charlotte? What are you doing?”
Charlotte let Lucky go. “Reliving old times. A day didn’t go by when we didn’t give each other grief as kids.”
“When we weren’t teaming up on Dover.” The fourth Lucklighter kid learned slow that if he picked on one of the older young’uns, the other wasn’t far away.
Charlotte rounded on Lucky. “You still calling him his old childhood nickname?”
Lucky inched to the side and a clear shot at the door. “Old habits die hard… Talladega.” He squeezed past Bo in the doorway, Charlotte hot on his heels.
“You’ll pay dearly for that,Eugene!” Giggling took the heat out of her threat.
He grabbed the back of the couch, swung himself over, hid a flinch when his bad ankle hit the floor, and crouched, ready to haul ass.
Charlotte’s grin matched his own as she paced him on the other side of the couch. She feinted left and back right.
Nope. Not falling for her ruse. Lucky stood his ground midway of his protective not-leather shield.
Charlotte sprung.Wham!“Gotcha!” Lucky and Charlotte tumbled to the floor in fits of laughter.
Bo muttered, “Kids,” and dropped down onto the couch.
Leave it to his sister to take Lucky from tears to laughs in no time flat. She hopped up first and offered her hand. One of her favorite ploys.
“Aww…C’mon.” Charlotte wriggled her fingers. “Don’t you trust me?”
Lucky folded his arms across his chest. “Nope.”
“Then I’ll do it.” Bo hauled Lucky off the floor. “Tell you what. Why don’t I go polish the bike or something and leave you two alone?”
What? “Stay. You don’t have to go.” In Lucky’s excitement of his sister’s visit he’d totally left Bo out.
Bo and Charlotte shared a look. Oh. They must have already talked this out.
“I’ll be out in the garage working on the door opener if you need me.” Bo brushed his lips over Lucky’s. This time Lucky managed not to flinch. As much as he loved Bo’s kisses, hiding their relationship had become a habit he needed to break. It wasn’t like Charlotte hadn’t witnessed him kissing men before, starting with a summer field hand she’d caught him in the hay barn with way back when and used as blackmail to get him to do her chores for a week.
Charlotte sat down and patted the cushion beside her. Lucky eased down, wary for an ambush. Instead she dragged his arm over her shoulder and settled in. “Oh, God, I’ve missed you some kind of fierce.”
Lucky kissed the top of her head. Sometimes words weren’t enough.
She jostled him with her elbow. “Don’t think for a minute you’re gonna shut me out again when this is all over.”
“I won’t.” No. Never again. His own half-truths came back to him. Sure, he hadn’t spoken with her on the phone or talked to her in person because his own failure stared him in the face. But his biggest fear? Asking a question he’d stuffed down inside for so long.
