Ben turns to me.
“You can ask Lina for a milkshake,” I say. “But I don’t want you turning your nose up at dinner when you see something green on your plate.”
“I won’t, Mommy. Bye, Win.” He grins at Win and moves to climb off his lap.
“Uh-oh. Hold up, little man.” Win tugs him back and reaches for a napkin from the napkin holder. “You have ketchup on your ear.” Ben sits still as Win wipes it off.
I shake my head as Win checks for any more he might have missed. “And he wasn’t even eating them.Howdid you get Harry’s ketchup on yourear, of all places?”
“Magic.” Ben giggles and scrambles off Win’s lap, rushing back to his table with Harry, where Lina is waiting. She probably asked him to get my permission before she loads him up with all that sugar.
I nod and mouth “thank you” at her, and she flashes me a grin.
Win and I are fondly smiling at Ben when Sam clears his throat. We turn to look at him.
“So, you’re a cook then?” Sam asks, his entire tone and body language changing. More relaxed. More open. Less hostile and suspicious.
“I am,” Win says, still wary.
“I couldn’t do it,” he says with a shake of his head. “Give me somewhere quiet, dark, and with as few people around as possible. It’s why I love living in my parents' basement.”
I roll my eyes, knowing the opposite is true. He might sleep in his parents’ basement, but he spends the bulk of his time in the small workshop in his dad’s garage or hanging out with his friends and family. Sam ishighlysociable. Still, that doesn’t mean I can’t tease him. “You sound like a serial killer, you knowthat, right? I swear I watched a true crime show about a guy who sounds just like you.”
He tosses a balled-up napkin at me.
I mock-glare at him as it bounces off my shoulder. “Really?”
But secretly, I’m loving the chance to live out my childhood fantasies of having a brother who lightly teased me but still loved me. Being an only child was lonely sometimes. It definitely wouldn’t have been with someone like Sam around.
“Wait until you meet Murph,” Win says, smiling as our teasing chases away his tension from meeting Sam. “He’s the least sociable person I’ve ever known. He’s a good guy, but it takes him a minute to warm up to new people.”
“Well, I’m gonna be sticking around for a few days and working on Nico’s office. He needs shelving and storage something fierce. What’s there to do for fun around here?”
And just like that, I know Sam likes Win.
Sam comes to the house for dinner, and we gather in the kitchen so I can introduce Sam to Joel and Murph.
Within moments of hearing that Sam is Simon’s brother, Murph walks right up to him and says, “Murph Owens. I get why you’re here, what you’re here to do, and why you need to check us out. Rose is safe with us. So is Ben. If she wants to go back to Memphis, then that’s where we’ll go. Just know that she’s my scent match, and I’m not walking away from her, no matter how many threats you’re here to deliver.”
I’m not sure what Sam was expecting when I invited him to dinner after we’d gotten him settled in Lora’s apartment. It couldn’t have been this blunt introduction though.
Sam lowers the hand he had lifted to shake Murph’s. “That was… interesting.”
“I don’t like small talk,” Murph says, crossing his arms. “Figured I’d get to the point, save us all any tiptoeing around. Now you know exactly where I stand. If you have a problem with me, then I’ll know exactly whereyoustand.”
Wincing, I prepare to dive between them in case this turns into a brawl in the middle of our kitchen, potentially knocking all the delicious-smelling food Win set out on the dining table so we can eat family-style. It’s fried chicken, green beans, garlic mashed potatoes, and gravy, and it all smells way too good to wind up on the floor.
Sam looks at me. “Is he always like this?”
“He’s more talkative today.” Joel steps up to him with a smile and an outstretched hand. “Joel Shaw.”
“The firefighter?” Sam asks, shaking his hand.
Joel nods. “That’s me.”
Ben, who was watching a cartoon in the living room during this introduction, rushes into the kitchen and right up to Joel with his usual overexcited greeting. Without missing a beat, Joel scoops him up. “I can keep this rugrat occupied after dinner if you guys need to talk? I can’t promise you won’t step on or sit on Lego in the living room, though, so you might be better off talking it out in the backyard. We put it away. Ben puts it away, but there is always a piece of Lego right where you least expect it. They’re surprisingly painful.”
“No, they’re not,” Ben denies.
