“Uh-huh.”He picked up the pudding box, recipe side up.“You know, Mags, some folks aren’t meant to be cooks.And I say this with love.”
“Whatever.”She moved around to sit at one of the kitchen chairs.“Cody wanted pudding.”
“You can buy it already made at the store.It comes in handy-dandy individually sized containers—perfect for his lunch box.”He pointed at the pot and the mess on the floor.“I’m thinking that might be the better option.”
She peered down at her bare feet.There were a few dark red spots from where the pudding landed, but, as long as she didn’t touch them, they didn’t hurt.
“What did you do?”Mike came to stand by the chair.“Your feet look like connect-the-dots puzzles.”
She sat back in the chair.“If I tell you, you’ll only tease me some more.”
He sat in the chair beside her.“I can’t help it.If I get to tease you, it means you’re here.Think of it as my way of saying I love you.”
“Or you could justsayyou love me and not tease me?”She smiled at him.“That would be even better.”
“I’ll try.”He sighed then pointed at her feet.“Pudding?Do I want to know how you got pudding burns on your feet?”
“I dropped the whisk.”She frowned at the mess.“And now I need to clean up my mess so Mom doesn’t come home and freak out.”
“Hold on.”He put a hand on her arm.“On the phone.You were talking to that Braden Parker guy?”
She nodded.Thanks to the twin thing, Mike usually had a good idea of what was going on in her head.If he needed extra help, her inability to control her face and tendency to blush over every little thing normally did the trick.Meaning there was no way he’d missed how rattled she was by Braden’s phone call.
“And you made plans with him?”He sighed.“Was that before or after you dropped the whisk?”
He knew her so well.Maybe, if she tried really hard, maybe she could get her face to behave?It was worth a shot.
Mike’s brows slowly rose.“What’s going on with your face?”
“What do you mean?”She pressed her hands to her cheeks.“What’s wrong with my face?”
“You’re making a weird expression.”He frowned.“Yourstomach bothering you?Are you feeling sick?Something’s not right.”
“No.”She glared at him.“I’m trying to control my face so you can’t read my mind.”
He chuckled, shaking his head.“Yeah, don’t do that.It’s not like I won’t figure it out anyway.”He put his hands on his hips.“What are you wanting to hide from me, anyway?That you’re interested in this Braden Parker guy?Now you’re going on a date with him?”
“Is there a reason you sound so irritated when you say ‘this Braden Parker guy’?”If he was going to poke at her, she’d poke right back.It was what siblings did, after all.
“Maybe I don’t like my little sister going on a date with someone I don’t know much about.”He wasn’t laughing or smiling now.“Men can be assholes.”
“Yes, I’m well aware of that fact, Mike.”She leaned close enough to pat his hand.“So you don’t need to worry about me.I admit he’s handsome, okay.But there is no way I’m going to let myself develop feelings or get involved or whatever—not with Braden or anyone else.”
“Did you say ‘let’ yourself?”Mike was all out belly-laughing now.“That’s funny.Since when was falling for someone a choice?”
“We are getting together with our kids.Two single parents hanging out.”She wasn’t amused.“And stop saying it’s a date.It isnota date.”She said this with intent.
“What’s not a date?”Cody came into the kitchen, flung his backpack on the kitchen table and looked back and forth between the two of them.“What’s going on?”
“That Braden Parker guy called your mom.”Mike ignored the warning look she shot him and kept talking.“Your mom is trying to convince herself it’s not a date.”
“Oh.”Cody grinned.“I told you he likes you, Mom.It’sa date.”He headed for the pantry.“What’s for snack?I’m starving.”
Mike mouthed,It’s a date, then said, “I’ll find you something.But don’t ask for pudding.”
Maggie let her brother handle snacks and started cleaning up the kitchen.She didn’t want to burst her brother’s love bubble, but he was wrong.Or, maybe, she was just jaded.But since the day Ned Ralston left her, alone and pregnant, her heart had been under lockdown.Keeping people at a distance was a pretty effective way to prevent forming attachments.She was the one who would decide who she’d let in.And so far those people were Mike, her parents and Cody.They were it.They were essential to her.
And just like that, all the tingles and giddiness and excitement she’d had for Saturday drained away.It was good, too.She’d stopped listening to her heart a long time ago—for the sake of self-preservation.As much as she wanted to convince herself empathy was all she felt for Braden, she knew better.If it was just empathy, would hearing his voice have her breathless and her heart pounding away?No.Better to face the truth now, to shove all that warm and fuzzy, complicated, emotional nonsense deep, deep down, and focus on the friendship she and Braden could have.Being a single parent was hard.Having someone who truly understood that would be a good thing for both of them.The way she saw it, they could both benefit from a good thing.
