I leapt into Jed’s arms, and he caught me in a generous hug. I still hadn’t gotten used to the idea he’d come home for good after being overseas nearly half my life. He’d enlisted in the Army straight out of high school, and I’d only seen him sporadically for more than ten years. After our mother’s death, he had finished his tour in Afghanistan and applied for an honorable discharge. I still felt like a kid cheering my big brother home on leave every time I saw him.
He’d grown his dark curly hair out a little more since the last time I’d been in town and sported a dusting of whiskers across his chin. He grinned through the dust caked on his tanned skin, but then his mouth dropped into a frown.
“Eden’s wedding isn’t this weekend, is it?”
“No, a couple more weeks. I just wanted to spend some time with you all.”
“Darlin’,” he drawled, “I don’t know what kind of fanciness they’ve been teaching you down in Austin, but around here, we sayy’all.”
I swatted his arm and rolled my eyes as we moved farther into the kitchen.
“And what the hell happened to you? You wrestle a pig?” he continued.
“One of Ty Hardy’s horses,” Pop said.
“It’s a long story,” I said in response to Jed’s raised eyebrows. “And not important.”
“Wrestling a horse is not ladylike,” Jed said. “A pig, maybe, but a horse? That’s a bridge too far. “ He filled a glass of water and downed half of it in a gulp before turning piercing blue eyes on me. “What were you doing out at Ty Hardy’s?”
Why didn’t I just say I fell in the driveway at home? It would have been such a simple lie, and would have saved me all kinds of hassle.
“I just wanted to talk to him before Eden’s wedding, make sure he’s got the Best Man stuff covered. And I didn’t want things to be weird between us because of everything that happened with me and Bret.”
Jed looked me over. “How’d that go?”
“Not so hot,” Pop said. “Ty’s got broken ribs now.”
Jed’s mouth dropped open in theatrical indignation. “You injured the wrong brother?”
“Ididn’t do it! It wasn’t my fault.”
Not really. Sixty-forty, at most.
“You are oozing guilt, Junebug.”
Not surprising. Olive branches weren’t supposed to come with a swift kick to the chest.
“You’re still planning on staying until the wedding?” Pop asked, and I nodded. “That vacation time, or working from here?”
“Some of each.”
“Online decorating,” he said, shaking his head. “I don’t get it.”
He’d voiced no such confusion during my five-year stint at the big Austin design firm I’d signed with right out of college. But ever since I’d hired onto internet-only consulting firm Domestic Bliss, my job had become less straightforward. More than once over the last two years, he’d asked me, “How do you decorate through the internet?” I’d never quite succeeded in explaining how my virtual job worked.
The fact that it had been a definite step down on my career ladder didn’t help anything.
“Must be nice,” Jed said. “I’ve got to find myself a plum job where I can work from the comforts of my bed. There’s always the obvious.”
My brother the ladykiller. “The problem there is you’d have to have a skill women actually want.”
He mock-gasped. “That was brutal. As God as my witness, I’ve never left a woman disappointed.”
I snorted. “Never?”
“Granted, it took me a while to get the hang of things in high school. Ever since then, though—”
Pop cleared his throat, obviously not a fan of Jed’s freedom with women. “What about your plans for yourself, June? Have you made any headway there?”
