Family Ties by Louise Behiel Page A

Memories of being in his arms warmed her cheeks.
    “Huh. I’m going to have to check them out next time he’s over.” Bonnie walked toward the fridge.
    Dina leaned close. “Are you blushing? You are.” Against Andie’s ear she whispered, “You’re going to have to tell me everything, you know.”
    Andie shrugged her off and spoke to Bonnie. “I’m not sure I like the sound of that, young lady.”
    “He won’t catch me, don’t worry.”
    “I’m not sure you can get away with checking out his anatomy without getting caught.”
    “I’ll show you the trick to scoping out a guy without him knowing.”
    “Dina!”
    “I think we should invite him over to dinner again.” Bonnie took the milk from the fridge. “To say thanks for last night.”
    “I’m not sure he’d join us again. His blank kind of glazed look was a good clue he was shell-shocked by the end of the evening.” She scraped the potatoes into a bowl. “I thought he’d have a conniption when Billy ‘accidentally’ dumped his milk on Chloe’s lap.”
    “He didn’t? What a stinker.” Dina’d always appreciated the antics of the kids, in a way only a single woman without children could.
    “A certain young man is getting too big for his britches.”
    “And you love him anyway.”
    “I do.”
    Dina had never had children and a disastrous first marriage had left her a love ‘em and leave ‘em kind of gal.
    “All in all, I thought he did a good job of covering his reaction to the kids’ silliness.”
    “You should have seen the look on his face when Chloe called me from the carousel to take her pee.” Andie chuckled. “His face turned white, Dina. As white as the...” she glanced around, “as the front of the fridge. Then he blushed. It was kind of cute.”
    “So what? Just because the man is most definitely not used to having children around, doesn’t mean he’s not a good candidate. After all, there are not many families as active as yours.”
    “Nor many as loud as Chloe.” Bonnie returned to the conversation.
    “So where were you when all the excitement was happening?”
    Bonnie’s face paled and she blinked a couple of times. “I was at a sleep-over the night before and then Sean picked me up from there and we went for something to eat.”
    “How’s your brother doing?”
    “Fine.” Her brittle voice sounded near breaking. Bonnie cleared her throat. “He’s fine.”
    Without adding anything, she went to the top of the stairs. “Shut off the PlayStation and get washed. Dinner’s almost ready.”
    “In a minute. I’m in the middle of a game.”
    “Fine, just remember if you’re late you don’t get dessert.” She waited for a theatre’s moment. “Andie made chocolate pudding with bananas.”
    Footsteps pounded on the stairs.
    Bonnie stepped out of the way and let the tornado fly by on his way to the bathroom. The expression on her face said it all – she might be growing up much too quickly but when it came to Billy, she was always going to be a big sister.
    The roar of a motor running in the back yard caught Dina’s attention in mid-stride toward the table.
    The ringing cell phone was more important to Bonnie. “Hello.”
    Dina opened the back door and peered toward Gray’s. “Andie. Come have a look.”
    “Hi Maryanne. Did you see the way Tyler watched Belle today?” Cell pressed to her ear, she disappeared down the hall, her voice trailing behind.
    “Look at what?” Andie slid the back door open wider and walked out on the deck.
    Her eyes were savoring a feast. Gray was using some noisy machine to dig and plant posts in his back yard, apparently to begin fencing the pool.
    Oh my. He was working without a shirt.
    Dina waved her hand in front of her face and blew out a breath.
    Her sister had the right idea, although Andie’d never admit it publicly. What was it about a man working up a sweat in the sunshine?
    She turned to check on Jamie, also watching Gray while he worked. “Do you know what