Protecting What's Mine(30)

The only negative undercurrent Mack could pick up on was Luke’s dislike of Linc. And even that felt more like habit.

“What’s with the salad fest, Garrison?” Linc asked from where he crowded Mack on her left. Broad shoulders, beefy thighs.

The host was staring morosely at his plate of vegetables. “Lost a bet,” he groused.

“Five years ago,” Harper interjected at his side. “He’s been putting off the consequences until this week. But he officially used up his last free pass, and now he must pay.” A dimple winked to life in her cheek.

“I’m wasting away, Harp,” Luke complained, but his hand was gentle as it threaded through his wife’s hair.

“You’re probably dropping your cholesterol by twenty points,” she teased, cuddling into his side.

“I can’t believe you’re making me do the whole week,” he said, staring longingly at the chicken on his mother’s plate.

Claire made a show of savoring her forkful. “Aldo, this chicken is fabulous,” she said with a wicked smile. “I’ve never tasted anything so delicious.”

“Mean, Mom. Mean,” Luke complained.

“Mom! Dad called Gram mean,” Robbie, the oldest, teased as he strolled by to refill his plate. He was sixteen, and the adults had been razzing him about a girlfriend and his learner’s permit.

“I heard,” Harper said, reaching a hand out for her son.

“He’s so grounded,” Henry piped up, trailing his big brother to the food.

“Are the kids behaving?” Harper whispered to Robbie.

“Yeah, they’re fine. But Lucia bribed Henry to bring her another brownie.”

“Make it a very small one, please.” Gloria sighed and rolled her eyes.

“You know, if you weren’t such an amazing baker, Lu and I wouldn’t be sugar monsters,” Aldo added.

“I didn’t make the brownies,” Gloria pointed out with a laugh. “Our daughter did.”

“She learned it from watching you,” Aldo insisted, pressing a kiss to the top of Gloria’s head.

“I’m sure Avery will take after you in overhead squats,” she teased, bouncing said daughter on her lap.

“At least I can still eat dessert,” Luke sighed dramatically from the head of the table.

“Well, we could always go double or nothing,” Harper mused.

Luke’s eyes narrowed. “Now what?”

Harper shot a pointed look at Mack and then Linc. “What do you think, Luke? Care to bet against me again?”

He followed her gaze, then winced. “You’re wrong. She’s too smart for him.”

“Care to wager?” Harper said, cocky now.

Luke gave Mack another look and then narrowed his eyes at Linc.

“No.”

“Good, smart man,” she said, patting him on the thigh. “Now eat your veggies.”

He went back to his sad salad.

“Do I want to know what that was about?” Mack asked Gloria.

She grinned. “Luke told Harper she was full of crap when she said Aldo had a crush on me. He said if Aldo and I ever got together he’d go vegetarian.”

“Never doubt your wife’s genius and your best friend’s heart,” Aldo said, holding his plate of chicken under Luke’s nose.

“Luke is lucky I’m the benevolent goddess I am and only sentenced him to a week,” Harper said airily.

“Change of subject! So how’s work going in small-town America, Mack?” Luke asked.

“Quieter than I’m used to,” she said.

“It’s got to be a heck of a change of pace for you,” Joni ventured.

“It is.” Mack nodded. “But I think it’s going to be good for me. I’m still flying shifts with the hospital’s air med team on my days off.”

“Still, it’s a tough transition,” Aldo said.

He and Luke would know.

Both men had made the transition from active combat to quiet home life multiple times. To go from life and death to running errands in the span of a few days was dizzying. It was why Mack was happy to keep the air shifts. One foot in and one foot out.

“The thin blue line,” Linc said.

The adults all nodded, and Mack realized they were all profoundly aware of what first responders and members of the military did to protect their normal, everyday lives. Right now, they were a cop, a fire chief, and three members of the military surrounded by people who loved them. The people whose lives had been forever changed by those career choices, those callings.

They understood, accepted, and appreciated the sacrifices. And for the first time, Mack wondered if there was hope for her after all. If there was a possibility that a Friday night BBQ with friends and family could be in her future.

“You know what sucks?” Luke said. “Hummus.”





15





“And then my father-in-law moved in, so now every Monday night is lasagna night because it’s my mother-in-law’s recipe. For once in my life, I’d just like to have what I want for dinner, you know?”

It was a rhetorical “you know.” Mack had learned from the four previous “you knows” that Ellen, a redheaded, slightly overweight mother of two with borderline blood pressure, had dropped during the first five minutes of her appointment.