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Ry chuckled to himself. He had no idea what they were talking about, but with those two, it was always something.
“Meg’s in denial,” his sister said, ignoring Meg’s glare. “She’s mad because I know her guy is perfect for her even if she won’t admit it.”
Meg had a boyfriend? Well, good for her. And sympathy for the guy. That dude’s hope of peace and tranquillity were behind him. “Who’s the lucky guy?” he said, vaguely aware that he didn’t really want to know.
Meg jutted one hip to the side and planted a defiant fist on it. “There is no ‘guy’! And your sister would be wise to stick to pediatrics, which we hope she knows something about.”
“No guy? Or nobody inside?” He nodded toward the house, setting the toy on his hat bobbing, which made Beth smile even if Meg still had fire in her eyes. Her very pretty eyes. Gorgeous, really.
“I mean nobody anywhere,” she said emphatically, her feathers bouncing.
He didn’t know what she was so upset about, but egging her on was his idea of fun. “No date for New Year’s Eve? Aw, that’s too bad,” he drawled, playing the pity card as a payback for the trip she’d taken him on down memory lane. He cocked his head sympathetically, feeling the springy toy slide.
Beth mimicked the move, setting her hat in action.
Meg caught their act and laughed. “So, where’s your date, Big Talker?” she sassed.
“Who needs a date?” he said, enjoying himself more than he would have imagined. “I’m out here talking to my two favorite girls and playing with my hat.”
“Ry, don’t let her change the subject,” Beth said, laughing. “Make her tell you about her guy.”
Meg glared at Beth, her lips sealed.
“Meg, are you holding out on me?” he challenged. “We’ve never had secrets. Tell me about your fella.”
“There is no ‘guy’!” She threw up her hands. “What part of that do you not understand?”
“Oh, no,” he said in mock worry. “Please tell me you’re not in some secret relationship?” He knew better. Meg couldn’t keep a secret if her life depended on it. “He’s probably married. Never agree to a secret relationship with a man, Meggy.”
“Meg! And it’s nothing like that!”
He didn’t believe it was. “Let me meet the guy. I’ll get the truth.”
She headed for the house, her feathers bouncing. “I’m leaving. Happy New Year to you both.”
Beth caught up with her, took her arm and said, “That was a fast half hour, wasn’t it? At thirty minutes to midnight, we thought we’d spend the rest of the year alone.”
Meggy made a little choking sound.
“Are you okay?” he asked, catching up to them. It was second nature for him to check out anything that didn’t sound healthy.
“I’m fine,” she said, practically spitting her answer as she rushed to the house, leaving them behind.
“Ready to face the music?” his sister asked, suddenly serious.
“Ready as I’ll ever be.”
“Don’t expect too much from Mom, Ry.”
“Don’t worry, sis. She can throw me out, but I’ll still be glad I came.”
“I’ll be close by,” she promised.
It was good, having her here to shore up his courage.
Inside the house, the sight of his uptight family decked out in their headgear made him laugh out loud. Most of the guests were his parents’ colleagues, people who held lives in their hands every day. No one would know it to see them choosing noisemakers and trying their blow-out horns. He’d come inside at just the right moment. Amid this pandemonium, he went unnoticed.
He spotted his brother, Trey, with his arm around a woman who was probably his new wife. The two of them looked as if they could barely tolerate the bedlam. If Ry knew Trey, his brother would rather be in surgery—or having it.
There was a drumroll going, and the trumpet guy tooted a fancy fanfare. Everyone started yelling the countdown to midnight. “Five-four-three-two-one,” and the band struck up “Auld Lang Syne.”
And then, as if a neon sign blinked “Hug now,” everyone was embracing. Why his undemonstrative family needed the license of this one moment a year to express feelings, Ry would never understand. It was enough to enjoy it.
He headed first for his mother. The way they’d left it, her greeting would gauge whether he was welcome here.
“Happy New Year, Mom,” he said, taking her in his arms. She felt too thin, but that wasn’t new. What was new was the startled look of love in her eyes. Whatever he’d done to merit that, he’d like to know so he could do it again.
“Ry,” she said, patting his face delightedly. “You’ve come home! I’m so happy.”
All the love he’d felt as a little boy for his mother filled his heart. “I’m happy to see you, too, Mom,” he said, wishing this moment could last.
She pulled his head down for a kiss on his forehead, and his knees almost buckled. When had she ever done that?
“Thank you, Mom,” he managed to say. And then she was opening her arms to a guest he didn’t know.
He went through the motions, hugging people he knew and people he didn’t, more aware of the intense emotion he still felt than anything else. He hugged Aunt Jackie who didn’t seem to recognize him, but gave him a juicy kiss on the cheek. Uncle Al shouted, “Happy New Year!” in his ear as if he were deaf, and a flamboyant blonde kissed him as if they were lovers.
Rubbing his lips to remove the blonde’s lipstick, he spotted Meg making the rounds as he was and instantly felt much better. She was easy to keep track of, with the blue plumes of her party hat waving in the air. Man, she looked pretty. Her silvery-white dress showed off a figure just right for her size.
“Give us a kiss, Ry,” Aunt Claire commanded, pulling him down to her level.
At least she recognized him. He aimed a kiss at her cheek, but she turned her head and planted a wet one on his lips. Oh, man! Aunt Claire was a sweetheart, but did she have to do that?
She moved on to another victim, and he looked for a non-relative babe. Now that Aunt Claire had shown him how to kiss, he ought to practice.
He felt a touch on his arm. Behind him, Meg stood with a Happy New Year smile.
“Happy New Year, Li’l Sis.” He took her in his arms for a regulation New Year’s kiss, just a little smooch like he’d given to Aunt Jackie and Aunt Claire.
But the touch of Meg’s soft lips on his sent awareness shooting to his brain. Again, he kissed her softly, tentatively, the way a guy did in a first kiss.
And that’s what it was, not a New Year’s kiss, but a genuine first kiss, the kind that had to be soft and slow and enjoyed in heart-racing pleasure. Her arms crept around his neck, and the feel of Meggy in his arms…
Whoa! Meggy in his arms? Shame on him. He broke the kiss, wondering how he could explain this away.
But he might not have to bother. She looked up at him with an expression that just about knocked him out. Big, blue and confused, her eyes said she’d felt the same jolt he had and didn’t know what to do with it, either.
He owed it to both of them to find out. He lowered his head, eager to touch her lips again, to feel that same sweet awakening. On an unimportant level, he noticed that her dress sure was scratchy.
He heard the sound of fireworks outside and knew that people passed by them on their way to the deck. From the sound of it, there was a happy celebration with exploding Roman candles and crackling sound. But right here was all the celebration his heart could stand. This was exactly where he wanted to be and what he wanted to do, getting to know Meggy in a brand-new way…her lips and his, adjusting to this new touch, these new feelings.
“Hey, kids!” Uncle Charlie yelled, tapping Ry’s shoulder. “You’re missing the fireworks.”
Not really. Not from Ry’s point of view.
Meg slid her hands down his arms and pulled away, her eyes filled with awe. “Whoa!” She shook her head as if she needed the world to stop spinning.
He knew exactly how she felt. That was the best kiss of his life, which made it absolutely terrific. He could still feel the buzz.
“I can’t believe it,” she said softly.
Neither could he. His first resolution of the new year was to stop calling her Li’l Sis. She would never be that or Meggy again.
“Ry, you weren’t kidding. You always said you were ‘the greatest kisser in the world.’”
He couldn’t have said that.
“‘Practice makes perfect.’ That’s what you said, and, boy, were you right.”
Wait a minute. This was not the reaction of a woman who’d felt the earth move the way he had. The feeling couldn’t have been all that one-sided. It didn’t happen that way, not in his experience.
“I’ve always wondered about your technique,” she said, her eyes laughing at him.
Laughing at him! Another zap in the heart. Maintain, he told himself. He couldn’t let her see that she’d put a knot in his ego and a bruise on his heart.
“I am truly impressed,” she said, her eyes big. “You weren’t exaggerating a bit when you said you were the greatest.”
No way would he let her get by with this. “You know, of all my students, you’ve achieved what no other has.”
“What’s that?” Her eyes sparkled as if she enjoyed this more than the kiss.
Shame on her for that. He had to scramble if he were going to save his pride. What could he say? The truth— that’s what a guy used when he came up with nothing.
“Your kissing was so good,” he said, making it sound as if he were congratulating a little girl for coloring within the lines, “that you deserve a medal, or maybe one of those certificates of accomplishment.”
Horror filled her eyes.
Man, he just couldn’t catch a break. “Or we can forget the certificate,” he said. Anything to change that look…that went right past him. Ry turned and found his brother standing behind him.
“You think she wants a medal?” Trey let there be no mistake that he’d been eavesdropping.
Hot resentment coursed through Ry’s body. Trey was still the sniveling snot he’d been as a kid. That hadn’t changed. Was this what Ry had come home for?
Chapter Three
“Don’t you have anything better to do than listen in on a private conversation?” Ry asked, forcing himself to relax and smile when he’d rather gut-punch his brother than breathe.
“Sorry, little brother,” Trey said, his sickening, self-righteous grin showing he wasn’t sorry at all. “I was just waiting my turn to introduce my beautiful bride.”
The petite brunette standing by Trey’s side was pretty in a classy, uptight way. With her dark hair pulled back in a severe bun, she had prissy girl written all over her. Ry wouldn’t have given her a second look, but she was probably perfect for Trey.
She wore a tiny black hat with a tiny mesh veil that made her look like a mobster’s sexy mourner. Her dress, pulled snug over her belly, proclaimed her to be in her last trimester. Ry hoped she wouldn’t mind raising the kids alone. Trey couldn’t stand little kids.
“Izzie,” his brother said, “this is the prodigal son— my brother, Rylander Hamilton Brennan.”
Ry didn’t mind the prodigal bit, but he hated being called Rylander Hamilton. That name belonged to Mom’s coldhearted father.
“Just ‘Ry’ will do. It’s good to meet you, Izzie,” he said, stepping forward to greet his new sister-in-law with a brotherly hug. Any woman named Izzie had to be cool.
But she checked his move, extending her hand for a handshake. “I prefer ‘Isabel,’” she said, glancing uneasily at Trey. “Only Trey calls me ‘Izzie.’”
“‘Isabel’ it is.” The name thing again. He supposed he could understand that, even though he did wonder what she seemed so nervous about. The way Trey held her close to his side suggested Trey’s old nasty jealousy, but surely Trey wouldn’t think Ry would hit on his wife—or any man’s wife.
“We missed you at our wedding,” she said, glancing at her husband, as if she sought approval. “You should have been there, Ry.”
Was there anything more endearing than a good scolding? “You write a great thank-you note, Isabel,” he said to remind her that he wasn’t totally bad.
The sterling silver coffee service had cost him a month’s salary, not something he could afford on his paramedic pay. It had been worth dipping into his trust fund to do something right, which he could, thanks to Beth’s suggestion that they wanted something as useless as a silver coffee service.
“Ry, I hope you won’t mind that we exchanged your gift for the service Izzie really wanted,” Trey said, as only he could. “I didn’t mind making up the difference in cost.”
By reflex, Ry slid into the laid-back mode he’d perfected as a child when he wanted to take his brother out. “Mind? Me? I’d have returned it myself. But then, I’d have used the money on something useful, like a down payment on a matching motorcycle for my bride.”
Trey made that particular sound of disgust that used to make Ry’s day. It still did.
“Tell me that you don’t still ride a motorcycle,” his long-suffering brother implored.
Excellent. It felt just as good as ever to make his brother crazy.
“As a paramedic,” Trey continued, “you’ve surely had to scrape motorcyclists off the pavement enough times to know better.”
Of course he had. They didn’t call them “donor-cycles” in the ER for nothing. Ry hadn’t ridden one in years. “But there’s nothing like the freedom you feel, weaving in and out of traffic, on two wheels.”
“Ry?” His father’s voice. Ry turned at the sound.
“Happy New Year, Dad.” He reached out to shake his father’s hand. It was show time. This is what he’d come home for. God willing, he planned to be a good son.
If his father were surprised to see Ry, he didn’t show it. He took Ry’s hand, holding the grip seconds longer than politeness required. That was a good sign.
“You’re looking well, Dad,” Ry said in good-manner mode, though his father didn’t look well at all. Ry wasn’t a doctor like half of the crowd here at the party, but he recognized a stressed-out man when he saw one.
“Have you seen your mother?” his father said, his eyes sweeping the room as if he were looking for her.
“Yes, I got my first New Year’s hug from her.”
The relief on his father’s face was pitifully real. “Good, that’s good,” he said, patting Ry on the shoulder.
His father’s touch was so unexpectedly moving that emotion tightened Ry’s chest. “I don’t want to take you away from your guests, Dad. Maybe we can get together tomorrow and talk?”
