convinced that kind of love is impossible for you?”
Lucy looked down at the onions she was chopping for the couscous. “I don’t know. I guess maybe some of us are programmed differently. We lack the necessary genetic markers that allow us to open our hearts to love.”
“You think you’re predestined to be unhappy like your parents were.”
“I think the odds are good that I would screw up any long-term relationship,” she said flatly.
Abby knew it was a mistake to ask, but she couldn’t resist. “What about Ethan? He has the same genes, the same parental history. Are you saying you don’t think he could ever fall in love?”
“I hope so,” Lucy said, though she didn’t sound entirely convinced. Which wasn’t an answer at all, really.
Abby wanted to press her, but Christopher came back into the room before she could, his arms loaded with all his favorite diecast vehicles. “I brought my digger but I also brought my dump truck and the grader. Do you think Ethan will want to see the grader?”
“I wouldn’t be at all surprised,” Lucy said. “Now why don’t you help us set the table, then you can go in and tell my grandmother that dinner will be ready in a few moments?”
“Okay,” he said happily, and hurried to obey.
* * *
“Here. You sit by me.”
Ethan had to smile at the boy’s peremptory tone. Apparently, he was taking orders now from a little boy.
“Christopher. You’re being bossy again. Remember we talked about how that’s not good manners? When you would like someone to do something, you should always ask them, not tell them they have to do it.”
Christopher gave a sigh that sounded put-upon.
“Ethan, you’re my friend. Would you please sit by me so I can show you my digger and my grader?”
“I would be delighted. Thank you.”
He sat beside the boy and pulled out his napkin, laying it carefully across his lap. He was charmed when Christopher immediately mimicked him.
He spent a few moments admiring the diecast vehicles and remembering his own vast collection when he was this age.
“Have you done anything fun this weekend?” he asked him.
“Yesterday I played with Lucy and Winnie while my mom went to the store and then I went bowling with Lucy and José and Rodrigo.”
He raised an eyebrow at Lucy, who had just come in carrying a platter of olives and other vegetables. If he wasn’t mistaken, she might have blushed a little.
“Did you?”
“It was my first time. I picked a green ball with glitter on it and then Rodrigo and me had ice-cream cones. Vanilla. That’s my favorite.”
“Mine, too.”
“When we came home, I went outside with my mom and we played in the snow. We builded a snowman.”
He could picture it clearly, both of them laughing as they rolled the snow around the yard. He would have liked to have joined them.
“You built that snowman? Nice work! I saw him when I pulled up. He was huge. Bigger than me.”
“And it was our very first time building a snowman, too,” the boy informed him.
“You did an excellent job, both of you.”
“I know.”
“I loved seeing that snowman out my window this morning,” Winnie said. “Thank you for putting him where I can see him the moment I wake up.”
“You’re welcome. My mom said when you look at the snowman, maybe you can remember us after we go back to Arizona.”
“I won’t need a snowman to remember you,” Winnie said, her voice a little emotional.
The boy’s words seemed to cast a pall over the entire meal. Ethan didn’t like to think about it, either, but he also didn’t want the meal his sister and Abby had prepared to go to waste. He carefully changed the subject.
“Explain to me how you’ve been in Thailand for a year, yet the first dish you make when you come home is a chicken tagine from Morocco.”
Lucy looked sheepish. “I love Thai food. I really do. But I was craving chicken tagine and couscous the whole time I was there. This is mostly for my benefit.”
“We’re the lucky ones who get to enjoy it,” Abby said. “This is delicious.”
“Thanks.” Lucy smiled, but Ethan knew his sister well enough to see the shadows in her eyes. She wasn’t her usual cheerful self. Something was wrong. All his protective older brother instincts flared.
What was bothering her? He found it an interesting coincidence that José had been acting like a bear caught in a trap all day, short-tempered and sour, which wasn’t at all like him, either.
“The house