“Do you have any tea made up?”
She pulled out a heavy glass pitcher half-filled with amber liquid. “I always have tea. I’m hooked on it, year-round.”
“That sounds good.” Watching her pour tea over two glasses of ice, Lucas could smell the chicken and cobbler waiting on the table. His mouth almost watered in anticipation. “It’s great to have a real Southern meal again.”
“It would be even better in the summertime, if these veggies were fresh-picked and we had a tomato right off the vine to slice on the side, but I figured this would do in a pinch. It came from Cora’s Café—still one of the best eating places in town.”
“It looks great.” He began to fill his plate.
“You said it’s good to have a Southern meal again. Where have you been living all this time, Lucas?”
“California, mostly. Fried okra’s a bit hard to come by there.”
“California.” She looked a bit dazzled as she dipped her fork into her potatoes. “Do you like it there?”
He shrugged. “It’s okay.”
“What do you do? For a living, I mean.”
He kept his eyes on his plate. “I’m in computers.”
“Computers? You’re a programmer?”
“I’ve developed some software.”
“Really? That sounds interesting. As I recall, you were fascinated with early video game technology. Your old Atari game is still around here somewhere—in the attic, I think. Do you remember teaching me to play Pac-Man and Space Invaders?”
“I remember.” She’d sat in his lap in front of the old cabinet TV, her little hand clutching the joystick, her young brow furrowed in concentration.
“Did you miss me, Lucas?” A little girl’s wistfulness echoed in her voice.
“Very much.” The simple answer felt so inadequate to describe how much Lucas had missed his little sister, but it seemed to satisfy her.
“I’m glad.” She nudged the box of chicken closer to him. “Have another piece. I bought plenty.”
He didn’t need to be urged twice.
Not visibly discouraged by Lucas?
?s reticence, Emily returned to her questioning, eager to learn more about him. “You never married?”
“No.”
“Do you have a girlfriend?”
“No.”
“Are you gay?”
Appalled, Lucas choked and looked quickly up at her. “God, no.”
She giggled. “Well, that got a reaction out of you, anyway.”
She looked so much like the mischievous little girl he remembered that Lucas’s chest tightened. “Brat.”
Her blue eyes warmed, softened. Her smile turned misty. “That’s what you always used to call me when I teased you.”
“It still fits.”