Two more hang-ups cycled through.
He flipped the coffeemaker on as the next message picked up. "Daniel? Elaine. Uh, just wanted to let you know I'll be in Charleston on business next week and, uh, thought maybe we could, well, have dinner or something. I'll cook. Well, call me."
An image of auburn-haired Elaine taunted him. Daniel glanced heavenward and barked, "Okay, okay, Big Guy. You've made your point."
He'd actually had a semiserious relationship with Elaine, a chef at a five-star joint. He'd even donned a tie for her once, not that he hesitated in breaking things off six months ago when he'd transferred from California. He'd cited the long-distance-relationship reason, already realizing they wouldn't work out. She'd offered to pack up her ginzu knives and follow him.
Damn, but he felt bad.
Not bad enough to mislead her by letting her food processor back into his life. Like his life wasn't screwed up enough right now anyway. And then he still had to puzzle through whatever had Mary Elise so on edge. Daniel reached on top of the refrigerator for a box of Pop-Tarts.
"Is she a good cook?" Trey's voice drifted from behind him.
Pivoting, Daniel ripped open the pastry box. "Run that by me again?"
His brother stood in the archway, knobby knees showing just below the hem of a Thunderbirds air show T-shirt. Not a hint of bedhead in sight in his dark hair, the kid carried a puffed-chest air and haughty look that would have done their old man proud.
"Is that Elaine lady on the answering machine really a good cook?"
"Yeah, she's a great cook. If you're into stir-fried sprouts and snails." Daniel pulled out a pack of Pop-Tarts and tossed aside the box.
"Actually, I like escargot. Calamari too."
Figures. "Charleston has awesome seafood restaurants. Shrimp trawlers bring stuff in fresh every day."
Trey sniffed, "I've eaten in restaurants around the world. My mom taught us to like anything since we traveled so much. She also said that healthy stuff would help us grow."
The boy's condescending glance ran the length of Daniel as if that inch missing from making him six feet tall might have been added with more squid and fewer Moon Pies.
Daniel laughed. The kid was snotty, but gutsy. Gutsy, he could work with. Trey would need that grit to carry him through the transition.
"No worries, kid." He passed the pack of Pop-Tarts to his brother. "We'll find someone to cook for you between restaurant visits. Even I know a growing boy can't live on Twinkies and Mountain Dew."
Trey offered another of his snooty sniffs and shuffled to the refrigerator while days of messages clicked through in the background. Daniel didn't bother shutting off the speakerphone since nothing classified would come through his home phone. And aside from Hannah's message, he didn't expect anything R-rated on his voice mail this time.
Reaching over his brother's head, Daniel pulled a can of orange juice from way back on the top rack, an unconsumed leftover from one of his flight lunches. "Here, kid, vitamin C."
"My dad left us lots of money, you know, for shopping and stuff."
Daniel mentally counted to ten. "Thanks, but I can afford a few groceries."
His brothers could keep their damned trust fund. He didn't want a penny of his father's money, and he'd told his old man the same when he'd walked out the door to attend the Air Force Academy. Now he could support the boys fine on his own until they turned twenty-one.
If Trey didn't off him first.
Daniel unhooked a coffee mug from under the cabinet. "You feeling okay today?"
There. That sounded vaguely parental. He paused the coffeemaker long enough to pour himself some much-needed java.
"I'm not a baby who can't tell you if I'm sick." Trey nibbled the edge of a Pop-Tart with a skeptical scowl.
"Okay. Okay." He'd let the doc handle that one. While Kathleen had given Trey the all's-fine yesterday, she still wanted both of the boys checked out by a pediatrician. After he shopped for bunk beds. And clothes. And food. Healthy food. Damn.
When the hell was he supposed to go to work? Thank God Mary Elise was with them for a while.
"Mary Elise doesn't want to stay here with us."
Had the kid taken up mind reading? Maybe Trey could figure the woman out. "No sh— Uh, no kidding."