Tate harrumphed. “Are we pretending you don’t care that she’s back in Petal?”

He put his hands up defensively. “She’s the one who dumped me. This is strictly professional. You know I’m not looking for anyone right now.” Not after his last girlfriend had gotten through with him and his bank account.

“Oh f**k that f**king woman! That’s what you get for trusting a grown person who wanted people to call her Steffie. I told you she was trouble.” Tate hissed angrily as she looked around to be sure no kids were nearby.

“I thought you were working on your little F-word issue.” He hid a smile. His beautiful, petite sister had a mouth a sailor could envy.

“I am! I was. But she makes me want to say all the really bad words and there aren’t any kids around to hear and so I stumbled a little.” She managed to make her sniff sound indignant, and Nathan only loved his sister more for it.

She shot a glare his way again briefly before turning her attention back to meal prep. “Stephanie needs her butt kicked to Texas and back. But you’re just as dumb. She was a skank, much like the rest of them have been. Which is why Lily dumped you, dumbass.”

“I clearly need to stop making any commitments to women I’m not related to. I’m not cut out for long-term relationships.” He shrugged, wishing he felt what he was saying. But with Lily back in Petal, it seemed a thinner excuse than it had been even a few days before.

The vegetables she was chopping shook a little from the force she was putting into it for a few breaths. “Oh you clearly need to stop making commitments? What commitments would those be? Aside from your lack of commitments to anyone since her, your real problem is that you’ve got appalling taste in women. Other than Lily Travis that is. You ignore all the suitable women you come across to focus on one pretty and totally vicious woman after the next. You can’t commit to that and thank God you don’t.”

“The one time I go for a woman like Lily and look how it turned out. Exactly the way it does with the rest.”

“Do you really expect me to believe you care as little for Lily breaking things off with you as you did when Stephanie did? Really? I call poop on that,” she corrected with an eye toward the dining room.

He squirmed a bit, knowing she saw right through him. “She’s a good person. I’d like to be friends with her again. But the last thing I need is to go sniffing around after anything more than that. She’s back in Petal to help with Chris but what about when he straightens up? She’ll head out to Macon and her old life.”

“You’re lots of things, Nathan, but a quitter isn’t one of them. You’re the smart one in the family. Act like it.” She hmpfed and he laughed.

The only woman he’d ever been able to count on stood right there in that kitchen. Lily had been the glaring exception in what had been his choice of women for romance. He had horrible taste. He was a menace to himself.

“What can I do to help?” He picked up a bowl of green beans.

“You think I’m letting you change the subject, Nathan, but I’m not. Lily is good for you and she’s back. I can’t for the life of me imagine why you’d let her go the second time. You’re pretty, but you’re not dumb. Now, take those beans out and get the garlic bread from the oven. We’ll start dishing up the food for the kids before calling them in.”

He nearly kicked the tile floor and said, “Aww, Tate!” but his pride kept his control.

She took his arm after he’d called the kids in from outside. “All that nameless, faceless f**kbuddy business is beneath you, Nathan. You need a woman who’s worthy of you. Stop dragging the bottom of the barrel and you might find one who won’t screw you over. Lily loved you something fierce. She’s exactly the kind of woman you need. You made a mistake, but I believe you two have been given another chance. Don’t mess it up this time.”

She tiptoed up, kissed his cheek and swatted his behind with a towel as she guided the kids who’d just started to come in the door to their seats.

And he thought about what his world would be like with Lily in it and then realized he didn’t know. He’d certainly changed in the last six years, she would have too.

But it wasn’t an altogether bad thing. He realized he really wanted to find out who they were after all this time.

“Lily, where are the keys to my car?” Pamela wandered into the room.

Lily looked up from the essay she was proofing for her brother. “On the counter. Why? Do you need me to run an errand for you?” There was no way she was letting her mother drive in the state she was in.

“Chris needs to run to a friend’s house. He needs to borrow it.”

She looked at her mother, blinking. “We talked about this.”

“He told me he made it through the whole week without being late once.”

“It’s one week. He hasn’t turned in an assignment in his math class since November. He’s on lockdown, Mom. He’s got a long way to go to keep from failing his entire sophomore year.”

“Nancy thinks you should give him some rewards.”

She looked around the room. “Nancy’s not here. I am. Now, I told him no and you said you’d back me up. Worse, he knows he’s not allowed to have the car.”

“I’m his mother, Lily. It’s my job to take care of him.”

She looked at her mother and held back the scream of frustration roiling in her gut. She wanted to yell, So do it! But it wouldn’t help to get angry. Pamela would retreat and it would only complicate matters with Chris.