Marcel’s truck swings into his usual spot.
My brother jumps down from the truck first. “Hope you’re hungry, Char. He bought like half a cow.”
Marcel grabs two full brown paper bags from the back seat. “He’s exaggerating.” He leans down to kiss my cheek. “Miss me?”
“Always.”
“Barf,” Carter murmurs on his way past us.
“Bring these in and set them on the counter,” Marcel says, shoving the bags in Carter’s arms.
“Yeah, yeah, bossy.”
Heidi’s car shuts off and Murphy goes to help her out.
“I brought chicken!” Heidi shouts.
“Thicken!” Alexa repeats from her car seat.
“What’d you do that for?” Marcel asks.
“We’re always eating your food,” Heidi explains. “I thought I’d be polite and bring some for once.”
“You didn’t have to.” I give her a quick hug. “But thanks.”
She holds up a small brown paper bag. “I brought hot sauce too.”
Murphy groans.
“Fuck.” Marcel clutches his stomach. “You remember that time you made us ‘barbeque chicken’ with—”
“Straight ghost pepper sauce.” Heidi hangs her head in shame. “I felt so bad.”
“I thought I was going to die,” Marcel says.
“I thought my stomach was going to exit my ass,” Murphy adds.
Heidi’s cheeks redden. “I was trying to do something nice. You guys were working all day. And I was really proud of myself for learning how to cook. I knew you liked chicken wings…”
“She bathed about ten pounds of wings in this death-by-Satan’s-tongue pepper sauce,” Murphy explains. “We didn’t want to hurt her feelings, and we were so hungry that we ate it. Even though we were on fire.” He holds out a fist like he’s grasping a cup and mimes gulping it down. “We poured milk, water, soda, anything we could get down our throats. Nothing helped.”
“Oh my God.” Laughter spills out of me until tears leak from the corners of my eyes. “Poor Heidi.”
“Poor Heidi?” Marcel raises his eyebrows in indignation. “What about poor us? We had to fight over one toilet.”
I snort-giggle even harder.
“Took a year before I could even look at chicken wings again,” Murphy says.
Marcel slaps his gut. “I bet it was sooner than that.”
“Whatever.” Murphy pushes his hand away.
Marcel approaches his sister with laughter in his eyes. “Let me see what you brought. Just in case you’ve got instruments of torture in there.”
Heidi huffs and pulls a bottle of light green sauce out. “It’s creamy jalapeño.”
Marcel hooks his arm around her neck without looking at the bottle. “I’m just messing with you, lil’ sis.”