“Luc, give it here. Let me talk to Maria.”
“Hush, Caity. I’m trying to talk to my sister.”
“Hand it over.”
“No.”
“Give it—”
A crackle, then the radio went dead. Maria could only imagine the argument that her brother and his ex-wife were having across town. Rolling her eyes, she didn’t bother setting the radio back down. Lucas would win. He always did. It was only a matter of time.
“Maria?”
A small smile curved her lips. “Si, Lucas?”
He let go of the radio button long enough to cover half of his sigh. Maria could just make
out the tail end of it—and knew that he meant for her to. After so many years, he gave up on insisting that she speak only English. Didn’t mean that it didn’t bother him whenever she slipped into Italian.
Which only made her do it more. Annoying her big brother no matter how old they got, she reserved that right as the little sister.
“Remember the discussion we had recently in regards to the future of your bed and breakfast?”
“When I said I wanted to reopen Ophelia and then you told me that I would never get to have another outsider stay here so then I patted you on the head and told you that you were adorable?”
She heard a bark of laughter erupt from Caitlin. Lucas’s one-word response was a drawl that let her know that her smart-ass response had hit a nerve: “Precisely.”
“Yes.” Maria bit the inside of her cheek to keep from smiling. He would be able to hear it in her voice. She knew he would. “I seem to recall that.”
“You were right.”
“Excuse me?”
Caitlin’s voice cut in. “Yeah, I heard it, too. Luc said you were right. Savor this moment, Maria. I would.”
“Ignore Caity. She’s actually on her way out.” The sheriff sputtered in the background. Following his own advice, Lucas also ignored her. “I have a guest for Ophelia if you’re willing to take one on.”
Maria gripped her radio tightly. “I’d love to!” she blurted out before Lucas could take it back.
“It’s an outsider—”
She didn’t care. Lucas might think that she judged all outsiders based on one, but she never did. She never would.
“—a woman, named Tessa Sullivan.”
Though she had to admit, she felt even better to hear that the guest would be a woman.
“You don’t have to do this, Maria. I’ll figure something else out if—”
Lucas was giving her an out. No, no, no. She needed this.
“I’ll do it.”
She expected him to try to convince her to change her mind. Ever since they were children, Lucas always accused her of being too impulsive. He would want her to take a minute to think, to be sure, to know that she was really okay with inviting another outsider into her home.
So when he simply said, “Okay. Get a room ready. I’ll be there as soon as possible,” Maria nearly dropped her radio in surprise.
And then Lucas cut the connection. Too stunned to react, she stood in her kitchen for a few minutes thinking about how unlike her brother that whole conversation was.