"Who said I was going to die?" Hector asked. This was why he didn't want anyone informed, though of course the
military had their own rules.
"Grandma." Josh said. Vanessa was grandma, and Hector couldn't argue with that, since his real grandma had died
so long before. "Said you got your fool self all shot up and was going to die." Hector shook his head.
"I wasn't going to die." Hector said. "I had very good doctors." No sense passing his feelings on the medical
community onto the next generation. "They took good care of me."
"Did you kill the bad men?" Marcella asked with wide eyes and Hector looked at his sister. What, exactly, he
wondered, did these kids hear about him when he wasn't here?
"You know what I did kill? Mosquitoes. Bigger than your head." He clapped his hands together. "Squish."
Josh's eyes went wide and he giggled. But there was a moment, in his eyes, when he wrestled with whether to push
his original question or not. He was smart enough to know when someone was trying to distract him.
"Really?!" Marcella asked, her own eyes huge and easily distracted.
"Oh yes." Andi agreed. "Africa has HUGE bugs. The grasshoppers are this long" she held out her hands and wasn't
exaggerating. "Where I grew up, we used to eat them for snacks."
"Eeew." Was the response from the children and Andi decided it was a worthwhile sacrifice if it changed the subject,
even if the stories that Hector's girlfriend ate bugs were probably going to circulate.
She did think Josh was old enough that Hector should talk to him at some point though...
"In Africa?" Josh asked, having caught that comment when Andi had been talking to his mom earlier.
"Yes. The tribe I lived with used to catch them." Andi's fingers snapped. "Just like that. Then they were put them on a
stick and cook them over the fire. Maybe, if you two keep eating all the food, your mother will have to start cooking
grasshoppers for you too."
Two sets of wide eyes went from her to their mother and then back.
"They taste a bit like peanuts." Andi assured them.
Hector got quiet as he exchanged glances with his sister, pouring the formerly hidden tabasco sauce on the
pancakes out of habit and eating them as he listened to the children and Andi talk about whether or not one could or
should eat bugs.
Cassie just stared into her coffee. Their father would be at the christening. Hopefully being in a church would put both
men on their best behavior. It was bad enough that she hadn't been as careful as she thought she'd been at
censoring what her children did and didn't hear about their uncle.
"Did you ever eat bugs?" Josh asked his uncle, snapping Hector back to the present.
"Nope. MREs, which probably taste worse."
Andi knew from experience when there was anger in a family the children often got pulled into it. She just wished it
didn't happen that way. Cassie's children were wonderful and they had soft hearts. But soft hearts meant that
whatever got planted usually stayed there. Giving Hector's shoulder a soft rub she shifted over and started clearing
the children's dishes away since they were done. And much more interested in the basics of army life that Hector was
telling them about than in getting another helping. The way they ate she wondered how large Cassie's food bill must
be.
She finally found the storage bins and it was obvious a man lived here because she had to put the rest of the batter
into an old Cool Whip container to store it in the refrigerator. Which she looked at the interior of with a mild sense of
despair. She was going shopping for food. As soon as possible. Even America had to have fresh vegetables and
fruits somewhere.
"It’s like a man filled this." She muttered to herself before shutting the door and starting washing the dishes. More
than content to simply listen to the sound of Hector and the children as the conversation moved off into dinosaur
territory.
"Is that why you use the sauce on everything?" Josh asked. Cassie laughed and kissed her son.
"No, its because Grandma can't cook. Never could, and that was Uncle Hector's defense." She said with a laugh.
"The rest of them just choked it down so as not to insult her." Hector said with a grin. He only referred to Vanessa as
'her' or 'she' or if he was in a really bad mood, 'that woman.' He looked over at Andi. "Those are staples. Coffee,
tabasco sauce, ingredients for gumbo, bread, peanut butter and cereal."
She gave him one of her private smiles from where she was standing at the sink. The kind of smile that only Hector
ever got. This one was indulgent and teasing and softly warm. That last because it was so easy for her to see herself
standing exactly this way with him exactly as he was ten years from now. And she knew she had already lost too much
perspective to pretend that wasn't exactly what she wanted. She just wasn't going to mention it yet.
"I'm torn between wanting to blame your food selections on you being American or simply you being male." She told
him. "I am going shopping for food eventually" she warned him. "And I am going to coax you out of hiding behind that
horrid sauce of yours when it comes to meals too. The children and I are very good cooks." She set a plate aside to
dry and her eyes danced when she looked back at him across her shoulder. "Especially when we aren't being
distracted."
"It's because he's male. I assure you, I do the shopping in my house and that is NOT what I consider staples. And if
he had called ME instead of whoever, I would have added to whatever list he gave the person." Cassie said.
"I called Tommy." Hector said, mollifying Cassie. At least he had called Tommy before, when she wasn't available.
Like the time she was in labor.
"Case in point. Mr TV Dinner king himself." Cassie said.
"Okay, but if we go shopping, we'll have to get dressed." Hector pointed out.
"Because Uncle Hector shouldn't go outside without a shirt on." Marcella piped up as the children giggled.
The quiet laughter spilled out of her and Andi moved over to scoop the little girl up out of the chair and spin her in
her arms before leaning down, still holding her, to press a kiss to Hector's lips.
"No." She agreed straightening up and tapping the tip of Marcella's nose. "He truly shouldn't. It’s a danger to women
everywhere."
Josh wrinkled his nose.
"Because he's 'rather good looking'?" He guessed though that seemed a girly kind of thing to say. But he got a kiss
on the top of his head for his assessment of the situation and since he kind of liked the way she talked and she
smelled good he supposed that was okay.
"Precisely, wise and clever boy." She told him factually and he beamed over at his uncle. "And rather good looking
men should be careful. They make women swoon." Marcella got tipped so that she was looking at the world, and her
brother, upside down and she giggled as Andi righted her.
"Swoon again!" Marcella wanted.
"You must put the back of your hand to your forehead when you swoon and sigh forlornly." Andi instructed and the
little girl pulled it off surprisingly well over the giggles as Andi dutifully dipped her again.
"Is that why Paige is always sighing?" Josh wanted to know, referring and Andi's eyebrows went up.
"Does she really?" She asked as Marcella went into her 'swoon' again and Andi dipped her automatically.
"Oh all the time." Josh was only too happy to answer. "She lives across the street and comes over when Uncle
Hector's home and always says how hot it is and brings drinks and stuff and she siiiighs." He rolled his eyes at the
last. Looking surprisingly like his uncle as he did so.
"Hot, hm?" Andi had no compunctions about pumping children for information.
"Of course it’s hot." Josh clarified. "That's the way it is here. And she lifts her hair up like this," he demonstrated with
imaginary long hair. Andi's lips were starting to twitch.
"Across the street, you say?"
"In the house with the rooster mailbox. She makes cookies. A lot."
"And is she very pretty?" Andi asked cheerfully as she 'swooned' Marcella again.
Cassie just watched with amusement she didn't even try to hide.
"Paige Carson." Hector added in. "She does live across the street, and she does have a rooster mailbox. I think she
graduated high school last year."
"College, brother dear. College." Cassie said. Hector shrugged and looked at Josh.
"This is what's called scoping out the competition." Hector said. "Where women pump unsuspecting victims for
information about other women."
"Why?"
"Because they think it’s fun." Hector said.
"Is Paige competition?" Marcella asked.
Hector nearly choked on his coffee. "Not even before I met Andi. See, her cookies taste like saw dust. All the tabasco
sauce in the world won't save them. See, I tried."
"Oh. Okay." Josh said and thought. "Well, what about Penny down the street?"
Hector shook his head. "I'm in trouble without even doing anything, aren't I?" He teased her.
Andi gave Hector a pleased grin as she set Marcella back down in her chair.
"Now that I have cohorts, I may have to case the entire neighborhood." She stated cheerfully.
"Aunt Nikki doesn't live in the neighborhood." Josh volunteered. "She's daddy's sister. But she thinks Uncle Hector's
'hot'." He was starting to get what all the questions were about and didn't mind being informative.
"Really?" Especially since the woman with the funny way of saying things seemed so pleased with the information.
There was laughter in her voice when she talked now and he liked that better than the way everything had been so
careful before when the adults had been talking. She had moved over to stand behind Uncle Hector again and
draped her arms over his shoulders. He liked the way they touched. He'd even put up with the kissy stuff. It made him
feel good. Like everybody could be happy.
"I think doing nothing is exactly what's keeping you out of trouble." Andi laughed quietly as she leaned down to rest
the side of her face against Hector's temple. She'd wondered if the entire southern part of the United States was blind
or just completely lacking in taste for a while there. To hear Hector tell it women never looked once at him much less
twice. Which he sincerely seemed to believe most of the time. Even if it wasn't true. Without moving away from him,
she turned her face to look at Cassie over her shoulder and cheerfully asked her instead of Hector: