Page 60 of Books and Hookups

When Lucie stepped to the counter, I heard a crunch.

“Ow. What was that?” She looked down.

“Crouton. Sorry.” Stepping on a crouton had to be almost as bad as stepping on one of my cousins’ LEGO bricks. Without thinking, I bent and scooped her into my arms.

She squealed, a very un-Lucie-like sound, but her arm went around my neck as I carried her to the table. “What the fuck, Danny?”

“I, um, didn’t want you to hurt your feet.” I set her in a chair at the table.

“On a goddamn crouton?”

Leo set her glass in front of her. “If you haven’t figured it out yet, my brother’s always saving someone. Even if it’s only from croutons.”

My cheeks burned, and I turned away to open the wine.

Fortunately, dinner was amazing, and Lucie forgot to yell at me about picking her up without her consent as she devoured the beef, risotto, and salad. Leo and Lizbeth finished off Lucie’s bottle of wine, and I’d stood to open another bottle when Lucie asked Leo about his food truck.

“It’s incredible,” Lizbeth gushed. “He gets more requests to show up in front of office buildings and events than he can physically do. He’s thinking about getting a second truck.”

I jammed the corkscrew into the cork. “No, he’s not. He’s going to sell his truck so we can buy the bar.” I figured he’d have told Lizbeth that much, even if they were only fuck-buddies.

When Leo said nothing, I glanced at him over my shoulder while I twisted the screw into the cork. “Right, Leo?”

“Oh, yeah. It was just an idea I was tossing around. If I had a commercial kitchen, I could run two trucks. You know, in case you changed your mind about the bar.”

I set the wine bottle on the counter harder than I meant to, and it made a clanging sound. “In caseIchangedmymind about the bar? This isourdream. We both want this. Not just for ourselves, but for the whole family.”

“Why would Leo want that?” Lizbeth asked, her eyes narrowed in a challenge. “His food truck is hella successful. He could have a whole fleet.Andhis own catering kitchen.”

Ignoring Lizbeth, his not-girlfriend, I stared at my brother. “When we buy the bar, he will have his own kitchen.”

Leo stared at his plate and nodded.

“Is that what you want, Leo?” Lucie asked. “The kitchen downstairs is hardly bigger than this one. And it comes with Norm.”

“I know,” he said. “But it’s what Danny and I have always said we’d do when we got the cash. And Danny’s given up so much for me, for all of us, it’s the least I can do.”

“Giving up your dream is the least you can do?” Lucie asked. “That seems like a lot to give up for someone else’s dream.”

“Wait,” I said. “You don’t want to buy the bar with me?”

“Sure, I do,” he said, standing and picking up the empty plates. He still wouldn’t look at me. “It’s what we’ve always talked about.”

“See?” I glared at Lizbeth. “It’s what he wants.”

She rolled her eyes. “Sure.”

“It is!”

“Lizbeth,” Leo called, “where’d you put the candles?”

With another eye roll, she stood and went to the kitchen.

“Need some help, Leo?” I asked.

“Nah, it’s your birthday. We’ve got it.”

But sitting while others worked made me nuts. “Want another drink? Or some decaf?”

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