Unbreakable Hearts (9 page)

Chapter 9

“I cannot believe you made a pie,” Tilly told her brother. “I mean, I
seriously
can’t believe it.” She took a hesitant bite of the pecan pie Jeff said he’d made, a look of surprise showing on her face as she found that it was actually good.

“Hey, I’m not a com
plete and total idiot,” he replied with a grin.

He’d gotten to his sister’s after seven when his shift had ended and they’d eaten their Thanksgiving meal almost immediately because Tilly knew he’d be famished (as usual), but even more so since he’d called her three times to make sure she was cooking and telling her he’d skipped lunch. He’d barely changed out of his uniform before he was in the kitchen sneaking bites of turkey.

“Tell the truth. What store did you buy it from?” she said with a chuckle when she saw him frowning at her.

“I
am
telling the truth. I called Jen when I got home last night and asked her what ingredients I needed to make it. We had everything in the cabinets or the fridge including a premade piecrust and she talked me through it all. Keep questioning my baking abilities, and I’ll tell you what I talked her through afterward.” He grinned wickedly at her.

“Gross.” It was Tilly’s turn to frown now.

Jeff cracked up. “Just thought since you weren’t getting any from that fucking dumbass anymore, you’d like to hear.”

Tilly smacked her brother on the arm. “Stop cussing before I tell you what
I’ve
been talked through in the past.”

“Fuck,
” he muttered. She opened her mouth to continue when he grimaced, holding up a hand. “Okay, okay, I’m stopping. Jesus.”

Tilly laughed, shaking her head.
“Thought that’d do it.”

“Well, you
do
know I cuss on the job and with the guys and just about everywhere else, right? Even though I try to keep my mouth clean around her, Jen’s fighting a losing battle as are you.” He sniggered right as his phone rang. “Jen,” he said checking it as he got up from the table. “Hey, babe. Guess what? I haven’t been cussing,” he said innocently upon answering, looking at his sister with a smirk.

Tilly
shook her head and started clearing dishes off the table, carrying them into the kitchen when her doorbell rang. It was almost nine, so she had no idea who it could be. Jeff was in the living room as she walked through toward the door, and when he looked at her in question, she shrugged her shoulders back at him, just as clueless as he was.

Upon turning on the porch light and pulling back the curtain to see who was there, she let out a groan, looking over at he
r brother, and mouthed, “Doug.”

“Hey, baby, I’ve gotta let you go. Doug’s here. Yeah. I know. I’ll tell her. I’ll call you later, okay?” Jeff said his goodbyes and hung u
p, walking over to the door, telling Tilly, “Jen said to run his ass off. Damn it! Should’ve gotten on her for cussing!” He grimaced hilariously, but Tilly couldn’t laugh knowing that Doug was on the other side of the door. “You want him here?” Jeff asked.

She
sighed. “Well, I don’t want a fight. Guess it won’t hurt to let him in and see what he wants. I mean, he’s still a friend. I guess.”

“Hey, Jeff,” Doug said when the door opened.
“Been a while.”

“Yeah.
What’s up?”

Jeff held his ground until Tilly gently pulled him aside. There was no need to be r
ude. “Come on in, Doug,” she said.

“Hey, Till.
Happy Thanksgiving. Mom sent you some pumpkin bread and told me to tell you that she missed you.” He handed her the foil-wrapped bread.

She couldn’t help but feel a little guilty over their breakup
then. “That was really nice of her. Tell her I said thank you.” She walked to the kitchen to put the bread away thankful for a reason to get away from him to gather her wits a bit. “How
is
your mom?” she semi yelled thinking he was still in the living room, but upon turning she ran into Jeff who’d followed Doug who’d followed her into the kitchen.  “Oh! Sorry, Jeff.” Jeez. What the heck?

“What do you need, Doug?” Jeff asked, crossing his arms over his broad chest from where he stood in front of Tilly, his stance one of protection.

She put a hand on his upper arm in an
It’s okay; he’s not a threat
kind of way. “Why don’t I cut the bread up and we can each have a piece? Okay? Have a seat, guys,” she suggested.

Jeff cut her a look as if to say she w
as an idiot for allowing him to stay. She bugged her eyes out, giving him a look right back that told him she wasn’t going to be rude; therefore, she had no other choice. Jeff shook his head then went to the small table that sat in the breakfast nook in the kitchen.

“So, Mom was wonderi
ng why you didn’t come by today,” Doug said.

Tilly stopped cutting the
bread and glanced over at him as he gave her his best pouty look. “You didn’t tell her we broke up?”

He frowned. “I can’t tell her that.
It’d tear her up, Till. Especially around the holidays. You know how upset she gets about things.”

“Well, you need to tell her soon because you guys are over,” Jeff put out there.

Doug looked at him as if he’d suddenly sprouted two more heads. “Well, I wouldn’t go that far.” He looked at Tilly for help.

God, he had to be the most hardheaded man she’d ever known. Did he seriously not understand that they were finished? How many times or ways did she need to tell him? This was now past ridiculous and heading toward crazy.

“Doug,” Tilly reprimanded. She got out plates with a sigh, putting a slice of bread on each, getting forks then carrying two dishes over to place in front of each man before going back to get her own. She retrieved the whipped cream out of the fridge then sat at the table not knowing how to politely tell her ex that
he was now her freaking ex
.

Jeff squirted a huge mound of whipped cream onto his bread, set the can down, cut into his slice with his fork and jammed a great big bite into his mouth. “Holy shit, that’s good,” he said upon swallowing. Then he licked his fork until Tilly thought he’d take the silver plating off.

“Mom makes the best,” Doug said smugly before taking a bite himself.

“Damn sure does,” Jeff agreed.

Great. Tilly had hoped her brother would back her up, but now she knew he’d probably beg her to stay with Doug just so he could keep getting the fabulous bread. But after he’d wolfed down the rest of his dessert, he looked at Doug, all business again as he sat back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest once more. “First of all, tell Mrs. Donati that her pumpkin bread is fucking fantastic.”

Tilly started to scold her brother for cussing but decided not to break in right then. She was curious to see what he’d say.

“Second, according to my sister, you guys are finished, Doug. Over.” When Doug started to balk, Jeff held up a hand and said, “I get that you’re friends and still probably have a working relationship, which is fine, but you don’t wanna screw shit up to where she’s gonna have to slap a protective order on you, do you? That ‘d probably cut into the business a tad, don’t you think? So why don’t you play it smart and get it through your head that you guys are done, okay?”

Doug sputtered for a few minutes as he was wont to do when he was upset, then he got
up and stomped to the front door with Tilly on his heels.

“Doug, it doesn’t have to be like this,” she offered.

He turned. “Oh, yeah? How does it have to be, Tilly? I love you! I thought you loved me too! I want to marry you!” He reached into his jacket pocket and snatched out a ring box, popping it open and practically shoving it into her face. “See! I bought this today! I was going to ask you tonight! But you’ve gone and messed it all up, you bitch!”

“Hey!” Jeff yelled, defending his sister, but Doug had already made it out the door, slamming it in his wake.

Tilly’s face had gone white and she held her cheeks in her hands. “Wow.”

“Jesus, Till. That guy’s a fucking psycho. I don’t want you around him in any manner now, you hear me? I think you might go ahead and get a PO on him anyway.” He looked at her and realized she was crying. “Hey, hey, it’s okay.” He wrapped his arms around her and kissed the top of her head as she shook in his arms. “It’ll be okay.” When she pulled back from him, he was ready to comfort her some more until he realized she hadn’t been crying because she was scared or sad or whatever. The tears she was crying were from her laughing.
“Uh. You okay?”

She
then started laughing so hard she wrapped her arms around her stomach and bent over at the waist trying to get her breath. After a few minutes, she finally collected herself. “Oh, God. I’m sorry. But I found that really hilarious.”

Jeff just stared at her confused, which made her
start laughing again, this time even harder. “You wanna let me in on the hilarious part?”

When she finally caught her breath she said, “Well, he’s just so stupid! He thought
I’d marry him? He actually thought I’d say yes? The guy’s delusional! I can’t wait to tell Quinn about this.” She kept giggling as she wiped the tears from her eyes. “She’s gonna be so pissed that she missed this.”

“I know she’ll be mad that she didn’t get to kick his ass outta here,” Jeff replied with a hesitant chuckle. “That and she missed the pumpkin bread.”

“Oh, there’s plenty left.”

“Nah.
I’m taking it with me.” He smirked.

“Wh
atever,” Tilly said. “Thanks for being here for that. I don’t know if I could’ve explained it. It’s pretty much one of those ‘had to be there’ things.” She fanned herself trying to stop laughing.

“Yeah.
I feel honored to have witnessed that fucking debacle.”

That made her giggle some more.
“Oh, my. That was just priceless.” She wiped under her eyes. “Whew. Haven’t laughed that hard in a long time.” After sobering some, she took a deep breath and blowing it out looked at her brother and said with a sad smile, “Movie time.”

He nodded slowly
and sighed.  “’Kay.”

They had a long-standing tradition that every Thanksgiving they watched
It’s a Wonderful Life
. Tilly didn’t know when the tradition had started but their dad had loved the movie and had started having them watch it every Thanksgiving evening that he was off work when they were little. After he passed away, their mother decided to keep watching in his honor. Although the first year had been hell on all of them, they’d made it through the movie, with not a few tears. Since then, it’d just become a part of their holiday once again.

“I’ll get the popcorn if you’ll get out the Milk Duds,” Tilly said.

“Oh, I’m on that,” Jeff said, heading to the kitchen with Tilly right behind him snickering.

“Endless gut.
Jeez,” she teased.

“Only reason I work out is so I can eat anything I want.”

“Oh, not because you might have to chase down a bad guy or anything, right?”

“Right.
Food trumps criminals any day.”

Tilly shook her head as she began putting away the rest o
f the food that’d been left when Doug had interrupted. Jeff leaned against the counter eating the candy.

“Don’t offer to help or anything,” she said pointedly, looking at him with a raised eyebrow.

“Okay, I won’t,” he retorted.

“Men,” she murmured as
she put a lid over the mashed potatoes. “I’ve still got lots left over if you wanna stop by for lunch the next few days. Or I can pack some up for you to take home?”

“Both. I’ll take some turkey home with me so I can make sandwiches. But I’ll come by for the other stuff.”

“Do that. Come on in if I’m not here or I’m working. Lord knows my thighs will thank you.”

“You’re, what, five foot seven an
d weigh one twenty? Plus, you work out at the gym a couple times a week, right? No chance you’ll be getting fat any time soon.”

“If I eat the rest of this, there is.” She pushed him out of the way to grab a bowl out of the cabinet. “So you can do th
e honors and help keep my cellulite at bay.”

Jeff snorted
as he popped a couple Milk Duds in his mouth. “Women,” he teased going to the living room to put the DVD in.

After starting
the dishwasher, Tilly threw a bag of popcorn in the microwave getting out a bowl as she waited for it to finish still chuckling at the fiasco that’d just happened. Dang.

When she came into the living room, she saw Jeff sitting on the couch, his feet propped up on the coffee table, which got him a gimlet eye from her. He just smiled innocently and kept them there. When she kept staring at him, he gave in. “Okay, okay, I’ll take my boots off. God, you’re as bad as Mo
m and Jen.”  He leaned down, unlacing and taking off his boots then put his stocking feet back on the table. “Happy?”

“Extremely,” she s
aid with a grin, sitting on the couch and putting the popcorn bowl between them.