The Creed Legacy by Linda Lael Miller

people are meeting their soul mates online these days. Why, the statistics—”
    Carolyn looked so utterly miserable by then that Brody felt downright sorry for her. She swallowed hard, raised her chin and bravely interrupted, “It’s only a trial membership. I was curious, that’s all.”
    “She’s swamped with guys wanting to get to know her,” Kim said, warming to the topic all over again.
    Another wine bottle was opened and passed around.
    Carolyn sloshed some into her glass, avoiding Brody’s eyes when she shoved the bottle at him to keep it moving.
    “Are you sure you ought to…?”
    At last, Carolyn looked at him. She flashed like a highway flare on a dark night, because she was so angry.
    Because she was so beautiful.
    “I’m of legal age, Brody Creed,” she said, slurring her words only slightly.
    The others were talking among themselves, a sort of distant hum, a thing apart, like a radio playing in the next house or the next street, the words indistinct.
    “Besides,” Carolyn went on briskly, before he could reply, “I’ve only had two glasses.”
    “Four,” Brody said quietly, “but who’s counting?”
    “It’s not as if I normally drink a lot,” she informed him, apropos of he wasn’t sure what.
    “Have another tamale,” Brody counseled, keeping his voice down even though they still seemed to be alone in a private conversational bubble, him and Carolyn, with the rest of the outfit someplace on the dim periphery of things. “I don’t want another tamale,” Carolyn told him.
    “You’re going to be sick if you don’t eat something,” Brody reasoned. He didn’t think he’d used that particular cajoling tone since Steven and Melissa’s last visit, when he’d been appointed to feed his cousin’s twin sons. He’d had to do some smooth talking to get them to open up for the pureed green beans.
    “That’s my problem, not yours,” Carolyn said stiffly.
    “Around here,” Brody said, “we look out for each other.”
    She made a snorting sound and tried to snag another passing wine bottle, but Brody got hold of it first and sent it along its way.
    That made her furious. She colored up again and her eyes flashed, looking as if they might short out from the overload.
    Brody merely held her gaze. “Eat,” he said.
    She huffed out a sigh. Stabbed at a tiny bite of tamale with her fork. “There,” she said, after chewing. “Are you satisfied?”
    He let the grin come, the charming one that sometimes got him what he wanted and sometimes got him slapped across the face. “No,” he drawled. “Are you?”
    It looked like it was going to be the slap, for a second there.
    In the end, though, Carolyn was at once too flustered and too tipsy to respond right away. She blinked once, twice, looking surprised to find herself where she was, and swayed ever so slightly in her chair.
    “I want to go home,” she said.
    Brody pushed his own chair back and stood, holding out a hand to her. “I think that’s a good idea,” he replied easily. “Let’s go.”
    Kim and Davis, Conner and Tricia—he was aware of them as a group, rimming the table with amused faces but making no comment.
    “I guess I have to let you drive me, don’t I?” Carolyn said.
    “I reckon you do,” Brody said. “We’ll take my truck. Somebody can bring your car to town later.”
    Carolyn, feisty before, seemed bemused now, at a loss. “But what about washing the dishes and…?”
    “Davis and Conner can do the cleaning up.” Brody slid a hand under her elbow and raised her to her feet, steered her away from the table and into the kitchen, Barney sticking to their heels like chewing gum off a hot sidewalk.
    He squired her to the truck and helped her into the passenger seat, careful to let her think she was doing it all herself.
    Barney took his place in the backseat of the extended cab.
    Once he was behind the wheel, Brody buzzed his window and Carolyn’s about halfway down. She was going to need all the fresh