Drummer Boy Read Free

generic well-wishes from various guys she’d dated a few times—the one where her name was misspelled as “Jan” was particularly heartwarming.
    A horn blipped lightly behind them.
    Jane sighed.
    “Your ride?”
    She nodded.
    “Do you need a hand?”
    “No, I still have one—two, actually. Thanks, though.”
    The guy smiled again. “Right. Good one.”
    Jane tried to crane her head in a subtle way to watch him leave. Too bad she hadn’t gotten his name.
    Candy buzzed around the side of the car, whipped opened the passenger door, and appeared at Jane’s side, arms out, ready to steady Jane if she showed any sign of slipping.
    “I wish you weren’t always so efficient.” Jane turned so her backside faced the car and lowered herself into the seat. “If you’d taken like five minutes longer—”
    “Only you would think of flirting at a time like this.”
    “A time like what ?” Jane eased her legs into the car and grinned. “And no, no, I’m definitely not the only one.”
    As they pulled up to the house, Jane chuckled. Their little sister Kaylie and their twin brothers Matthew and Michael had their faces pressed up against the glass. And wait, there was another little familiar face. Dean’s daughter, Isobel, was there, too.
    Jane looked pointedly at Dean’s vintage Mustang in the driveway and turned to Candy with raised eyebrows. “Now, Candy, how can you even think of flirting at a time like this?”
    Candy blushed bright pink. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she muttered. “He’s just been helping while you were out of commission.”
    Jane tsk-tsked. “Shocking is all I can say, sister-dear, shocking .”
     
    ****
     
    Jane had barely inched through the door, when Kaylie almost bowled her over in an excited hug. “Candy says we can do another Christmas dinner now that you’re home.”
    Jane leaned a little heavier on her crutches and pulled a face. “It’s January. Can’t we skip it and have a ‘welcome home, cripple’ dinner instead?”
    “Jane!” Candy hissed.
    “What?” She caught the look on Kaylie’s face. “Ah, I’m sorry Kaylie-baylie. I’m just grouchy and out of sorts. A second Christmas dinner…sounds great.”
    Kaylie rolled her eyes. “You will actually have fun. I promise, and look what else.”
    “Well, as long as you promise .” Jane took the elaborate welcome home card Kaylie handed her—a combination of collage and little cartoon figures of each member of the family, cheering.
    “Aw, doodle. It’s the greatest. Thank you.”
    Kaylie smiled modestly, and, wonder of wonders, didn’t even scold Jane about using the nickname she hated. “And check this out.” She held up a sheet of poster board so big she looked like a huge piece of green paper with legs and a head.
    “Boy, you’ve been busy with projects galore, hey?”
    The poster appeared to be some type of calendar. Jane did a double take. “Kaylie, is that a countdown to next Christmas? That’s a whole year away.”
    “Yes, isn’t it great?”
    Great wouldn’t have been Jane’s first description, not even close. Kaylie was a sweetheart, but she was showing signs of developing Candy’s manic love of all things structured and planned. And if Jane had to go through a countdown ritual every day for the next year, she would go…crazier.
    “Hey, what are you doing this weekend?” her twin brothers Michael and Matt asked in unison, appearing around the corner.
    “Working” was on the tip of her tongue. But no, of course, she wouldn’t be. She was on disability leave for…well, at this point, the timeframe was totally up in the air. She shrugged wordlessly.
    “Well, do you care if Matt and I go out?”
    “No, of course not—” Behind the boys, Candy was making a cutting motion with her hand, shaking her head, and mouthing No . “Um, unless we already have plans to do something?”
    The twins looked crushed.
    Candy nodded, pleased.
    Jane shook her head. “It’s great to be