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Aspen brought her wine glass to the half-empty bottle and poured herself another healthy dose.
“I don’t think that Downy thought he was going to use his hostage negotiator skills on his own kids,” Aspen said dryly. “Man, I remember that one. Ares was in fine form.”
Ares buffed her nails on her shirt.
“What can I say,” she said. “I took cookies seriously.”
I took another bite of the cookie that Lock had handed me.
He’d never had any problem sharing with me.
None.
The doorbell rang and everybody’s laughter silenced.
“I ordered food to be delivered,” Memphis said as she refilled her cup. “Anybody else need anymore?”
I finished off the cookie and held out my cup.
“I’m glad you don’t give me wussy fills,” I said as I brought it back to its original resting place on the counter. “Why bother filling a wine glass half-full?”
Ares started to laugh.
“Oh, you’ll fit in here well,” Ares said as Lock appeared in the doorway with what looked to be food from a Chinese restaurant.
“Mom, you ordered the whole store,” Lock said dryly.
Memphis made room on the counter for the box.
“I didn’t know what Saylor liked, so I ordered a bit extra of everything,” Memphis answered.
I felt my cheeks heat.
“That was very nice of you, Memphis,” I said. “I usually eat anything, but given the choice, I’m going to get green bean chicken or vegetable chicken.”
Something that most people wouldn’t bother with getting. I was weird that way, though.
The kitchen went silent.
“That’s what Lock likes, too,” Memphis said. “I didn’t order any extra of that because Lock’s usually the only one that eats it.”
I smiled at Lock who was winking at me devilishly.
“We have superior tastes,” he teased. “You can have some of mine.”
“You never let me have any of yours,” Ares countered.
“That’s because you only like eating the chicken,” Lock countered. “And you smell.”
Ares flipped him off. “I do not smell.”
“You smell like a perfume factory,” he countered. “It offends my nose.”
Ares scoffed. “That was when I was a teenager. I don’t smell like that anymore.”
“Then you must’ve permanently damaged my olfactory nerves.” He touched his nose and began handing out food.
“Just to say, but Saylor wears the same scent as me,” Ares suddenly said to her brother. “So, if my scent offends you, then Saylor’s will, too.”
I had noticed that.
My lips twitched into a small smile as I tried to keep the grin off my face.
Lock’s eyes turned to me. “She smells good. You don’t, Ares.”
The way his eyes twinkled when he said that made me want to burst out laughing.
“You’re impossible.” She huffed, taking her food and leaving.
Aspen and Memphis took their husbands’ food and their own and left shortly after.
When everyone had their food, they walked to the kitchen table. Lock waited until they were gone to say, “You smell great. In fact, I could smell you all day long and not get tired of it.”
Laughter built in my throat, and this time I didn’t hold it in.
***
Lock
“I gotta admit,” Saylor said quietly. “I really do only like the chicken sometimes in the green bean chicken.”
I watched her bite into a green bean with a grimace.
“What’s wrong with it?” I wondered.
“They don’t always cook them enough for me,” she answered. “These are too hard. I hate hard green beans.”
I started divvying up the chicken, pushing it to one side of the plate and the green beans to the other.
“There,” I said. “Don’t eat them if you don’t like them.”
She pressed a kiss to my shoulder and started eating only the chicken off of my plate.
When I looked up, it was to find Ares staring at me in disbelief.
“What?” I challenged.
“Nothing.” She shook her head. “I’m just surprised, that’s all.”
I knew why.
She was flabbergasted that I was allowing Saylor to do the things that I would never allow anybody else.
I took a bite of a green bean and raised a challenging brow at her.
She narrowed her eyes.
“Hey, Saylor,” Ares said, eyes aimed on me. “Did you know that Lock wasn’t potty-trained until he was almost six?”
I narrowed my eyes.
“Really?” Saylor said. “That’s funny. Neither was I.”
Saylor’s hand found my thigh underneath the table and squeezed.
“He also didn’t kiss a girl until he was twenty-one,” she continued. “He was a late bloomer. He actually used to be fat before he went to bootcamp.”
That, unfortunately, was true.
Jonah started laughing.
“You were pretty chunky,” Jonah agreed. “But you grew tall as fuck while you were gone.”
That was true, too.
“I was the same,” Saylor said. “I was a chunky, cute baby. Sweet, fat little toddler. And I just kept getting bigger, and bigger, and bigger. I was way overweight as a kid.”
“I remember that,” Piper said. “You were always self-conscious about it, too. Then between one party I saw you at and the next, you’d bloomed. Slimmed-down.”
“My mom and I went on a diet.” Saylor laughed. “I learned the art of exercise and eating right. And I also found out that I had a thyroid problem. Once I was on meds for the thyroid problem, I slimmed down a lot.”
