“Blake is in the bathroom with him. Potty training is hit or miss,” his mother said.
Egan returned to the back of the massive house on the island at the same time his mother laid Khloe down to change her.
Kaden was running before his father, Egan pretending to keep pace but losing.
“I won. I won,” Kaden hollered. “Uncle Ethan.”
“Hey there, buddy,” he said, squatting down as Kaden barreled toward him, then crashed into his chest knocking them both over.
“Oops, should have warned you,” Egan said. “That’s his new thing.”
“Damn, he’s tough.”
“Like his mother,” Blake said, walking in. “I need to be to put up with him and my husband. Has his father’s personality too.”
“Is Kaden playing pranks yet?” he asked. “Because once that happens, you’re in trouble.”
Blake turned to point her finger at Egan. “Don’t you dare.”
Egan shrugged and grinned. “You can’t stop him if he wants to do it.”
His mother laughed and handed Khloe back to Ethan. “This one will be just as sweet as her momma then.”
“Blake, sweet? Nope,” Egan said. “She’s all full of sass and vinegar and I love it.”
His brother walked over and pulled his wife under his arm, giving her a big smacking kiss, then picking her up to her squealing and cradling her in his arms.
“Put me down before you drop me.”
“Oh, Mom. My wife is insulting my manhood. You need to tell her it will hurt my feelings.”
“Egan, behave,” his mother said. “Or no dessert for you.”
“I get it then,” Ethan said proudly. “I deserve it.”
“Stop whining,” his father said, walking into the room. “You’ve got your new assistant starting on Monday.”
“I have to admit,” his mother said. “I was surprised when your father told me you hired Norris’s daughter. You don’t see that as a conflict?”
He looked down at his niece, putting his attention there rather than anyone looking into his eyes so that they couldn’t see what he was really thinking or feeling about his new assistant.
“No,” he said. “We all know Norris can be an ass.”
“Language around my kids,” Egan said, putting his wife down. Blake rubbed his arm and gave him a kiss.
That. That was exactly what he wanted in his life.
Why the hell couldn’t he find it when his two brothers did on an island with slim pickings?
“Uncle Ethan!”
He turned when he heard his name yelled again. This time his other niece, Adrienne, came running into the room in a light yellow sundress and white sneakers, followed by her mother, Bella, and his brother, Eli, carrying his second nephew, Oliver, who was sleeping in a car seat.
“Hey there, my two favorite girls.”
He sat on the couch so that Adrienne could climb up next to him and look at her cousin closer. “Khloe is like my doll.”
“But you’re nicer to your cousin than a doll, right? Just like Ollie,” Eli said.
