“Probably,” Maren told her. “But I think it’s mostly a big brother thing. Now, what do we say when the uncles are being goofy?”
Juni grinned and stared both big men down. “Have you been eating crayons again?”
That did it. Everyone—Maren, Colin, Gina, Arden, Kyle, even Reid and Beckett—burst into relieved laughter as the tension broke.
Reid clapped Colin on the shoulder. “We’ll talk later.”
Colin nodded. “Figured.”
Beckett looked disappointed. “You’re not even nervous?”
“Nope. This is the only Walsh who scares me.” He picked Juni up and she threw her arms around his neck.
“Wise man,” Reid said. Beckett laughed.
Juni looked from one man to the other. “Can we have cookies now?”
“Absolutely,” Arden said, voice thick with emotion. “Cookies solve almost everything.”
Juni nodded. “That’s what I thought.”
Kyle’s phone buzzed. He turned serious and everyone went quiet. He answered with, “Garrett,” then listened as his contact at Lackland spoke.
“Understood,” Kyle told him, his voice flat enough that only someone who knew him would hear the tension underneath. Arden put her arm around him as he listened some more.
“Appreciate the call, Garrett, thanks.” Kyle disconnected. For a second, he just stood there holding the phone.
Arden’s hand moved up and down his back. “California?”
“The review is resolved,” he said. “Application is back on track and the inspection is in five days.”
Arden wrapped both arms around his waist and pressed her face against his chest. Kyle exhaled long and slow like he’d been holding his breath since the first call from Lackland as he hugged his wife to him.
“Can we have cookies now?” Juni asked.
Kyle looked down at her. Then he gave her a smile.
“Affirmative, Junebug,” he said. “I think we’ve earned cookies.”
THIRTY-FIVE
The postponedbook club finally happened on a Saturday about a month later. But this one was different.
All the guys came along.
Not to the book club itself. That would have been uncalled for. Outrageous, even. The women would have revolted, and honestly, Maren wouldn’t have blamed them. Instead, the men slid in under the radar, claiming they hadn’t all gotten together in too long and wanted to have a barbecue. They would cook dinner and then the women could settle in for their book club that night while the men were more than happy to keep an eye on the kids, the dogs, the fire, and the beer.
In other words, controlled chaos.
Joyful chaos, but chaos all the same.
Maren had been to barbecues like this before, courtesy of her older brothers. There was nothing quite like getting a bunch of military guys together. You could cut the testosterone in the air with a knife and fork.
Reid and Beckett were both there. They’d decided to spend their leave in Colorado with their little sister and niece before their next deployments, and Maren was so happy to have them nearby she tried not to think about how temporary it was.
“You’d better warn them,” Colin told her as they got ready to head over. “Kyle is definitely going to try and recruit them for Watchdog.”
“Good luck with that.” Maren slipped an earring in and looked at his reflection in the bedroom mirror. “They’re both career military. I think it’s going to be a while before they retire. At least that’s their plan.”
