Page 64 of Knot Broken

“Nanna!”

“Hello, my darlings.” She turned and swept Charlie, the youngest, up in her arms, the other grabbing Will in a hug. “And what’ve you little monsters been up to?”

“Too much.” My sister-in-law, Kelly, walked in with a wry smile. “They just had footy training where I swear they spent most of their time deliberately throwing themselves into muddy puddles. Hey, Ethan.”

Before I could reply, the kids threw themselves at me.

“Uncle Ethan, I kicked three goals at training!” Charlie said.

“Well, I kicked four,” Will grumbled.

“Did not.”

“Did too!”

“Will missed the goal posts by this much.” Charlie spread his arms wide. “Then he pushed me into the mud when I laughed.”

“Charlie… Will…”

I glanced from one to the other, not sure who deserved to be told off.

“Which is why we’re a bit late.” My youngest brother, Noah, walked in, then stopped when he saw me. “Whoa, the big bad alpha’s here?” A familiar smirk appeared. “Took some time off from sniffing each other’s butts and pissing on fire hydrants to come see your family, did ya?”

“Don’t say the p-word in front of the kids,” Kelly hissed, but the damage was done.

“Dad said a naughty word! Dad said a naughty word!” the kids chanted in a sing-song voice.

“If he was still a little boy,” Mum said, “I’d have washed his mouth out with soap.” She produced the hand soap container with a flourish. “Maybe I still should?”

“Yeah!”

The blood was in the water and these two little sharks were ready for their next victim.

“No chance of that.” Noah plucked the soap from her grip, then placed it back on the sink. “Though if you little gremlins have energy to burn, you could wash your hands for dinner.”

“I wanted to show Uncle Ethan how high I can kick the ball.” Charlie threw his arms in the air. “I could kick it all the way over the house.”

“Can not,” Will said with a frown.

“How about we go outside and you guys show me what you’ve got,” I suggested. “No kicking it too high, though. If the ball goes on the roof, it stays there.”

“Thanks.”

Kelly gave me a heartfelt look as I poured her a wine as well, pushing it towards her, before shepherding the kids outside. The cool night air bathed my face as we headed towards the back shed. Mum kept an array of balls and other play equipment there for the boys to use.

“Let’s use these star pickets as goals,” I said, shoving one into the ground by the side of the house, then another. “If you go above here.” Gesturing to the windows, I gave the boys a hard look. “You get no points because Nanna will be real mad if you break her windows. So who’s going first?”

“Rookie mistake.” Noah appeared beside me, then fished out a coin. “Heads or tails, boys?” Each one chose a side and then their dad flipped it. “Heads it is. Will, you’re first.”

The two boys lined up, each with a football in hand, then Will held it out and ran forward, dropping it, then punting it through the ‘goals.’

“Well done!” I said, giving him a clap.

“Good job, mate.” Noah squeezed Will’s shoulder, right before my nephew ran back to take position behind his brother. There was some age appropriate trash talking going on, which had me snorting, Noah too. “Haven’t seen you for a while,” he continued, staring at the kids, not me. “Kids have been asking after you.” Finally his eyes slid sideways to meet mine. “What’s been going on?”

“I…” How the hell did I put this into words? “You know. Same old, same old.”

“No, Ethan, I don’t know.” His voice was low, pitched so only I could hear it. “That’s why I asked.”