Page 74 of Tony

I cover my mouth with my hand to hide my smile.

Vann takes it all in stride, grabbing a child in each arm and swinging them around until they scream.

A loud, shrill whistle pierces the air and suddenly everyone stops to look at the blonde bombshell standing on the porch, baby on her hip. “Get your little firecracker butts in here! I called you for brunch five minutes ago!” She waves a wooden spoon at them with her free hand. “And I do not want to hear one peep about cold eggs, you tiny heathens! Now go wash up!”

All the girls say, “Awwww,” but they don’t dare talk back. Or dawdle.

There is a whoosh of shirts and a scuffle of sneakers as the gang of girls abandon Vann for cold eggs and disappears inside the house. The porch door closes with a smack and Veronica wipes the back of her hand across her forehead as she comes down the porch steps bouncing her baby. “What are you doing here?”

“Just came by for a visit,” Vann says. “It’s a nice day. Wanted to take Belinda here for a ride. But we have work later, so can’t go too far. Figured I’d come hang with my favorite sister.”

“I’m your only sister,” Veronica says, whacking him playfully with her wooden spoon.

Veronica Vaughn. She is younger than all her other brothers, save Vann. Also known as Ron the Bomb, Bombshell, Ronnie, and I’ve heard her brothers jokingly call her Momshell more than once.

Veronica used to work at Sick Boyz as an artist. Vann inks in her old studio now. But she retired to this expansive farm about twenty miles north of Fort Collins to raise a family with her hot bike-builder husband, Spencer Shrike.

“Hi, Belinda,” Ronnie says. “Have you taken over Sick Boyz yet?”

“Not quite.” I laugh. “But Vic did let me help him do filler last night.”

She rolls her eyes and switches the baby to her other hip. “He’s so magnanimous.”

“I’m not complaining,” I say. “And he said I could use his studio on his days off now.”

“Really?” Ronnie’s eyes shoot up. “Well, that’s an offer he never made me before I had a studio to myself.”

We both look at Vann, who is smiling that I’m-a-happy-guy smile at both of us. “Belinda and I are dating now.”

“Is that so?” Ronnie smirks at me.

“Well, I get one date,” Vann explains. “To prove myself.”

Ronnie points her spoon at me. “Good thinking. Gotta take them out for a test drive before you commit.” Then she looks at Vann. “But seriously, I’m glad you’re here. Because I need a babysitter—”

“No!” Vann says, putting his hands up. “No way.”

“Just pick the little monsters up from school on Monday. That’s all I’m asking. It’s your day off.”

Vann is still shaking his head.

“It’s my car pool day, Vann. And Spencer is having this big bike reveal that afternoon. The press is gonna be there, and we’re getting special photographs in the morning for billboards, and this might be my last chance to take part in an event like this before I’m too squishy and mommed out to do the body-paint modeling.”

Vann groans. “Why can’t one of the other moms pick them up?”

“They’re busy! Why would I be asking you if the other moms were available? You don’t even have to watch the baby. She’s part of the shoot.”

“They’re all babies, Ron. They need parental supervision at all times or one of them gets a crazy idea and the next thing you know they’ve opened up a fake tattoo shop in City Park called Sick Kidz and have already made thirty bucks when the cops show up to shut it down.”

Veronica points her spoon at him. “That only happened once. And it was Five’s fault. Not Rory’s. You’ve met Five, haven’t you, Belinda?”

I hold out my hand about shoulder height. “Boy genius about this high? Fastidious about his school uniform? Wears it on the weekends?”

Veronica chuckles. “That’s him.” She turns to Vann. “It’s always him. And he won’t be there.”

Vann points back at her. “You lying little momshell! He’s part of the car pool! If I pick them up, he is not staying at our house after school. He has to go home.”

“Deal,” Veronica says. And then she winks at me.