Page 9

I was about to stand up when Crew ambled over. Though his stride was easy, there was a determination in his walk that made me stay put. I arched a brow at his scowl.

“What crawled up your ass?” I asked without any heat.

“You’ve been dodging me all week. I was ready to show up at the Yellow Ribbon, but my gorgeous, amazing husband made me wait.”

I snorted. They’d been married all of two months, but Crew never missed an opportunity to mention Mal was now his husband. I was happy for them. They’d had a bit of a rocky start, and Mal had had to learn to accept help and trust that Crew wanted what was best for him and his son before he let down his walls.

“I was busy. We had a long session. I gotta work, you know.”

Crew rolled his eyes, but he leaned against the post of the banister, and stared at me. I wasn’t going to say anything else. Whatever was on his mind, he was going to have to spit it out. I could outwait him any day of the week.

Eventually, he sighed, and his gaze wandered to the boys. “If I’d known what was going on—”

“I know,” I was quick to interject, because I did. He would have handled it. And he probably felt guilty because he had missed it. “But you didn’t. Pay didn’t say anything, and you haven’t been around the kid enough to put the pieces together. Let the guilt go.”

Crew let out a frustrated sound. “He told you and not me or his dad.”

“Sure.” I peered up at my younger brother. I’d had three years without him, but he’d never known a day without me. And he knew damn well I would fight for and protect anyone who needed it. “But you gotta look at it from Payton’s point of view. Your kid loves you and his dad so much, he didn’t want to put it on you. Me? I’m the outsider—”

“You are not,” he growled.

“—who was trained to protect. To your kid, I’m the one that handles scary situations.”

“I want him to come to me. For everything.” Crew sounded hurt, and I had to really look at him before I could figure out his angle.

“I get that,” I said, working to keep my voice soft. “And he does. Nightmares and worries, homework and everything else. You know he’s asking Dad and Daddy. But this was bigger than that. And really, you have to be proud of him for assessing the situation and asking me for help. And come on, your kid has a multitude of people supporting him. That’s pretty great.”

Crew was only slightly mollified by that and I figured that deep down, he understood that. Of course, it was another thing when feelings were involved. He loved Payton so much, and wanted to protect the boy from everything. I got it. But I would also stand by Pay’s decision.

“Why Mom and Dad?” he asked, after clearing his throat.

I didn’t pretend not to know what he meant, but I did squint at him. “What was I gonna do with a kid?”

That made him snort. “Yeah. Okay. But Mal and I—”

“Are expanding your family, with help from Gem and a surrogate. That’s enough on your plate. And Demi has enough kids to fill a hockey line-up. Pretty sure Phinn’s the goalie. So. Mom and Dad.” I narrowed my gaze further. “You trying to tell me I made a bad decision there?”

“No. As usual, Saint Bodhi is right.” It was said with a mocking tone, but I knew he was playing so I pulled my punch when I caught him in the leg. He danced away, and he was fighting a grin. Then he shook his head.

“Hey, listen. You can stop looking for a companion for Ezio.”

The horse Mal had rescued and trained had a stupid name. Okay, it wasn’t stupid, but I didn’t care for it. The gelding didn’t answer to it anyway. When he’d become mine, I’d just started calling him Ez. Which he didn’t answer to either. Mostly he only came when I whistled or shook the feed bucket. He was a solid horse though, good minded and well trained. I’d been leaving him at the ranch whenever we didn’t have a session, so he wasn’t alone while I looked for a friend for him. Horses were herd animals, and while they could do fine alone, they did better in groups.

“Why’s that?” I said going with the subject change.

“We gave Imelda Staunton the year off, since this last pregnancy was tough on her. Dad and I decided to retire her as a broodmare. She’s not sound by the end of her term, and it’s not fair to keep putting her through that.”

My breath caught, and I worked hard to keep it off my face. Which was stupid, since my brother already knew how I felt about the bald-faced red mare. I’d been there at her birth and had fallen in love instantly. I’d even planned leave when she had her first foal, needing to be there when she gave birth.

“I can have her?

Crew gave me a hard look. “I want her back for ICSI. Her genes are too good not to keep making babies, so we’ll harvest her oocytes, make some embryos, and have a recipient mare carry them.”

“Done.” I held out my hand to shake, but Crew rolled his eyes and yanked me to standing instead. We bumped shoulders and whatever else I was going to say was interrupted by Mom announcing that food was ready.

The ensuing chaos was expected with so many adults and children vying for a spot at the table. People got shuffled around, since Aria did not want to sit next to her dad and instead right beside Carter. The triplets’ highchairs were scooted around so they each had a dedicated adult to help them, and Shiloh looked lost until I placed a hand on his shoulder and led him to the seat next to mine. Then Pay wanted to shift from sitting between Fern and her girlfriend, Ora, so that he could sit next to Shiloh, which meant that Judson and Kee both shuffled down a seat.

Eventually, we all had a place and dishes of food started getting passed around. Mom used to set everything up on the island, and we all served ourselves buffet style before taking a seat. But with the longer and wider table, we could have all the food family-style instead. I made a show of passing on the pancakes even though I actually liked them, so that Shiloh would know it was okay to say what he wanted. He took a pancake and extra bacon. When he looked up at me, I winked and grinned.