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Once Gloria had left, the four men assembled in the kitchen and Finn barked out orders. “Neil, you’re in charge of bacon. Jack, hash browns. I’ll make the eggs.”
“What should I do?” Mark asked.
He looked over at Neil and Jack, who both averted their heads to hide their fits of laughter. Mark, just like his sister, was a disaster in the kitchen.
“How about you go find some fruit?”
Mark’s face lit up and he jogged to the walk-in fridge.
“No running in the kitchen,” Neil called sternly.
Mark stopped abruptly and turned with a frown. The brothers all laughed.
“You guys are assholes.” Shaking his head, Mark disappeared into the fridge.
Neil placed an entire pound of bacon on the flat-top grill. “So Ali’s off to school today?”
“We leave in a couple of hours,” Mark called back. “The kid’s all packed. Hell, she’s been packed since June.”
“Remember when we dropped you off at college, Neil?” Jack said. The stainless steel knife he held sliced through a baked potato, cutting it into small cubes. “You had six girls’ phone numbers written down before Mom even made your bed.”
“It was eight.” Neil smiled, glancing up at the ceiling remembering the good old days. “And I got three more before she left to drive home.”
Mark reemerged with an armful of fruit. “Maybe I should start street racing like you. Get me some more chicks.”
Jack laughed while he slid a pile of diced onions off the knife into a pan. His hand came up to defend himself when a piece of uncooked bacon hit him in the shoulder.
“Not funny.” Neil glared at Jack. It was only a few weeks ago he’d done time in the hospital because he’d crashed his bike.
Finn added some milk to a bowl where he’d cracked eight eggs. He seasoned the mixture, whipped it a bit, then poured it into a pan. “Or you could put out a sex tape,” Finn suggested. He couldn’t resist giving his oldest brother a hard time.
Prior to the opening of their flagship restaurant, the Madewood Farm, Neil had been the victim of a sex tape scandal. He and his then-employee and now steady girlfriend, Carson Kelly, had…christened…the new restaurant—and not by breaking in a new appliance. But they’d had an audience. It had gotten 2.2 million views on a gossip blog before they’d managed to have it taken down.
“Hey! You could give him pointers, couldn’t you, King?” Jack drawled.
Neil growled and made a rude gesture. The sex tape was still a sore subject. And he hated when they used his nickname. It had been given to him because, being the oldest, he tended to act like he was boss. But despite his hatred of it, it really was the perfect nickname with the way Neil strode around, always on top of the world.
“Everyone has access to a damn camera.” Neil angrily flipped over a few strips of bacon sizzling on the flat-top.
“True.” Mark frowned. “Hell, even kids have cameras on their cell phones. One more reason Veronica is so done with raising— Ouch!” He brought his thumb up to his mouth and sucked on a drop of blood. “Why did you give me the hard job?”
Neil joined Jack in a hearty laugh. But Finn’s ears had perked up. He needed more information.
“Veronica’s done? With what?”
Mark fiddled with the wrapping of a Band-Aid he removed from the first aid kit hanging by the door. “With raising kids. She’s been looking forward to the rug rats moving out and beginning their own lives, so she can finally start hers. She says she’s done a damn good job with them, and now it’s time to enjoy being a single businesswoman again. No more kids for her.”
Finn raised his head slowly from where he’d been concentrating on the burner. “What do you mean no more kids?”
This was…a new development.
“She’s done with children. She doesn’t want any more kids.” Mark returned the kit to its place by the door. “Makes sense. She’s spent her entire twenties taking care of Cal and Ali when she should have been dating and drinking, doing every stupid thing she could think of.”
Finn stared at his best friend in shock. Wow. Talk about being oblivious. Finn had no idea about this monumental change of heart in the woman he was about to plunge into a relationship with.
Or…not so much a relationship. That word had never come up. She’d told him she wanted to practice fucking—and, well, it all made s
ense now. Because she knew very well how he felt about a family of his own. He wanted one more than anything else in the world.
