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He shifted his gaze back to her mother. He could see the resemblance now—mostly around the eyes.
Hello, Mrs. Callahan, I’m madly in love with your daughter. I can’t tell you what I do for a living . . . and remember how she doesn’t want kids? Here’s my kid. Oh, and your precious daughter calls me Master and lets me do anything I want to her pretty body.
Madly in love?
Shit. It was true.
Then again, of course he was in love with her. He’d have to be an idiot not to be.
His ears were hot as he extended his hand to greet Juliet’s mother when they were introduced.
The revelation that he was in love with Juliet had him flustered, but he was determined not to mess this up.
“William, I’ve heard so much about you!” Mrs. Callahan said with warmth that couldn’t be feigned.
“Seeing how happy you are to meet me, I’ll have to assume people left out some pertinent information.”
She cackled and swatted his arm affectionately. “Well, don’t worry about that. I have a zillion kids, and I’ve been a nurse for a zillion years. There isn’t much you could do or say to shock me. Be good to my kid and I’ll be your BFF.” Her gaze had strayed to Beau several times already. “Your daughter is so stinkin’ cute! May I?”
“Don’t hand her that baby!” Mr. Callahan hollered before rushing over to jokingly butt in between them. “You can’t trust Jenny around babies. She might not give her back.”
“Oh, Drew. I always give them back . . . just not right away.” She proceeded to talk to Beau in the high-pitched, excited tones people reserved for babies and puppies. Beau, for her part, seemed enchanted. Her wide eyes followed every movement of Mrs. Callahan’s mouth.
“Don’t worry,” Juliet said, rolling her eyes. “She really does bring them back eventually. As soon as Sadie gets here with the twins, she’s going to need all the help she can get, so Beau will be off the hook.”
It seemed strange and completely implausible that every member of Juliet’s family was warm and friendly and kind, and yet that seemed to be the case. Will had always assumed families like hers only existed on television sitcoms. He chatted pleasantly with the brothers he knew from Stride, and met the younger siblings he hadn’t yet had the pleasure of meeting. He watched for any hint of animosity or jealousy, but they all just seemed to be happy to see one another. There were so many inside jokes that half the time he wondered if they were even speaking English, but then he’d missed out on a lifetime of their scrapes and escapades. He found himself wishing he knew all their family stories.
A huge, familiar-looking man who had the look of a pro athlete was at his shoulder, beer in hand, watching Juliet talk to her sister. Sadie had turned out to be just as wild as he’d anticipated after that drunken phone call. The man watched the sisters as they talked animatedly, and the affection in his gaze made Will antsy. He didn’t look like one of the Callahans, and Will couldn’t place him.
“If you’re in this for the long haul, buddy, you’re going to have your hands full,” the man said, glancing over at him and grin
ning. Some of Will’s tension eased. That didn’t sound like a challenge for Juliet.
“You think?” he asked mildly.
“They’re hell on wheels, but nobody is good enough to deserve Callahan girls,” the stranger replied, then smiled a seductive and illicit invitation at Sadie when she noticed them talking. She started forward, a wiggling toddler on her hip. “All we can do is try.”
As Sadie reached them he took the boy in his arms and dropped a kiss that was far too heated for a family social gathering on Sadie’s waiting mouth.
“I see you’ve already met my asshole husband,” Sadie said, twisting her husband’s shirt in her fingers so he couldn’t escape. Not that he was trying to.
Ohh. This was Scott? Will had seen the guy now and again during the club renos, but they’d never been introduced. Maybe he’d been at a different job site most of the time.
For some reason, when Juliet talked about him, he’d always assumed Scott was shorter, less fit, and a lot dorky. This was Juliet’s best friend from university?
“And here I was just telling him nice things about you two.” Scott shook his head. “He caught me before I talked to you today, I guess. I always forget how mean you are to me.”
“You’re the one who didn’t do the dishes last night when I was at work. You get what you get.”
“It’s not my fault,” he said, placing a hand over his heart as though wounded.
“Not your fault? You left me with extra work to do, so I’d like to hear this excuse.”
“I got distracted thinking about how beautiful you are when you’re angry,” Scott replied solemnly.
They gazed at each other with such sexual heat that for a moment, Will considered excusing himself from the conversation.
Sadie seemed to give herself a mental shake and came out of her fog. She glanced over at Will, her face reddening. It was strange looking at Sadie and seeing so much of Juliet in her. He knew people said that all the time about him and Grant, but he’d never dated anyone who had siblings he’d met. It was strange and disconcerting.
