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“Really?” Penn flicked the long ends of his hair. “Last commercial I saw you in, there were more suds on you than pretty girls.”
“Even men have to do dishes, jerk.”
“Not if you have a maid.”
“Well, there are no maids here, so I appreciate the free products that Travis sent me from the set.” My mother came in with a huge platter of chicken. “And for that remark, Penn, you get to do dishes tonight.”
“Ma. I came all the way from—”
“I don’t care where you park your butt at night, Penn Michael Masterson, you come in this house and you’re just my son. And if you think you’re too good to get your hands dirty in my sink, you can skip my dinner too.”
“Jeez, Ma.” Penn crowded into her and dropped a kiss on her cheek. “I’ll do the dishes. Just don’t take away my chicken.”
“Go on now. Get the potatoes.”
I felt a small, cool hand curl around my fingers. “Can you come outside with me for a second?”
I frowned down at her and curled my arm around her back. “Everything okay? They didn’t scare you into leaving, did they?”
“No. I love your family. They’re so real.”
“Real is one word for it.”
She tipped her head up. “Just for a second.”
I put the last two plates down. “Sure. We’ll be right back, Mom.”
“Don’t be too long, the food will get cold.”
“Go ahead. We’ll be right back.”
“I don’t know that it’s fair for Moose to get to go outside to make out with a pretty girl. That should be my job,” Penn hollered.
My jaw tightened.
“More scooping, less talking,” my mother shot back.
I followed Vee outside. She led me to the edge of the deck, then urged me down two steps. “What’s up?”
She turned me to face her. With the height of the stairs, she was almost to my eye line. She framed my face with her hands. “Relax, Murphy.”
I frowned. “I’m relaxed.”
She smoothed her hands to
my shoulders and gripped them. “Really? Because there’s a lot of tension going on here and here.” She released my shoulders to smooth the pad of her forefinger between my brows.
“My brothers always make me crazy.”
“I don’t know how it is to live with siblings, but if it’s anything like me and Macy, I understand they know how to push your buttons.”
I blew out a breath. “Yeah.”
She laced her fingers along the back of my neck. “I only care about one Masterson man in that house. While your brothers are charming and funny in their own ways, they aren’t my Fortress. And that’s who I’m here with and want to be with.”
I lowered my mouth to hers and kissed her hard. The kind of kiss that marked her as mine. The kind of kiss I’d never felt the need to give a woman in my life. There were so many tangled emotions inside me when it came to me and Veronica.
Knowing how much more interesting my brothers were than I was had always been a sore spot for me. Women always chose Penn and Travis, and even Christian had people running after him like he was built out of chocolate.
