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“What’re you talking about?” Luke called indignantly from across the room. “I drew a picture of you once.”
“And…Luke’s talking,” Bentley mumbled acerbically under her breath as she reached forward to pull her son from my arms. “Things are about to get dirty. Come on, kiddo,” she announced aloud to Braiden. “Help me set up the candles on Uncle Fox’s birthday cake in the kitchen, will you?”
Meanwhile, Luke’s older brother spat back from the couch, “You mean, the picture of you chopping off his leg with a chainsaw after he beat you in the foot race when you guys were kids?”
“If Luke’s so dirty,” I heard my nephew say to his mom as she took his hand and led him from the room. “Why doesn’t he just take a bath?”
In the middle of tipping up the bottle when I heard that, I choked on the beer to contain a laugh.
“Whoa there.” Beau pounded on my back as my eyes watered, and I coughed out a couple more sputters to catch my wind. “You okay, bud?”
“I don’t know,” Luke piped up again. “He doesn't look so good. He might not make it.” Then he snickered and hollered, “Lucy, quick!” as he motioned toward me and waggled his eyebrows at Beau’s sister. “Since sympathy sex for dying guys is your thing now, you better hop on that, and give our boy Fox a proper send-off.”
“Oh my God, Luke!” Lucy wailed, covering her mortified face with both hands while her father, Noel, exploded, “What in the hell!” and the rest of the room either gasped or called Luke out for his lack of class. A few people even threw paper cups and napkins at him.
Closing my eyes and shaking my head, I silently said goodbye to Luke because he probably wasn’t going to survive the night.
Opening my lashes, I focused on Noel as his face turned a livid red and a vein appeared on his forehead. Next to him, his wife, Aspen, was gathering Lucy into her arms and hugging her tight.
“Control your kid, Hammy,” Noel ordered. “Before I wipe him off the face of the planet.”
Quinn, who’d been standing a few feet behind Luke next to his wife, Zoey, reached forward, grabbed the back of his son’s shirt, and hauled him in reverse to his side where he arched a single eyebrow and said, “Really?”
Luke f
lushed, looking sufficiently chastised, even as he gave a nervous laugh. “What? I was just funning with her. She knew I didn’t mean anything by it.”
His mother blinked. “I don’t see how that was funny. At all.”
Not far away, Trick snorted. “I kind of thought it was funny,” he said until his own dad smacked him in the back of the head.
“No, you didn’t,” Pick told him.
And Trick quickly straightened his grin into a frown, shaking his head. “No. No, I didn’t.”
“Luke, you have the worst sense of humor ever,” Gracen announced, from where he’d collapsed into a single chair with Bella and had an arm wrapped around her shoulders as she rested her head back on his shoulder.
A wave of jealousy rolled over me. I wished I could openly cuddle on a chair with her like that.
“Oh, shut up, Lowe,” Luke was snapping back at Gray and scowling his way. “Your sister still picks out what clothes you wear, so your opinion is whack.”
Gracen perked up his eyebrows. “She doesn’t pick out what I wear, moron. She picks out what I buy. Because one, I don’t give a shit about fashion. Two, I hate shopping, and three, she loves it. Pros all around, my friend. Now argue that.”
“Ignore him, Gracen,” Chloe reassured from another corner. “He’s just jealous he doesn’t have a sister to give him a better wardrobe.”
Luke narrowed his eyes her way. “What’s wrong with my wardrobe?”
“You dress like a douche,” Lucy piped up. Which made Chloe point her way and answer, “Exactly.”
Luke sniffed between the two girls, before narrowing his gaze on Chloe and muttering, “Rude,” before he glanced at Lucy. “Luce, you’re allowed that jab because I burned you first.”
“Alright then,” my mom called, clapping her hands together to gain everyone’s attention. “Now that all that—whatever it was—is out of the way, what say we get back to celebrating Fox’s birthday, huh?”
“Yeah,” Ten cheered, “before Ham’s kid over there unseats me as the designated jackass of the group with all the inappropriate bullshit he’s spewing.” He sent Luke a severe glance. “No one dethrones me, boy.” Then he leaned back on the couch he was sitting on with his family and eyed Teagan who was cuddled up next to JB. “Thank you again for not marrying that brother.”
“No problem, Dad.” Teagan grinned and tipped her head to rest it against her husband, while JB smirked triumphantly at Luke as he tugged her closer against him.
“We have cake and ice cream,” Mom continued saying. “But first, we had supper catered in from Fox’s favorite restaurant.”
