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“As long as it’s okay with them, get whatever you want and bring it in here.” He nodded in the general direction of the dads. He didn’t care about the children having a snack, but his cousins might feel differently.
Once they received the okay, Reese and the boys headed toward the doorway. Erin soon followed her with James and Cooper.
Scott stood up as his son and Erin passed by him. “If you’ll watch Bebe, I’ll go help them. They might need it.”
“Yeah, of course.” Curt accepted Scott’s daughter and made a mental note to remember Belinda was wearing the brown onesie with the large pink poodle on the front.
Trent waited until the children and Scott left before circling back to the conversation they’d been having. “What kind of situation have you gotten yourself into this time?”
Curt gave them the condensed version of events over the past week.
“When will you and Taylor find out?” Jake asked when he finished.
“Soon. Both Jordan and Reese had the cheek swabs done at the beginning of the week,” he answered, reaching for his beeping cell phone on the end table.
We’re all on our way back. The message from Taylor read.
He’d expected them much later tonight. He knew his sister had made dinner reservations at The Raven’s Nest, the nicest restaurant at the ski resort. While Leah could have changed their reservation time, he didn’t see why she would. If the group was on its way home now, either Leah had changed it or something had happened. But then again, if someone in the group was injured, one of his cousins would’ve received a phone call or a text message. Other than when his younger cousin Alec called earlier to let his brother Trent know he wouldn’t be up today but would see everyone tomorrow in Salem, everyone’s phone had been silent up until now.
Is everything okay?
Curt received a response right away.
I received an email from the lab.
Mass Genetics told Taylor they’d email the results to both her and Jordan. When they didn’t arrive yesterday, he’d assumed the lab was closed on the weekends and they wouldn’t hear anything until Monday at the earliest.
Taking in a deep breath, he exhaled slowly before replying. And?
I’m waiting until I get home to check. That’s why we’re on our way back. See you soon.
You can read the results without me.
I’d rather wait.
Setting the device down, Curt rested his head against the back of the armchair and closed his eyes.
“Bad news?” Brett pulled his beeping cell phone from his pocket and looked at the screen.
“Taylor got the results from the lab.”
“Since you aren’t smiling, I guess it means Jordan is Reese’s father,” his brother said as he typed a message and then put his phone away.
He both understood Taylor’s reasoning and appreciated that she was waiting until they were together to read the results. At the same time, he wished she’d opened the email as soon as she saw it and put him out of his misery. “Taylor hasn’t read the email yet.”
“I would’ve opened it as soon as I saw it,” Brett said.
“She’s waiting until she gets home. Everyone is on their way back now.”
“Yeah, I just got a text from Jen telling me they’d be home in about two hours.”
Reese and Erin reentered the room and escorted the boys over to the large coffee table. Scott followed them, carrying a tray of drinks and snacks for both the adults and the children. “I thought they had dinner reservations,” Scott said.
“Small change in plans.” Curt snagged a can of root beer as his cousin walked by and opened it. At the moment, he’d much prefer a shot or two of scotch, but with eight children in the house, soda would have to do.
He watched Reese pour some goldfish into a plastic bowl for James, then stick a straw in his juice box. And for at least the twentieth time this week, he prayed the test determined that Jordan and Reese weren’t related.
Nine
