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Riley was not comprehending anything Emma said. He shrugged.
“They’re not really chocolate eggs. They’re chocolate brown color, but they’re regular eggs.”
Riley shoved Brady away from the front door. “You think I’m that dumb? You think I don’t know the difference between chocolate eggs and regular eggs? Who the fuck do you think I am anyway?”
Brady covered Emma’s ears. “Hey, sport. Watch it.”
“I was only kidding.”
“Then watch your language.” He set Emma down. “I was just saying—just giving you a little bit of information, no harm no foul.”
“Chocolate eggs. Really?” Riley laughed. “What the hell are you guys doing over there? You already have—what?—a hundred chickens?”
“I’ve got about sixty-six, give or take. Out of these ten, chances are there’ll be at least five males, and we don’t need any more roosters.”
“Well, bring them over here. I’ll let those darn things eat bugs, and I’ll bet you they’d chase off the wild pigs on our property, don’t you think?”
“If any of those babies turned into big old tall roosters with spurs, you could. I mean there’s a lot of things that are afraid of a big old angry rooster. I used to have sheep that were scared to death of them.”
“Yeah, well, I think Cassie’s pug would probably be a little intimidated. I’m afraid we can’t have any barnyard animals here, but it would be fun, wouldn’t it?”
“I’ll domesticate you yet, Riley.”
“You know when I said yes to watching over your little stash over there, I didn’t say I was going to feed any chickens. I mean, I’ll watch Emma and Tate, but I’m not a farmer, and I’m not going to watch chickens, especially baby chickens and no roosters. I draw the line at roosters.”
Brady could see that Riley was drunk already and soon would make no sense at all. And that accounted for some of the things he was saying and the way he was saying them.
Cassie greeted them and gave Brady a hug and kiss on the cheek.
“Maggie all safe and sound?” she asked.
“Just talked to her. She’s landed, and I’m going to talk to her a little more later. But she’s on the ground and looking forward to getting some sleep before the morning.”
“Well, that’s good. You can relax, and we’ll have a nice dinner, and then the kids can show you some of their projects,” Cassie finished.
“Projects?” Brady asked.
Riley rolled his eyes and took another long draw on his beer.
“We’ve got an ant farm going, and Dorie’s trying to raise butterflies, but so far it’s been an epic fail.” She scrunched up her beautiful face. “I thought it was a bad idea in the first place. I mean ants, if they die, I don’t care anything about them. But butterflies, when they die or when the caterpillars die or the chrysalis comes apart or falls, I hate that. I don’t like death.”
Brady glanced at Riley who had raised his eyebrows so high they had disappeared under his bangs. “That’s why I married her, Brady,” he said with a shrug.
The rest of the evening was a fun collection of conversations overriding and competing with each other, the kids excitedly playing together, running back and forth just like the baby chicks Brady had at home. They formed a pack quite easily.
Riley and Cassie had done quite a bit to the house and, with their third child, had to invest in bunk beds. One of the bedrooms wound up with queen-sized bunk beds that took nearly the entire space of the room. But the way everything was arranged, they could probably sleep six to ten kids. He watched his friend enjoy his girls and the banter and play. Riley crawled around on all fours with all four of the kids riding his back. He growled and arched and gently tossed them off his back only to have them climb back on.
Riley was one of the best men to have on a team at your side. He was focused, high energy, and a ruthlessly accurate shot, even with the loss of his left ring finger. Despite his specialty in explosives and rigging gadgets that went boom, no one on the team could outperform him with weapons.
But tonight, he was a father and husband, his past very distant and not necessary.
Brady hoped that the rest of Riley’s life would remain just like this. And he couldn’t wait for his family to start settling down and directing their energy toward their homestead.
In fact, he was downright jealous.
