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Sloan sighed and handed me my pajama shirt. “Let’s go before the Canadian pops a vein.”
I laughed and reluctantly slid off his lap. It felt great to be in my jammies, though. I slipped the shirt over my head and smoothed down the soft cotton over my upper body, and then I followed Sloan out of the room again.
I grabbed his hand because I wanted to.
We walked into the sweetest fucking thing in the living room, and I couldn’t help it. The filthy thoughts took a hike, and I just wanted to get to know this little princess who was currently crawling all over Greer. He lay flat on his back on the gleaming floorboards, and he wore a silly grin for Kyla.
She was a babbler.
“Yeah, who’s that, baby girl? Is it Sloan and Corey?”
Archie was watching from the kitchen, and his love-sick expression was just as silly as Greer’s grin.
I squatted down next to Greer and touched Kyla’s chubby cheek. “How cute are you? Like a living, breathing punch in the ovaries.”
Greer rumbled a chuckle. “Lord knows if I’d had any, they’d be incinerated by now.”
“I’m talking about you too, Pop.” I dipped down and smacked a loud smooch to Greer’s forehead. “You make my ovaries go boom.”
He grinned lazily and patted my cheek. “Fuckin’ brat.”
Archie announced that Kyla’s food was ready, so Greer dragged himself off the floor with a grunt, and we gathered around the dining room table. And because Archie was Archie, there were snacks for us too. Vegetables with dip and crackers and cheese. Yum!
“That dip should be safe for you, love,” he told me. “I mixed a non-dairy sour cream into a regular recipe for aioli. Try it.”
His genuine care just kept socking me in the gut. I couldn’t get over how sweet he was.
The dip certainly looked good, very smooth, and mayo worked for me. I didn’t have texture issues with mayo.
I dragged a piece of celery through the dip and took a bite, and it was so tasty!
“Yeah?” He smiled triumphantly at my expression.
“I love it. Thank you, thank you.” I folded my legs underneath me, and I crunched away on the celery as I eyed the other veggies. Carrot sticks—love, love, love. Bell pepper strips, cucumber sticks, olives, a bunch of stuff. Oh, cauliflower too. Loved the taste and texture, disliked the smell. But it was worth it. “How did you make this so fast? We just got back.”
“Oh, I cheated a bit,” he admitted. He sat down across from me with Kyla’s mushy food, and Greer seemed reluctant to hand her over. He kept pressing smooches to her head. “We stopped at the store on the way, and the cheeses came on a platter already.”
Damn. I could’ve slept through a war, it felt like!
Well, I’d seen Archie chop vegetables. He did it so fast. And they always seemed to have a vegetable bar in the fridge, ready to be served.
“All right, I guess I’ll get right to it,” Greer said. “Shay is struggling quite a bit, and as much as he wants to be close to his kid brothers, he doesn’t want his nightmares to upset them. So—in short, tonight is their last night with his aunt in the city.”
“River and Reese are staying there too, I assume?” Sloan asked.
Greer nodded. “They’re talking about checking in to a hotel tomorrow, but that’s what I wanted to discuss with you. I’d like to offer for them to stay with us for a while.”
“Of course,” Archie and Sloan replied in unison. “We’ll make room,” Sloan added. “My hellions aren’t coming until Thursday anyway.”
I snatched a carrot stick and marveled at the compassion these men had for one another and our community. So quick to help and share their space.
If someone was in trouble, Marcus’s first reaction was to figure out what a nuisance it would be for him.
“What do you say, pet?”
I chewed on my carrot and couldn’t resist a Babybel cheese. They were so good. And extra salty crackers—
“Corey?”
What? I straightened and faced Greer. “What did I miss?”
He smirked a little. “I asked what you think about the Tenleys and Shay staying here.”
Oh! Oh, sorry. “Sorry, I didn’t think you meant that for me. This is your home. Your decision. But of course I’d like for them to come here. I’m guessing Shay isn’t coping well with being in Mclean either. I mean, the smell, seeing the house—I get it.” I nodded along, as if I were agreeing with what I said. Which I did, of course. “They can take my room,” I offered. “I don’t need that huge bed all to myself, and they’re three grown men. I can sleep upstairs on one of the pullout couches where the TV isn’t covered in plastic.”
Sloan’s TV was, however. From his move from the city, I reckoned. It just stood on the desk in the bedroom, with all those boxes.
