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“They do that to scare off other fish,” Aiden said.
“Why?”
“Because he doesn’t like to get eaten, Blondie.” Aiden tickled his nephew.
“Maybe you would like to get eaten? I’m feeling reeeal hungry…” Aiden said, aiming for his best cartoon villain tone. Declan laughed at his bulky cousin acting like a kid again.
Tommy shot off Keenan’s lap and ran from the living room and up the stairs. “Come and get me, uncle Aiden. You’ll never find me!”
“When you find him, take him to bed, will you?” Keenan shouted. “I’ll be up in five.”
Aiden didn’t bother to answer his brother. He took the stairs two steps at a time and shouted, “Boe-ha-ha-haaaa!”
Declan and Keenan smiled at Tommy’s high-pitched squeal, followed by spirited laughter by them both.
“Damn, he’s a great kid,” Declan said.
“He’s the best. I can’t believe I’ve let that woman babysit him. I knew in my gut something wasn’t right with her. I always go with my gut. Shit, what do I do now?”
“Do you need help to find a replacement?”
“I know my sisters and Mom are happy to help. There’s so much going on right now with me and Aiden finally taking over the business from Dad. I need to work. But he needs structure. I can’t have him hopping between my sisters and Mom. Tommy needs someone who can pick him up from Kindergarten. Someone who can stay with him four workdays of the week. Take him to play dates and all that shit. He needs a stable home after all that’s happened.”
“You’re such a great dad, Keen. I hope you don’t beat yourself up about—”
Keenan scrunched his nose. “I don’t want to talk about her. Let’s talk about you. How are things?” Keenan asked.
Declan let his head fall back on the brown leather sofa and stared at the ceiling. He sighed. “She’s not returning any of my calls.”
“Does anyone else know what happened between you?” Keenan asked.
“No. I’ve told no one. You know why I haven’t told Ro any of this. He’sthisclose at getting his nose punched if he makes one more wise crack about the Ryan girls.”
“You haven’t even told Bren?”
Declan closed his eyes and shook his head. Normally, he would tell his oldest brother everything. He’d talked multiple times with Brennan about his feelings for Bree.
“No. Bree texted me she wanted to keep it a secret. If you hadn’t seen her sneaking out of my home this morning, I wouldn’t have told you either.”
Keenan snickered. “Yeah, it was quite the show. Tommy said, ‘Why is Miss Bree running, Dad?’ and then he asked me, ‘What happened to her hair?’”
It vexed Declan that he’d missed the sight of her mussed up hair. He’d wanted to hold her in his arms this morning. To give her a kiss on the nose before he got out of bed and make them both breakfast.
An omelet with the sunny side up for Bree, scrambled eggs with crispy bacon for him. He knew what his girl liked for breakfast. And after last night, he also knew what she liked in bed. He had to shift his seat at the image of her shredded panties he’d kept in his underwear drawer.
“Still, what are you going to do about it?”
Declan leaned forward with his elbows resting on his knees. “I’m giving her some distance. I haven’t texted her since this morning. But she’s never going to reach out to me, Cuz. I just know it. She wants to forget it ever happened, and I have no clue why. It was the best night of my life. The best fucking sex of my life.”
“Now we’re talking!” Aiden said as he hopped down the stairs.
“I’m upstairs for one moment and you guys start the pillow talk. Who did you have sex with?” Aiden plopped down on the sofa.
“No one,” Keenan and Declan said at the same time.
“Ooooh, now Iknowthis is going to be juicy. Juicy as the pussy you were talking about, am I right?”
Declan cuffed the back of Aiden’s head. “Shut ye damn face.”
