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We topped off the meal with sweet potato, pecan, and pumpkin pie, the six of us nearly finishing off all three. The few slices left meant there’d be a battle over them for breakfast, but that could wait.
Mac and Marcus put the kids to bed, while Adam and I got the den ready with drinks and a few new logs on the fire.
“What the hell happened out there?” I asked, pouring the two of us some bourbon. “How’d Henry get away from you?”
Adam shook his head. No doubt he was furious with himself.
“That kid loves the outdoors,” he said. “So much so, in fact, that I’m quickly learning that we can’t take our eyes off him for even a second while he’s out there with us. All he wants to do is explore.”
“Worse traits to have when you’re growing up on a ranch.” I stepped over to Adam, handing him the drink. We clinked glasses, then sipped.
“Yeah, especially when you spent the first year of your life in a DC apartment.”
I dropped into the couch in front of the fireplace, watching the flames crackle for a bit.
“No sense in beating ourselves up over it. Henry’s a kid, and a boy. Things like this are bound to happen here and there. Don’t forget what we were like as kids.”
“You’re right about that,” Adam agreed. “We got four pairs of eyes between us, though. There’s really no excuse in letting him wander off like that again.” Adam’s expression hardened. He’d always been the happy-go-lucky type, like Hattie. Weird seeing him like that. “When I looked around and realized that he’d run off…”
He grit his teeth, his jaw working back and forth. Adam didn’t finish his sentence. He didn’t need to—it was obvious what was on his mind.
“Hey, I said that you didn’t need to beat yourself up over it, and I meant it. Between four uncles and two kids, we’re going to be making all kinds of mistakes over the years. We learn from them, and we move on.”
He nodded. “Yeah. No sense dwelling on whatcould’vehappened.”
I sat back, taking a sip of my drink. “Kristen wrote in her will that if anything happened to her, we’d be the ones to take care of the twins. She wouldn’t have done that if she didn’t think we were up to the task.”
He smiled. “Then again, she figured it’d take allfourof us to raise them, not just one.”
I allowed myself a smile, too. “Hey, why settle for one uncle when you can have four? But she made the right call. I mean, what else was she going to do, try and get us to track down that deadbeat, piece-of-shit ex of hers?”
“Seth,” he said, practically spitting out the name. “Worthless prick.”
We both took sips of our booze, as if trying to wash the taste of mentioning him out of our mouths.
“Alright, boys.” Mac’s booming voice came from behind us. We turned to see him and Marcus coming into the room, Mac with his laptop tucked under his arm. “Had a little discussion with Markie here.”
“Oh yeah?” I asked. “What’s the word?”
“Figured that if we were going to bring this up,” Marcus said. “We might as well just go ahead and go the whole nine.”
“And what doesthatmean?” Adam asked.
Mac curled the side of his mouth as he opened his laptop on the coffee table.
“Means that before we talk about the idea of her being a potential nanny, we’re going to vet her a bit.”
“Now, that’s thinking,” Adam said. “What’s the point of having all these fancy security clearances if we’re not going to use them to make sure anyone who’s going to be looking after our kids is on the level?”
The boys and I were all ex-military. Mac and Adam were former SEALS, Mac a commander. I was a Marine, and Tyler was a former Green Beret. While our servicemember pasts were behind us, we still kept our toes in that world. Mac, for example, owned an extraction agency called Exfil Inc. – a top-secret military contractor used by the government to extract high-value targets out of dicey areas.
We all pitched in. Truth was, that Exfil Inc. more or less ran itself at this point. We had a solid team of men, and these days the boys and I did little more than serve as middlemen between our contacts in the military and the team. We used to go out on missions, but not one of us had done that since taking in the twins.
“Anyway,” Mac said, typing. “The woman’s name is Aubrey Downing. Shouldn’t be too hard to track her info down.”
We all sat in silence as Mac did his thing, pulling up databases and searching for her. It wasn’t long before a picture appeared on the screen, one from the local newspaper, the title “City Girl Makes Good.”
The picture of her that accompanied the article was… something else. I nearly dropped my drink at the sight of her. The shot was of her in front of the main house of Downing Farm, a llama at her side and a big smile on her face. She was tall and slender, dressed in jeans and a T-shirt and a pair of cowboy boots. Her hair was dark and curly, her skin olive, and her body as fine as they came. Just the sight of her in the photo was enough to make my cock twitch to life.
