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“Uncle Kid is tired, Jake. Very tired.”
Jake, ignoring me, started bouncing on the bed, singing, “Smell-ee, Unka Kid, smell-ee.” He extended the ‘ee’ sound until I was sure he was drilling into my eardrums with the syllable.
“You know you need to shower when a toddler says you stink,” Finn commented.
Blindly, I flipped him the bird as the bed jostled under Jake’s jumps. “The audacity. Jake, I’ve changed your diapers. You think I stink? You ain’t seen nothing, dude.”
Obviously unimpressed, a second later, I yowled when those little knees of his landed on my kidneys in payback.
“Stink-ee, stink-ee, Unka Kid!”
Finn snorted. “Be grateful it isn’t your junk. He’s got no respect for other men’s dicks.”
“Dick-uh. Dick-uh.”
“Ah, shit,” Finn complained under his breath as Jake started singing and giggling the word, making it two syllables and not one. “Jake!” Finn raised his voice to be heard over the song I didn’t need to hear. “Quit it before Mommy comes and tells me off for using bad words around you.”
Jake’s soft giggles told me he was well aware that Mommy would tell Daddy off for using bad words and Jake washerefor it.
With a huff, I rolled over, and because his attention was elsewhere, I managed to scoop him up without him expecting it. He let loose a loud squeal that cascaded into more giggles as I tickled his belly and hefted him in the air until he’d forgotten about bad words.
Squinting at my brother, I asked, “Why are you here?”
“I’m not anywhere I’m not supposed to be.”
My squint deepened. “It’s too early for philosophical debates.”
“I’m not debating anything,” Finn retorted, amused. “I’m sitting inmyguest suite where you passed outtwogoddamn days ago.” His head tipped to the side. “Jake wasnothappy about waiting for his Uncle Kid to wake up. Plus, I wanted to check in on you before Aoife did.”
“Why would Aoife check in on me?”
He hesitated. “Because she loves you?”
My lips twitched. “I love her too.”
“I’ll allow it.”
I dragged my middle finger along the length of my nose. “What else?”
“We were worried about you.”
Hauling my ass to the head of the bed, I snagged Jake into a bear hug then found myself surprised when he settled down too, face nuzzling against my throat, mumbling, “Uncle Kid nap time.”
Only a kid wouldn’t mind that I hadn’t showered in four days.
“He’s been up since five,” Finn reasoned, but his smile was as genuine as it got as he watched his kid.
It was smiles like that I’d kill to protect.
No one had had it easy in my family.
We were rich as fuck but it came at a price.
Until Aoife had come along, I didn’t think any of my brothers had really known what happiness even looked like. Then, Aoife had started making that smile appear on Finn’s face on a regular basis and we’d realized that we didn’t just have to live in misery.
One by one, my brothers had found their women. One by one, those smiles had started becoming a recurring thing.
I was happy to seetheirhappiness. Just… was it wrong to want some of that for myself?
