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Somehow he got the idea she was joking. “My father tossed a box of condoms at me and threatened to kill me if I got the wrong girl pregnant. But also told me I better have sex or I couldn’t consider myself a man.”
Kenzie’s eyes lit like she looked forward to the challenge of whose parent was more embarrassing. “My father left books about sex around the house in case we needed information. One of them was about safe anal sex. He left it in my brother’s room because he wasn’t sure if Seth was gay, and he didn’t want to leave him out.”
Dare winced. “That’s pretty bad.”
“It’s okay. Kala took it and read it at the table at my dad’s next big family dinner, and he did not do that again,” Kenzie said with a shake of her head. “He just sat down and sighed and said touché. It was one of the greatest moments of my childhood.”
“Is he?” There was that curiosity again.
“Is who?”
“Is your brother gay?”
She shook her head. “Nah, but he wouldn’t talk to Dad the way the rest of us did. Seth likes to communicate via song lyrics, and my dad is bad with song lyrics. He assumes everything is about sex. So when Seth sang about being isolated and not knowing how to tell people who he is, Dad went straight to ‘my son’s gay and I gotta show him I love him.’ You’ll like Seth. Do not listen to my dad. He’s a great songwriter, and he’s got a nice voice.”
“I’m sure he’s good.”
“And then there’s my dumbass brother Travis, who didn’t use a condom. That’s his name now. My dad is getting it legally changed.”
That man did not look old enough to be someone’s grandpa. “Tash mentioned something about a wedding that got canceled.”
“Oh, I’ll show you the video. My aunt Grace was trying her hand at wedding planning, and she had a videographer there. You can see the moment my brother’s soul leaps back into his body when he realizes he won’t actually have to get married. I’ve never seen Travis so happy.”
“But now he’s a single dad,” Dare found a T-shirt and pulled it over his head.
“Turns out he’s pretty good at it,” she admitted. “He’s had some help, but for the most part he does the work. He’s balancing taking care of Colton with working and going to law school. I don’t know what disappointed my dad more, the unplanned pregnancy or the lawyer thing. I think it’s the lawyer thing. I, for one, am happy he’s going to learn how to get Kala’s ass out of jail because it will land there one day.”
“Your dad doesn’t like the kid?” The thought of a kid being unwanted rattled him. Like he’d been.
Kenzie snorted. “Yeah, sure. You’ve obviously never seen my dad around kids. He carries Colton around and calls him his little buddy and is already teaching him stuff he shouldn’t. My father is a menace.”
He didn’t seem like one. If Ian was telling him the truth, he was doing everything he could to make sure the op ran well.
Or to make sure his daughter ended up happy.
He didn’t want to think about this. He shouldn’t be talking to Tasha’s sister about anything except the mission. He didn’t need to know more about her family.
“Zach and Chet got into it big time last night,” Kenzie revealed.
Shit. Tasha’s sister knew how to reel him in. “They did? What did that fucker say about her? Chet, not Zach.”
“Zach would never say anything bad about Tasha. Tasha is a saint in Zach’s eyes.”
“Because he’s in love with her.”
Kenzie’s eyes went wide. “What?”
Oh, so he knew something she didn’t. Wasn’t that fun? It actually was. It was really fun. “He’s clearly in love with her. I got the whole ‘if you hurt her, I’ll kill you and then run away with her’ speech, though the kill you part was mostly implied.”
Kenzie seemed to think about that for a moment. “Holy crap. That makes so much sense now.” She looked up at him, a gleam in her eyes. “You are good at collecting information. Now do Tristan. Figure out why he’s being a big old scaredy cat when it comes to marrying Carys and Aidan. Mostly Carys, I think, but Aidan’s in there somewhere.”
So. Many. Questions. “Did Chet get his head taken off?”
“Dad cooled everyone down,” she said with a sigh. She studied him for a moment. “All right. I’ll tell you the reason I really came over. I needed to see if you hurt Tash.”
He frowned. “Of course I did. I lashed out at her and said some shit I shouldn’t have and I made her cry because I’m an asshole.”
She got the softest look on her face and stood up, crossing the space between them.
