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Oliver chuckled at his future brother-in-law’s first-world problem and passed the salad to Mia. “Thank you,” she said quietly. Turning to look at him, she captured his gaze and smiled in a way that took his breath away. The last time he’d seen that smile was eighteen years ago. When he was inside her. “For the flask.”
He hid his interest by grinning back. “You thought I forgot, didn’t you?”
In truth, he’d gone back to look for the flask as soon as he’d gotten her settled in one of the spare bedrooms and told her to get some sleep. It had only taken him half an hour to find it. The sneaky little bugger was wedged good and tight between a tree root and the garden edging. It was a little banged up, but the engraving was undamaged. He’d managed to buff out the scratches without too much trouble.
He’d intended to tell her about it when he woke her up that morning, but then she’d thrown back the covers, revealing her toned body with those insanely long legs and perfect breasts.
Fuck. He could wax lyrical about those breasts.
His brain had stalled at the sight of her, and then it had flipped a switch and gone into overdrive and flooded his mind with memories of the one and only time she’d had those legs wrapped tightly around him as she came, screaming his name.
Okay, maybe not just once. It had been a wild afternoon.
His cock had twitched against his thigh, he’d licked his lips, and then Mia had started a conversation about camping and Ollie had completely forgotten to tell her he’d found her father’s flask.
“I didn’t think that at all,” Mia protested, then lifted one shoulder in a half-hearted shrug. “Okay, I didn’t think that for very long,” she added, grinning. “But I’ve never been gladder to be proven wrong.”
“What did Oliver forget this time?” Rafe asked before sinking his teeth into a chicken leg.
“Hey, you heard the woman,” Ollie protested, frowning at his brother. “I didn’t forget anything.”
“I dropped my dad’s flask last night when I was walking home from the cemetery and couldn’t find it. It’s not worth much, except for its sentimental value, but I was paranoid someone would find it and keep it. And Ollie promised he’d go back and look for it if I let him get me off—”
Jane sputtered and half choked. “Ollie promised to get you off?”
“Her leg, Janie,” Ollie growled as everyone else snorted and chuckled behind their hands. “I got her off her bad leg.” When his sister-in-law grinned wickedly at him like the imp she was, he rolled his eyes. “Jesus Christ. I can’t wait until you pop out those babies so you can focus all your attention on them and stop being a pain inmyarse.”
“Really?” Jane said. “And here I thought you were just eager to have two more nieces to dote on.” Then she let loose an exaggerated sigh, shook her head, and added, “I do hope Josie and Diana don’t get jealous of their new cousins stealing away their favourite uncle’s attention.”
“Pretty sure Josie and Diana will be the first in line to offer their babysitting services,” Abby said, then winked at Ollie. “Followed very closely by their favourite uncle.”
Ollie chose to ignore his siblings and eat his lunch, knowing the second he was back in the forge he’d be doing a solid half hour of breathing exercises to make up for the fact he wasn’t currently telling them all to go fuck themselves.
Of course he was a devoted uncle. The likelihood he was ever having kids of his own was slim to none, so he had to direct all that protective instinct somewhere.
“Who are Josie and Diana?” Mia asked.
“Charlie’s twin girls. They’ll be fourteen this year.”
Mia started choking on her food and grabbed for her water glass. “Wait a second,” she said after swallowing half the glass of water. “You’re telling me Charlie—Charlie—has kids? Someone actually chose to procreate with that serial pest? On purpose?”
“Yep,” Oliver said, grinning, then told Mia the tale of how Charlie became a father.
“So… he knocked up his lesbian best friend’s bisexual lover because it was cheaper than IVF? Do I have that right?”
“Yep,” Ollie said again.
Mia seemed to mull that over for a moment before nodding. “Well, I guess it’s on brand for the Bennetts,” she said, making the rest of the table laugh. “You’ve always been the most interesting family I know. And the most welcoming.” Then she ducked her head and shifted in her seat. “Thank you for letting me stay here last night.”
It wasn’t instinct that had Ollie reaching for her hand and giving it a squeeze. It was need. A powerful need to touch her again. “You’re welcome to stay at The Forge for as long as you like.”
She could stay forever, if she wanted to.
Chapter Eight
Mia couldn’t remember the last time she’d had a home-cooked meal with friends, and now she’d had two in one day.
No one put out a spread better than Abby and Jane. She’d known them since she was twelve and they were nine, but even back then they were the ones in charge of the kitchen.
