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“What?” Mom shrugs. “So I stopped by Pottery Barn Kids too. Let me spoil them.” Then she goes right back over to Kerrigan and sits on the floor with her, where I have no doubt, she’ll stay for the entire game.
“We have pretty great parents.”
I gasp and turn and shove Leo as hard as I can. “You scared the shit out of me.”
“Language, Everly. There’s little ears,” Mom scolds, and I, in turn, yank on Leo’s ear.
“Ow. Hey, what’s that for?”
“That’s for scaring me. What are you doing here?” I demand while my eyes go back and forth between Kerrigan and Mom, and Dad and Jax.
“Your laundry is in the dryer, Leo. I haven’t folded it yet. But if you bring it in here for me, I’ll fold it during the game.”
I roll my eyes and shove my brother. “You’re such a momma’s boy.”
Leo just smiles even bigger. “Yup. You trying to tell me you don’t want Jax to be a momma’s boy one day?”
Well... damn. I hadn’t thought about it like that. And now that I am, I guess I do... Because at some point, I’m going to become his mom.
By the time the game starts, Jax is asleep in a crib mom put in the guest room upstairs—because she’s crazy like that—and Kerrigan is falling asleep on the couch. The kids are great with bedtime, and that’s usually seven o’clock, which was an hour ago. I probably should have just watched the game alone, but I’m not sure I could have done it.
“Honey, you could put Kerrigan in your old bed. I haven’t gotten a toddler bed yet because I wasn’t sure if she was in one or if she was in a twin.”
“Mom, you didn’t have to do all this,” I tell her as I pull the blanket up around Kerrigan.
“I know I didn’t, but I wanted to. This is your family, Everly. And that makes themourfamily. Take it from someone who didn’t have family when I met the Sinclairs. You can never havetoo many people who love and accept and support you. Let me spoil my first grandchildren.”
“Mom,” my voice shakes, and Dad hisses.
“Don’t make her cry, Annabelle.”
“Shush, Dec. A mother’s job is to make their daughters cry,” she tells him.
I shake my head. “Pretty sure it’s not, Mom.”
“Cross is back on the ice,” Tommy says as he leans forward and starts rattling off Cross’s statistics.
“Is he going after the puck or the player?” Dad asks as he watches Cross get away with high-sticking number two on the Pittsburgh team. Damn it.
“That’s no player,” Leo says, and I throw an elbow his way. “That’s Everly’s ex-boyfriend.”
Cross slams him into the boards behind the net, where Jace Kingston is. It looks like Keith gets caught in Jace’s stick, and that’s when the God of War wreaks havoc. Ares throws down his gloves and punches Keith, then yanks his hockey jersey over his head so Keith can’t fight back.
Oh my God.
Cross moves Ares out of the way and takes his shot, and all the players fly off the benches as a team-wide fight breaks out.
“What the hell?” Dad asks.
“Shit. Why do I think that’s my fault?” Leo asks.
“It’s not,” I tell him. “It’s not evenmyfault.”
Ihadn’t thought about how I’m supposed to get the kids out of the car when they’re both asleep and I’m by myself until it happened tonight. I look at my backseat, then at the kids. I don’t want to leave one back there while I carry the other in. And I don’t want to wake either of them up.
Shit.
Jax’s car seat is heavy when it’s hanging from the bend of your damn arm, but I’ve got it, and I’m so damn proud of myself when I manage to get Kerrigan on my hip without her waking up. That is, until I get to the door and realize I have no possible hope of reaching my house keys.
