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She helped Nova out of the paint shirt after wiping Nova's hands gently. Noah just stood there like a dork and waited. He looked to his left. Patton was wiping the little blond girls' hands while Parker made faces at the other group of even younger kids.
"Parker, get Elly, ok," Patton ordered, rolling his eyes at his brother’s back. "Grab Becky, too. We'll take her upstairs with us."
The dork twins were close enough to hear. One of them pushed the other. "It's Philip's turn to get Becky this time. I had to take care of her last week."
Then two really little girls came running up, papers in their hands with crayon scribbles all over them.They were saying something, but only someone from an alien planet would ever be able to understand it.
"All right, everybody. Upstairs. Dad's going to be waiting," Patton said again. He was really good at being in charge. He just scooped up the littlest blond girl like he didn't mind carrying around a kid that little. Like he didn’t care that it wasn’t cool or anything, or that his friends might make fun of him.
The twins were still fighting over who had to help their sister. He bet if they had to spend a week in the group home wondering what kind of people had their littlesister far away, they'd not be such buttheads. "She's your baby sister. You guys are supposed to take care of her."
The twins just snickered at him. The one in blue kept talking. "You take care of her, then. You have to hold her hand on the stairs now. She doesn't do the stairs so good. She fell down them two weeks ago the first time we were here, and her nose bled and everything. Mom practically freaked, and Uncle Phil and Perci had to take her and Becky to the hospital while Aunt Glenna cleaned up all the blood."
Idiots. The twins probably didn't share a full brain between them. But the little girl was blinking up at them, unsure what was going on. She was just a little kid—she deserved better brothers than those buttheads. Noah looked at Patton.
Patton was ok taking care of a little kid. Like it wasn't a bad thing at all. All the guys Noah used to know in his old life would make fun of him for wanting to take care of Nova, for wanting to make sure she was ok. For…having to. But here... It was different here.
Masterson was definitely different, that was for sure.
"Come on, kid. Let's go find your mommy." Noah lifted Robin’s little girl into his arms and put her on his hip just like Patton had the other one. "Nova, let's go. Dad is waiting."
He was halfway up the stairs before what he'd said sank in. Dad. He'd said Dad, hadn't he? Instead of Nick. He’d meant to say your dad, but that wasn’t what came out.
Like he was actually Nick's kid or something. That was just crazy.
Him. Crazy Noah Brown...the fake Tyler of Masterson County.
Becky's arms wrapped around his neck, like Nova's used to when she was really small. Becky kind of made him feel like he mattered again. Was important. Her brothers were stupid for not taking care of her. Noah reached down with his free hand and grabbed Nova's, like he had so many times before. He looked at the twins. "Come on, you dorks. Your mom is probably waiting."
If he left them alone down here, they'd end up pushing each other down those stairs and killing the both of them. They shouldn't be allowed to run loose without leashes, or something.
"Yeah, and making goo-goo eyes at your dad!" the other twin said, while his brother made gagging noises. "Gross."
"Just come on, ok?"
