Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 82265 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 411(@200wpm)___ 329(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82265 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 411(@200wpm)___ 329(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
Lifting my phone from my lap, I check my messages for what feels like the hundredth time since I got here. “Waiting on a booty call?” I hear her voice, and my head snaps up. Instantly my mood changes. The tightness and the invisible weight on my shoulders lift.
“Tink.” There’s reverence in the way that I say her name.
She tilts her head to the side, and I wish she wasn’t wearing sunglasses so I could see her eyes. They’re always so expressive. “What’s up?” she asks. She nods toward my phone.
“Nothing. Just checking to see if you’d texted me,” I admit.
“Was I supposed to and forgot?” she asks.
Declan coughs from his chair next to me. “I’m going to go wrangle my daughter and make her go down the slide with me,” he says, standing and offering his wife his hand. Kennedy waves at Alyssa, and they walk away.
“No,” I finally reply. “You weren’t supposed to text me. I was just… anxious for you to get here, I guess.”
“Aww, did you miss me, Tank?” she teases.
Grabbing her hand, I pull her onto my lap. She laughs as I wrap my arms around her and bury my face in her neck. I have no doubt that we’re putting on a show, and my entire family is watching us, but I have zero fucks to give.
“I always miss you,” I whisper in her ear. When her body shudders, my mood gets even brighter. She’s not as unaffected by me as she’d like for me to believe.
She smiles at me over her shoulder.
“Can I see your phone?” Rushton asks as he approaches us. He holds his hand out to Alyssa.
She shifts on my lap, my hard cock making itself known. She freezes, then continues to dig it out of her back pocket, unlocks the screen, and hands it to my brother.
“Thanks.” Rushton bends over and places it on the ground. The next thing I know, he’s lifting my girl from my arms and running toward the pool, yelling, “Cannonball,” as they jump in. I should be pissed at him, but the laughter and the smile coming from Alyssa keep me from bitching.
“He saved you, you know?”
I turn to look at Archer sitting next to me. “How so?”
“It’s written all over your face, bro. You’re gone for her.”
“What if I am?” I ask instead of denying it. I’m so damn tired of hiding how I feel about her.
Archer shrugs. “I’m not the one you need to ask that to.” He nods to where Rushton, Alyssa, Ramsey, and Deacon are playing a game of chicken. The girls are laughing so hard they can hardly stay on the guys’ shoulders.
“Have you ever been in love, Archer?” I ask.
“No, but I know what it looks like. We had good examples, and our older brothers are doing a pretty good job of making that known.” He chuckles.
“She’s my best friend.”
“I’m sure that Dad, Orrin, Brooks, Declan, and even Deacon would all say the same thing about their wives. She’s supposed to be your best friend.”
“It’s a big deal, changing over twenty years of friendship. It could backfire.”
“Maybe.” He shrugs. “You’ll never know unless you take your shot.”
“Losing her—” I swallow hard. “—is not something I’m willing to do.”
“I wouldn’t want to be in your shoes, brother.” With those sage words, he stands and walks away.
“Remi!” Blakely cheers and scrambles to climb out of the pool.
“Easy, squirt,” Declan calls after her.
Brooks takes the chair next to mine and lifts a sleeping Remi from her car seat.
“How’s fatherhood?” I ask him.
“Fucking fantastic. Exhausting, but fucking fantastic.” He kisses his daughter and lays her on his chest.
“Looks good on you,” I say as Blakely climbs onto my lap. Her eyes are glued to her new baby cousin.
“Thanks.” He grins.
“How’s Palmer feeling?” I look across the pool to where she’s talking to Piper.
“She’s good. She’s getting her energy back, and she insisted we come today. I tried like hell to talk her out of it, yet here we are. The deal was we come for a short time to see everyone and then head home.”
“Want me to take her?” I ask him. “Go visit.”
“I’m good.”
“Let me rephrase that. Give me my niece before Mom or one of our sisters comes over and steals her away from me. I need to start her young, letting her know who her favorite uncle is.”
Brooks laughs. “You hear that, baby girl? Uncle Sterling wants the top spot.”
“Hand her over, baby hog,” I tease.
“Yeah, baby hog,” Blakely repeats.
“I can’t be a baby hog when she’s my daughter,” Brooks counters.
“Gimme.” I lift Blakely to sit on one knee, making room for Remi before I hold out my arms, and he relents, passing his daughter to me. “Now go.” I rest Remi on my chest, just as Brooks had her. “Visit. Let me have some time with my girls.”