He stares me down a moment. “I like pancakes, and my mother happens to make the best. I’ll polish my horns later.”
“You like pancakes?” I’m almost amused. “What’s for lunch? The beating heart of a Celestra? Or does that qualify as dessert these days?”
“So you’re home.” He crumbles up his napkin and sends it sailing in my direction. “Go find your wife. Spend some time together. Enjoy her.” A greedy grin glides up his face a moment as if he were in on some deep, dark secret, and it sets an alarm off in my belly like never before.
“You’ve seen Skyla?” I lean against the counter, never taking my eyes off of him as if there were a hungry crocodile in the kitchen. And, to tell the truth, I don’t see much of a difference.
“I ran into her in town. She was—shopping, I think. I don’t know what Skyla does with her time these days. I don’t much care.”
“You don’t care?” It feels like a punch to the gut each time he acts this way. “What about your boys?”
“What about them?” His eyes sharpen over mine. “Skyla wasn’t feeling well. I stepped in.”
“By stepping in, you mean you handed them off to your mother.”
“Some people hire a nanny. I have something better. You have a problem with that?”
“I have a problem with everything you do these days, Gage. Now, how do you want me to kick your ass? Would you like to wait until the boys leave for school and we can tear apart your parents’ house a little? Or would you rather go out back? I can entertain myself by trying to drown you in the pool.”
Another lazy grin glides up his face. “It won’t work.”
“I know it won’t, but it will be a hell of a lot of fun watching you struggle.”
“I won’t struggle, Logan.” He leans forward and rests on his elbows. “I’m stronger than you, smarter than you, and better looking.” His dimples go off, no smile. “And we both know that no matter what I do, I will always hold a place in Skyla’s heart that you can never penetrate.”
Gage stands and walks over to me just as Emma rushes in with the boys.
She kisses Jaxson before handing him to me. “There’s an angry parent at the school. I need to get moving a little early.”
Gage swoops both Nathan and Barron up for a kiss and tells them he loves them, and as soon as he puts them down I do the same.
“Be good.” I touch my head to each of theirs. “Your mom and I love you.”
Barron’s face turns an instant shade of plum. “I miss Mommy.”
My heart breaks hearing it, and my eyes meet up with Gage, but he’s cast his gaze out the window, pretending it didn’t concern him. The hell it doesn’t. I can see right through that. It’s eating at him, too.
Emma shuttles the boys out the door with their miniature backpacks in tow just as Barron steps into the room.
“I’m off to the morgue.” He sheds an easy grin.
For a very long while, I referred to Barron as my uncle. It was simply easier that way rather than explaining the age gap between us. But he is my brother in every way right there with Liam, and with Gage. Liam is the brother that took one for the proverbial team and allowed me a second chance at life after the Counts landed me in the burn unit and sent my parents to eternity. It was really Candace Messenger who afforded me this second shot in a different decade entirely, but that’s an old story.
Barron nods my way. “Mind the fact you’re holding a child, Logan. The two of you may not destroy my home.” He nods to his son. “Gage, it was a pleasure to see you as always. Please stop by more often. The boys miss you, too.” And with that, he disappears.
The two of us watch as both Emma and Barron speed out of the driveway.
“And then there were two,” he says,
“And then there were three.” I pull Jaxson in close. “I don’t remember you being so bad at math, so bad at life, but I guess this is where the new Gage meets the new math. You both suck, by the way.”
He sighs as he glances out the window once again. “Why don’t you get out of here, Logan? I have important things to do. If you insist on busting my balls, I’ll have you dragged to Eversor again, and this time there will be no escape. I’ll arrange to have Jaxson there as well, because God knows I don’t want to hear your whining.”
“You’ll hear me whining, all right, no matter where you put me. And what the hell was that cheesy move about? Did you really think Skyla was going to stand around and let you get away with it?”
“She did let me get away with it. She wasn’t the one that freed you.”
“Okay, she sent Dudley.”
