“I was just asking, Daddy,” she said innocently, a mini version of her mother staring up at him with wide blue eyes behind a pair of glasses with purple frames.
Romeo made a choked sound and lowered beside her chair. After smoothing some of her long dark hair away from her face, he pushed the glasses up on her nose. “You don’t need to worry about boys, strawberry. Daddy will take care of you.”
“Can we get a puppy?”
“Hells no,” Braeden replied.
“Sure, baby.” Romeo agreed.
“Rome.” Braeden was plaintive. “We already have fifteen dogs up in here.”
“We do not,” Rimmel declared. “We only have six right now, and two of them go to practices with you every day. And Ketchup is Drew’s!”
Romeo glanced over his shoulder. “It’s better than a boy.”
B pursed his lips and glanced at Nova. “You want a puppy too?”
“This is ridiculous,” Rimmel said.
Romeo turned to her. “You want to get a puppy, smalls?”
Rimmel melted. “I was thinking about bringing home that Aussie mix. He’s been at the shelter for two weeks. No one’s adopted him.”
“We can go get him later today,” Romeo promised.
Dude was one thousand percent wrapped.
“Can’t you tell them my dads aren’t that scary?” Nova asked Travis.
Her dads. No one even batted an eye. Romeo was practically her second dad. Drew and me too.
Travis shrugged a shoulder. “I could.”
Nova leaned forward. “Then why haven’t you?”
A brief dark look crossed Trav’s face. “Because Uncle Braeden is right. They’re not good enough.”
Drew and I shared a look.
“You threatened them too!” Nova burst out.
“I don’t threaten,” Travis replied.
“Travis,” I said quietly.
He glanced at me. “I didn’t.”
I conceded because I saw the truth in his stare. The thing with Trav was that he didn’t have to threaten. People instinctively knew not to mess with him. Apparently, people also knew that extended to his sisters.
“Mom!” Nova roared.
“All right, that’s enough. Obviously, you can’t go out on Saturday.”
“But, Mom?—”
“It’s Travis’s birthday. Family first. So you will have to go out on a different night. If Jordan doesn’t understand that, then he’s not worth your time.”
“Why don’t you just invite him to the party?” Rimmel suggested.
