“She still mothers you?” I inquire.
As expected, he declines to reply.
Fair enough.
I wouldn’t answer me if I were him either.
Bea’s issuing orders to Daphne to get the chicken off the grill and Hudson to start prepping to serve the food in the kitchen.
I follow Ryker into the kitchen, where my boys are attempting to squirt one another with the flexible-handled sink hose.
God help me, I both want to indulge in a water fight with them and also ground them at the same time.
“Boys,” I begin, but before I can finish, Ryker’s rescued the sprayer and has both of my children pinned against the cabinet with the sprayer aimed at them, but not spraying.
“Do you know what I have that you don’t?” he says to my children.
“N-no,” Charlie stammers.
Eddie shakes his head.
“Wisdom, strategic thinking skills, and a mortgage. You want to scrub this kitchen floor to ceiling?”
Now both of my boys are shaking their heads.
“Then wash your hands and go sit and eat, including your vegetables.”
“But is corn really a vegetable?” Hudson says behind me.
In one swift motion, Ryker flips the sprayer around and sends a short burst of water at Hudson, who ducks behind me.
Not that he needed to.
Ryker was always aiming at me, I’m certain.
And I’m just slow enough to not duck myself, which means I take the full spray of lukewarm water square in the chest.
Eddie’s eyes bulge.
Charlie gasps.
Ryker glances over his shoulder, inspects his handiwork, and smirks. “Whoops.”
And me?
I smile.
You’re bloody right, I do. “Jolly good shot, mate.”
The back door bangs, and all of us turn to see Bea.
She looks at Ryker first, then my boys, then me.
And she heaves a sigh that would make my mother proud.
But on Bea—with her lips pursed together as though she can suppress the smile that I am certain she’s suppressing,her dimples popping because she can’t suppress them, and her eyes cast heavenward but also smiling—well, on Bea, that long-suffering sigh is nothing short of erotically appealing.
She shoves a container of barbecue chicken at Hudson. “Set this on the sideboard. Ryker, if you got water in my risotto, you’re grounded.” She looks out through the back door. “Daph, first glass of wine is mine.”
