He cocks his head, his eyes almost dark as coal in this light. “Do you stay in this cabin all the time?”
“Do you always ask questions that are none of your business?” I rest my foot on the inside thigh of my other leg and take another sip of my coffee.
He crosses his arms over his chest. “Yes. It’s what I do. I’m also curious.”
Something about the way he asks questions, like he expects me to answer every one, rubs me the wrong way and makes me want to be obstinate. “Didn’t your mom teach you manners?”
A shadow falls over his face for a split second, and his eyes twitch in a pained squint before the neutral mask falls back into place. “She’s dead, but she taught me everything I need to know about manners. Are you always this stubborn?”
Guilt twists in my stomach, and I roll my lips together as I stare at him. Sometimes I can be too much of a bitch, my siblings like to point that out quite often. I should know better than to bring moms into it, it would piss me off if anyone tried to insult my mom.
Lowering my cup in front of me to my stomach, I take a deep breath. “I’m sorry, that was a dick move. I shouldn’t have said that about your mom, I’m sure she was a wonderful person.”
Without acknowledging the apology, his lips twitch as he slips his hands into his pockets again. “I need to get my bag from the room I was given last night, all my things are in it, and I have work to do. So, will we be staying in this cabin? I’ll need you to walk over with me.”
Bristling a bit at the directive, instead of a request, I decide to be nice to make up for my blunder. “Sure. I’ll walk over there with you after I finish my coffee and shower.”
The flip-flops I slid on my feet before we walked over are wet with dew, so I slip them off at the back door and lead the way to the kitchen that is already alive with controlled chaos.
Dad is the first person I see as we step through the mudroom, he has a twin sleeping with open mouth and milk drool on his shoulder, and he’s reaching into the fridge for orange juice. His eyes travel over the top of my head to the rumpled agent behind me before looking back down at me.
I roll my eyes. For some reason, Dad doesn’t see me as a thirty-two-year-old woman, he’s always seen a moody teenager testing him at every turn when he looks at me. To lighten the stare he is giving me, I say, “He found me.”
In true Dad fashion, he only pauses on my face for amoment, giving nothing away, before he closes the door and walks back to the kitchen island where all the food is. If anything, he’s thinking that he pities Agent Abbot.
Leaving the agent to fend for himself, I walk into the bustle of people and babies and go right to Marley. She has the other twin on her shoulder, but this one is wide awake and watching everyone around her with the icy blue eyes of her father. She was also born with Jax’s blond hair, the nurses said she would lose it, but it’s thick and sticking up on her head like a halo of tan and yellow hay.
“There she is.” I say and stand to Marley’s side in her line of sight. Niki immediately gives an open-mouth smile and starts excitedly kicking her legs under Marley’s arm, so I hold my hands out to take her. Niki is the twin with an attitude, and I love it.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Sofi with everything in me too, her calm, sweet personality is just like Marley. She watches everything. That girl can look at you like she’s staring into your soul, learning all your secrets.
Marley glances over her shoulder. “She’s been awake since four, laughing and trying to play.”
“That’s okay.” I say in baby talk as I walk away from Marley with my newly acquired bouncing baby. “We can bounce together.” I start to swing her around and bounce over to the breakfast nook to Mason and Beckett.
Beckett’s in his highchair eating blueberry pancakes Mason has torn into bite-size pieces. When I lean over Mason’s shoulder to blow raspberries on Beckett’s cheek, it gets me a giggle, and he tucks his shoulder into the side of his head. Niki grabs Mason’s ball cap and pulls it off his head to put in her mouth.
Mason turns with a chuckle and grabs his hat, pretending to wrestle it from her hands. “Give me my hat, you little thief.” Niki squeals, her little hands white from her grip on hishat.
Jax walks into the kitchen with a receiving blanket looped over his shoulder. I never in my life thought I would see these hardened military men playing with babies and wearing shirts covered in spit-up. “You may as well get another hat, brother, if you take it back, she’s going to turn into a little demon and scream at you.”
Then I see poor Elly walk into the kitchen with Gray behind her, she’s only five feet tall, so his six foot three towers over her like a statue - she’s the reason we have stepstools all over the house now.
She’s dressed for work, but she looks positively green with her palm over the small mound of her stomach. She’s five months pregnant, but her morning sickness is still going strong.
Giving her a sympathetic look, I walk toward her, a ball cap being waved in the air next to my face. “How you doin’? And hows my nephew?”
Her whiskey-brown eyes meet mine, and she groans. “I think he hates me.”
I pat her stomach and wink. “That just means he’s going to keep all of us on our toes.”
Her eyes lose focus, and she slaps her hand over her mouth as she turns to run up the stairs. I barely make eye contact with Gray before he turns around and follows her.
Glancing in the direction of the agent, who has become an unwelcome shadow, I watch him talking to Marley and Sloane at the kitchen island. When he smiles, his whole face lights up. If I thought he was good-looking with a straight face, he’s positively drop-dead with a smile.
As I’m about to look away, his eyes flick in my direction, like he could feel my gaze on him. The dark brown holds me captive like a force-field for a moment before a ball cap flies in front of my face, the bill almost hitting my nose.
Jerking my head, I look down at the thrilled baby on my hip and playfully grab her fist that holds the hat. “You almost got me, booger butt.” I act like I’m going to attack her and growl in her neck as I blow a raspberry on her, her squeals making me laugh.
