“You tuckered me out, kiddos. I’m going to dry off and go see if there are any frogs by the pond.”
“Frogs?” Oliver and Nora yelled at the same time.
When Nora started swimming toward the side of the pool with Kyle at her side, Oliver began flailing, trying to turn himself toward Siobhan.
“Mommy, there are frogs,” he yelled before spluttering because he’d splashed himself in the face.
Siobhan stood, but Steph was already lifting the back of the life vest slightly, so Oliver could paddle the length of the pool.
“Can I see the frogs?”
Siobhan turned to grin at Brian, who was in the process of standing because her leaping to her feet in case Oliver needed her had put her butt in his line of vision and he didn’t think it would be good to get caught admiring it.
“Oh, you guys are good at this,” she said.
“It’s been a while since a toddler needed wrangling, but remember my dad had four of us and we weren’t always old enough to recite multiplication tables. Deflect, distract and, if necessary, bribe. Somebody can always come up with a fun activity to throw in the mix.”
“They say it takes a village, and you definitely have quite a village.”
There was something in her voice that made Brian want to dig deeper. Did she have a village? He wasn’t sure if Kelly was still around, and he’d picked up during the time he was involved with the family that Siobhan and her mother weren’t very close. She’d mentioned a friend named Robin, but were there others? Parenting was no joke and he wondered who she turned to for support when she needed it.
But as she reached out and pulled Oliver through the water and into her arms, both of them laughing, he realized it wasn’t really his business. Even if and when the paternity test confirmed what they all already believed to be true, Siobhan wouldn’t be his business. Oliver was obviously healthy and happy, and that’s where his involvement would end.
“I want to find frogs, Mommy.” Oliver squirmed in his mother’s arms, and Brian felt an urge to reach out and take him—to carry him out of the pool and wrap a towel around him while explaining they’d get changed and then head over to the pond.
Instead, he turned and stepped out of the water. After grabbing his towel and slinging it over his neck, he walked to the gate.
“Uncle Brian, I have to pee,” Nora said, speed-walking toward him with her mom on her heels. Ellie had their towels and her bag in her arms, and she gave him a grateful look when he opened the gate so they could get through. As soon as they cleared the cement, Nora took off running toward the bathroom.
Before leaving, Brian turned back. “Last one out needs to double-check that this gate latches behind you.”
“Kyle and I are going to stay in for a bit and relax,” Steph told him. “I’ll make sure it’s closed when we leave.”
Brian nodded, but then arched an eyebrow at his cousin. “Just so you know, the camera on the store covers the pool area, so don’t even think about getting frisky in that water.”
After ensuring the little ones were out of the pool, Steph pushed backward and used her foot to fling water at him. “As if we’d get frisky in the middle of the day with my family literally everywhere.”
“It runs all night, too. Just so you know.”
“According to Ellie, it’s Joey you forgot to tell.”
Brian laughed. “Joey knew about it. He got carried away and forgot about it, but luckily he woke up in the middle of the night, panicked and wiped the entire drive.”
“She said if he hadn’t remembered and one of you guys saw it, he might have ended up on one of Hannah’s true crime podcasts.”
“So I guess when I turned off the sound alerts to my phone because a raccoon kept setting it off, I saved his life.”
She rolled her eyes. “You’re supposed to check thealerts in case somebody is breaking in. Otherwise, what’s the point?”
“Hey, Stella’s not just a pretty face, you know. And mostly we wanted the wireless doorbell and then somebody decided it would be a good idea to have video to be able to check if something happened and suddenly my phone was chiming every time a chipmunk sneezed.”
Then he left before Steph could say anything else because Siobhan was almost finished gathering their things and he didn’t want to get pulled into a frog-spotting adventure to the pond with them. It sounded fun and he’d love to see the little boy’s face when he spotted one, but it was too hard to stay hands-off. Even though he’d warned his mother against it, the attachment tugged at him, and it would be too easy to get sucked into an illusion that might break his heart.
But he heard the low rumble of his father’s voice and then Siobhan and Oliver laughing as he walked away, and he was still smiling when he went in the house to change.
Chapter Eight
Siobhan never wanted to move again. She was in a very comfortable chair in the shade, with a tumbler of ice-cold water in the cupholder. On one side of her, Oliver and Stella were sound asleep on the blanket she’d spread on the grass, and on the other side sat two empty chairs.
