“Are you old enough to drink?” Eli asked.
“Yeah, shouldn’t you still be in diapers?” Shaw added.
“Shut up,” Joe said with a scowl. “Don’t try to deflect. What’s going on?”
Before anyone could reply, Remington came out carrying Laken.
“What’s going on?” Duncan demanded. “What happened?”
“Caught her trying to come down the stairs on her own,” Remington said.
“I was fine,” Laken grumbled.
“You carried her down the stairs?” Duncan said.
“Of course not. That would be dangerous. I wouldn’t be able to see my feet. I helped her down, then thought she looked tired so I carried her out here.”
Eli shook his head at Remington. That wasn’t sane.
Then he thought about Arabella walking down steps on her own while pregnant. And it made his blood boil.
Not happening. Not on his watch.
“Laken, we’ve talked about this,” Duncan said. “If you need to go up and down the stairs, you get someone to help you.”
“I am not an invalid,” Laken stated.
Eli gave her a firm look. “You need to sit.”
Laken threw her hands up into the air. “You’ve all lost it.”
A car headed up the driveway.
“Wyatt and Carson,” Duncan murmured.
The car stopped and their oldest brothers got out. Eli wondered for the first time why it was only Duncan who had found his girl.
Well, he and Kellan had now. She just didn’t know that. And Kellan still seemed to be in denial. Even though he’d been right there for the kiss.
They had to find a way to get her to talk to them. To get her to see that she could trust them.
“Jesus, you two have gone gray,” Eli joked. “You look like old men.”
“Yeah, we should get them a rocking chair each,” Duncan said.
“Here, sit down,” Joe said, getting to his feet and gesturing to the chair he’d been sitting on. “Duncan, I don’t think they should use the stairs either. They might trip and break something.”
Carson grabbed Joe, putting him into a headlock. “I’ll show you that this old man can still take you down.”
“Oh, it’s on!” Remington cried.
Suddenly, it was a free-for-all. Eli jumped into the brawl with a whoop and a grin.
Sometimes a man just had to let go and punch one of his brothers in the face.
“Get off the porch and away from my wife!” Duncan yelled at them.
They moved it onto the front yard.
