“Yes,” Abby snapped.
“You’re having a baby?” Nathan was next, followed by Michael. Suddenly, Abby was surrounded by her brothers.
“Now is not the place for this!” Abby hissed, but Zach saw the smile she was fighting to hold back.
“Now is most certainly the place,” Gabe said.
The brothers then each took turns hugging her. Daniel received a slap on the back and a handshake.
“Another baby,” Ruby sighed.
“Another?” Michael said, looking from her to the other women. “Do you mean on top of the four children, plus Adam, who is really nearly an adult, or are you trying to tell us more good news?”
“You got from Ruby sighing that there is another baby to arrive this year sometime?” Forrest asked. He was also smiling. A secret “I’m a very happy man” smile.
“Not you as well?” Zach asked.
Forrest laughed, and then the hugging started again.
“Are you still salty?” Dimity asked Zach when the celebrations were done with.
Dressed in a deep lavender coat that came to her ankles, she looked her usual stunning self. The man at her side certainly thought so. The earl was smiling at his wife in that besotted way all his brothers and Forrest did constantly with the women they loved.
He’d known a family was in his future, but he’d never longed for one. Zach couldn’t ignore that was exactly what he felt right then.
“You lot nauseate me. Stop throwing the lovey-eyed looks about the place,” he said, which was expected of him.
Dimity tsked. “Jealousy is ugly, even on one as handsome as you, Zachariel.”
He poked out his tongue.
“I think he needs a wife,” Freya said.
“I agree. Perhaps it is time for the four of us to make a list,” Beth said.
“I will give you ladies my support, as I do not know the society ladies well as yet,” Ruby said.
She hadn’t walked in society for long and often did not attend evening events, but Forrest had convinced her to come with them today.
“There will be no list,” Zach said firmly. “No matchmaking or interference. I can choose my own wife when and if the time comes. I will have your words on this.”
“If?” Beth asked. “You will wed, Zachariel, and as luck would have it, we have just the woman for you.”
“No you don’t, and you lot”—he looked at their men—“will ensure they do not compose a list.”
His brothers and Forrest just smiled back at him.
“Devilles, must you take up the entire hallway?”
Zach glanced over his shoulder at the demand and saw the Dowager Duchess of Yardley behind them. She wore a lemon dress. Not a soft lemon, but the color of an overripe piece of fruit that had been lying around on the ground aging for days. On her head was a puce turban that was dotted with jewels and feathers. Zach could only stare.
“It’s like she doesn’t own a mirror,” Forrest whispered.
“Or there is an award tonight for the worst dressed and she wants the trophy,” Michael added.
“Is that a duck above her right ear?” Ruby asked.
“Mallard, I think, due to its coloring,” Zach added. “Not sure how it’s staying there.” He looked to the people behind her, and everything inside him stiffened. The Blakes. He didn’t see Mary instantly, as she was no doubt behind her parents and Phillipa, which annoyed him.Why was she always at the rear when they entered a room?
