“Dalton, where’s Bea?” Teddy calls, glancing around and spotting us as we enter.
Dalton, her eleven-year-old, halts and looks around, “Uhh—"
Just then, a third extra child toddles around the couch, tv remote clutched firmly in her hands. Xander is already hot on her tail, skirting around us and swiping the toddler up into one arm like a sack of potatoes. The little girl shrieks in delight at the game.
“And just where do you think you’re taking that?” my brother scolds gently, which only makes the toddler giggle all the harder from her position under his arm. He turns back toward us and grins wide. “Hey, man! Goddamn it’s good to see you!”
Teddy steps forward to take the wriggling toddler out of my brother’s arms, but he narrows his eyes on her and she huffs in annoyance. “I can hold her, Xander.”
He simply adjusts the toddler in his arms and stares at her pointedly.
She rolls her eyes up at me and mutters out of the corner of her mouth, “Can someone please tell him the ten pound weight restriction ended three months ago? This is getting a little ridiculous.”
“You don’t need to strain yourself by lifting her—”
Propping her hands on her waist, she cocks one hip out and tilts her head at him. “It’s no more strenuous than what we—”
I watch as Louise rolls her lips in between her teeth to keep from laughing as my brother shoves the curly, brown-haired child in my arms and clamps a hand over Teddy’s mouth to stop the flow of words.
“Wife,” my brother warns, choking on a laugh.
Teddy tries to talk from behind his hand, but it comes out garbled.
Xander looks down at Louise still standing beside me then and grins, shaking his head in either dismay or defeat. “Hi. Don’t mind my wife, she has no filter.”
Twenty-Nine
Louise
Ilaugh, grinning up at the third incredibly handsome Macomb man. Good god, the genetics in this family are truly unrivaled.
Blue eyes the same color as Zach’s, but infinitely deeper, as if he’s seen a harsher side of the world than his younger brother. A thick, dark beard covers the lower portion of his face. He’s shorter than Zach by an inch or two, but just as solidly built.
“Woman after my own heart,” I laugh, extending my hand to the woman after she’s finally released from her makeshift gag. She glares at her husband, but one only has to be in the presence of these two for a handful of seconds to tell they absolutely adore each other.
The woman pushes my hand aside and pulls me in for a hug, instead, squeezing me tight. “Hi,” she says, pulling back and smiling at me. She has the kindest eyes, a peculiar shade of gray that’s mesmerizing. Freckles pepper the bridge of her nose and cheeks, and her honey blond hair is tied up in a messy half knot, the bottom half curled around her shoulders. She pushes clear rimmed glasses back into place on her nose. “I’m Teddy. It’s so nice to have another girl in the family. Time to even out these numbers a bit.”
Joel groans from behind them, and I raise my eyes to his. He winks at me, which makes me blush. My eyes go to Zach, who just rolls his eyes. Oh good. The pissing contest seems to be over between the two of them.
Or, at least a temporary truce.
The woman I assume is their mother smacks Joel in the shoulder. “You just wait,” she mutters, shaking her head and coming toward us. “You’ll meet your match. And I personally hope she’s as fiery as they come.”
“Jeez, Ma, you could just say you hate me,” Joel chuffs, rolling his eyes. I laugh.
This family is… amazing.
“Jesus,” Zach snorts, shaking his head. His brother once again takes the toddler, still refusing to let his wife carry her, but he extends his free hand toward me. “Lou, this is my older brother, Xander. You’ve met his wife, Teddy. This little troublemaker is… Bea?” he asks it tentatively, looking to Teddy for confirmation. She laughs and nods. “Ha, see. I remembered!”
“This little troublemakeris a year and a half old andjustlearning to walk becausesomeonedoesn’t like to put her down,” Teddy chides, bumping her shoulder into Xander’s.
“What?” he protests, raising his shoulders in a shrug. He bounces the toddler in his arm. “She’s my bug.”
“Lou, you’ve met Joel,” Zach says, nodding his head toward his younger brother. I wave over to him and he winks again. Zach glares at him, which just makes the younger one laugh. “And this is our mom, Lydia. Mom, this is Lou. And this tiny thing is Spencer.”
“Hello, my dear,” Lydia Macomb says as she steps forward. With the infant in one arm, she encircles my shoulders with the other and pulls me in for a hug. She pulls back far enough to look me over, and I can’t help the heat that spreads across my cheeks at the scrutiny. “My word, aren’t you stunning. Both of my boys got so lucky with two knockouts.”
“What am I, chopped liver?” Joel mutters from several feet away, making us all laugh. “You know what, I’m gonna go hang out with the kids. They’re nicer.”
