“Right!” Holly says. “I told Zach that’s inhumane, but Jonas was trying to think up ways of doing it without hurting them. I shut him down when he asked me to crochet them little sacs. He was going to glue the sac on the top of the car, then put the hamster in the sac.”
I raise my voice over the din. “Jonas, wouldn’t they just jump out of the little sacs? Isn’t that dangerous?”
Jonas props his hands on his hips. “We’d tie them in Evie, obviously.”
“Oh,” I mumble to Holly, “they’d tie them in. Well then, what could go wrong? Except…don’t they need helmets?” Jonas looks dumbstruck. He scratches the back of his head, studying the little car in his hand.
“Hamster helmets,” he mutters. I choke, the hysterical laughter I’d been suppressing flying out.
Walking past a confused Jonas, I join Mia at the dollhouse, wiping tears from my eyes. “Hi, baby.”
She sends me a bright, distracted smile. Turning quickly back to the dollhouse, she points, “Mama, hamsers!”
I honestly haven’t heard this level of excitement in her voice, maybe ever. “Hamsters honey. With a T.”
She rolls her eyes at me, making me laugh again. It’s funny now. When she uses it on me in her teens, I doubt I’ll be laughing. “What are you doing, baby?”
“Hamser house!” She shrieks, clapping her hands as the guys keep scooping hamsters, their frantic energy reminding me of the chocolate factory scene inI Love Lucy.
“Fuck yeah!” Kade shouts, “take that, you little fuckers.” He sits back, pleased with himself, until he catches sight of me. A red flush covers his cheeks. “Ah, I mean, take that, you little rodents.” He drops his eyes, “Sorry for the fucks Evie.”
I don’t give a shit about the swears, though I appreciate how hard he’s been working to clean up his language around Mia. But I don’t tell him that, only raising my eyebrow and handing him the hamster in my hands. “Put him with the rest.”
I kiss my little baby on the cheek and wander off to check on the big baby. Ransom is sitting on the island with him. Colt’s acting cool, attempting to sit cross-legged but not quite able to pull it off — flexibility of a flagpole is right — but his twitching eye gives him away.
“Ransom.” We exchange nods, both holding back smiles as we eyeball Colt. “Colt. You want to come down from there?”
“No fucking way,” he says sunnily, throat swallowing convulsively as he watches the guys behind me.
“What the fuck was that, Horsey?” Becca asks, wandering over. Guess she finally caught her breath.
“Nothing.”
“You flew, dude. That was not nothing.”
“Just wanted to sit,” he mumbles. She’s dancing around, trying to catch his eye, and he’s actively turning his head to avoid her.
“Oh, ok.” An evil smile crosses her face. “Did you see we have hamsters? They’re so soft. Let me go grab one so you can meet it.”
As she turns away, he roars, an actual roar, snapping his legs around her body and yanking her onto the island. She laughs - a movie villain laugh - and wraps her arms around his neck in a chokehold, taunting him some more.
I step back to avoid Becca’s flailing legs, wincing when she sticks a finger up his nose. In the back of my mind, I can I was a little jealous hearing about how much time Colt and Becca spent together. I had this mental image of them rolling around in really tight clothes, but in my imagination, there was a lot more sweat, and fans making their hair blow around. Sort of like an eighties music video.
This though? I definitely didn’t picture Becca’s fingers shoved up his nose. My jealousy has officially left the building. There’s no hint of sexual tension here, only the annoyance siblings have with each other.
Ransom nearly gets an elbow to the head. He aims a punch at Colt’s ribs, which Colt seems to not notice at all, then hops down to join me.
Ransom’s been a bit of an enigma. He’s the leader of the bunch, all the brothers seeming to defer to him on big decisions. From the outside, at least. But I’ve been privileged to see him play too, especially with Mia. Honestly, for a billionaire the rest of the world sees as a cold, terrifying figure, he’s pretty damn approachable.
“So,” I murmur, still watching the wrestling, “twenty bucks says they fall off the island.”
Ransom snorts, shaking his head. “Only a sucker would take that bet.”
I hum in agreement and we stand, watching in silence until they do, of course, fall off the island in a flurry of curses. I wince in sympathy at the thump, but the fall doesn’t seem to have fazed either of them, only giving them more room to fight.
“Are they always like this?”
Ransom hums. “I haven’t seen them at the Dojo, but no, they weren’t always like this.”
