“Give me an hour,” he told Reese. “Then I’ll meet you at the diner.”
“Works for me. See you then.”
Travis disconnected the call and tucked his phone in his pocket.
“Who was that?” Gage asked when he appeared from the front hall.
“Reese. Said he’s got some info.”
Gage spun around when Avery squealed at the top of her lungs, the sound something she’d been perfecting over the past few months.
“I’ll take ’em away if you can’t behave,” Gage warned.
“But, Daddy, it’s s’posed to be my turn,” Kate argued, holding the block above Avery’s head so her younger sister couldn’t reach it.
“Share,” he ordered, making Travis smile.
Sometimes it was like they were refereeing an MMA fight with these little ones.
“Who wants to go see Grams and Pops?” Travis offered.
Kade bounced to his feet, raising his hand. “I do! I do!”
“I wanna go play with Mason,” Kate said, though it hadn’t been an option.
“Me, too! Me, too!” Kade shouted, evidently changing his mind at the last second.
Travis sighed and peered over at Gage. “I’ll call my mom; you call Kaleb. I’ll see if Jess can keep an eye on Haden. If she can, we can drop him by Kylie’s office for an hour or so. We’ll take Maddox with us to the diner.”
“You want me goin’ with you?” Gage grinned. “How generous you are to drag me into your schemes.”
“As my husband, I figure it’s your duty,” Travis retorted, then snatched his phone and headed for the kitchen.
An hour later, after they’d dropped Kade and Kate off with Zoey, Travis had made a pit stop at his parents’, where they delivered Avery for the afternoon, then over to Kylie’s office so Jess could keep an eye on Haden. Of course, they were ten minutes late getting to the diner, but that was par for the course when you had five kids to tote around town.
“Hey, little guy,” Reese greeted Maddox.
Feeling generous, Travis passed the eight-month-old over before joining Gage in the booth opposite Reese.
The waitress came over, delivered a highchair, then smiled widely as she stared down at Reese and Maddox.
“Oh, he’s gettin’ so big,” she said with a wide grin.
“Wonder how often Reese hears that?” Gage whispered in Travis’s ear, making him laugh.
Reese looked up, narrowed his eyes in warning, which only made Travis laugh again.
“What can I get you boys?” she asked after she’d cooed over Maddox. Or Reese. He wasn’t quite sure who she was enamored with more.
“Two sweet teas,” Gage told her. “No food for us.”
She nodded, then sauntered off, Reese’s gaze following her.
“What’d you find out?” Travis asked, getting right to the point.
“A lot of things, actually,” Reese said as he put Maddox into the highchair.
Gage passed over a couple of cookies he’d retrieved from Maddox’s go-bag.
