Reese laughed, staring down at the grill as though noticing for the first time that there were sixteen sausage links and one hamburger patty.
Baz was right. They’d all been spoiling JJ for quite a while now. Sometimes, they were running out to get her something she was craving. Other times, they pitched in at her house when she wanted something moved or changed completely now that they’d moved in. Sure, Baz was doing most of the work, but everyone else did their best to help simply because they wanted to.
Reese wanted to say it was because of the pregnancy—which was partly true—but he knew it was more than that. Considering all JJ’d been through over the past year and a half, she deserved to be spoiled by all of them. First, she woke up to a grizzly scene in her house because her ex-boyfriend had staged his own kidnapping and used JJ to make it look real. Later that day, things had gone from bad to worse when her house blew up because that idiot ex-boyfriend had trusted the wrong people to help him. Thanks to Juliet Prince’s psychotic need to punish Travis Walker, they’d all ended up with targets on their backs. Then there was the guilt JJ still felt because she hadn’t been able to find Juliet before the unthinkable happened, and they lost a good friend.
As though that hadn’t been enough karmic injustice, throughout all of it, JJ’d had to sit back and watch when Baz thought he was having a baby with a one-night stand.
So, yeah, JJ deserved for them to treat her like a princess. And because she was pregnant, they could disguise it as merely helping out because she needed to take it easy. There was no way JJ would’ve sat back and accepted their help any other way.
“Did you crumble the bleu cheese into it?” Baz asked, looking over Reese’s shoulder.
Reese flipped the turkey burger once more. “Yeah. Just like she asked.”
Baz lowered his voice, a slight hint of fear in his tone. “And the pickled okra? Was someone able to find that?”
Reese grinned. “Elana has it all taken care of.”
“Thank God,” Baz huffed.
It was safe to say Baz was a good man, and he was good for JJ.
“Grab a plate,” Reese told him.
When Baz presented it, Reese set the turkey burger stuffed with bleu cheese on it.
“Lifesaver,” Baz muttered. “That’s what you are.”
Reese wouldn’t go that far, but he grinned. He grabbed his beer and took a sip while shifting the sausage links again. His gaze strayed to Brantley, who was in the yard, standing by Slade and Atticus, throwing the ball for Tesha while listening as Atticus told one of his animated stories.
Reese had stopped keeping a close eye on Atticus when he realized the kid only flirted with Brantley when he was around. No one else knew that he was aware of the ruse, and he maintained his defensive, jealous stance when the moment called for it, but not because he wanted to wring the kid’s neck. He didn’t. Not anymore.
No, Reese kept it up because he knew Brantley enjoyed it. The Navy SEAL who’d been hardened by life enjoyed that Reese was possessive. And he was. Brantley was his, and after all they’d been through, nothing and no one was going to come between them. Now that he knew Atticus was on the up and up, Reese liked him more.
“Dinner’s ready,” Reese announced, directing the statement at Luca, Elana, and Holly, who were inside, setting out everything they’d pitched in to buy for the meal.
“Feels kinda thin this week, huh?” Luca said, taking the plate of sausage links from Reese.
It was thin. Decker was off doing whatever assignment he’d been called up for. Charlie and Jay were still in Chicago finishing up so they could return home for a while. Darius was enjoying some family time at his sister’s wedding. Evan and Becs were also doing the family thing at Evan’s daughter’s birthday party. That left only nine of them. But it was exactly enough.
When everyone slipped inside to get food, Reese grabbed another beer from the cooler and walked over to where Brantley threw the ball to Tesha.
“You gonna eat?”
Brantley turned to him and smiled. “I figured I’d let them get theirs.”
Reese passed Brantley the beer.
He took it, but not before he leaned in and kissed Reese, lingering for longer than he normally did when people were around. Reese didn’t mind anymore. It no longer mattered to him where he was or who was around. Provided he had the chance to kiss this man for the rest of his life, he didn’t give a shit who witnessed it.
He’d come a long way in the past two years, and he wouldn’t change a thing.
Except maybe for Atticus to shift his attention to someone else’s man.
And fine, maybe it did still bother Reese.
Just a little.
***
