“Me too,” Beck joins in.
The door to the kitchen opens and Hope appears with Gracie and Mari in tow.
“We got pizza,” Avery tells her cousin, her voice unnecessarily loud.
“Go sit at the counter and we’ll bring your pizza to you,” Hope tells them with her sunshiny smile. She guides the girls and the twins into the kitchen while I follow Addie over to the counter to set the pizzas down. “You got a lot of pizza.”
She glances at me, practically expressionless. “Hadn’t been there in a while. I might have gone a little overboard.”
“Ya think?” The ache in my chest eases, allowing me to laugh.
Adeline pushes a box my way. “I got the hero his favorite.”
“Hero, huh?” Smirking, I open the pizza box, and at the sight of the extra pepperoni, my mouth waters.
“So the rumor is true?” Hope asks, suddenly standing a couple of feet behind us. “You beat up one of the other goalies for looking at Addie?”
“How do you know that?” Winnie asks, taking the words right out of my mouth.
Hope’s lips twitch. “Your brother.”
“Traitor,” I groan. “And that’s not what happened.”
Adeline smirks. “Nope, he defended my honor after one of the players was being a di—” She slams her mouth shut, her eyes going wide.
“What’s a di?” Beck asks.
“A duck is what she meant.” Winnie doesn’t miss a beat, and she doesn’t turn around. She’s too busy glaring at her sister.
“Oh, those are no good,” Declan tells us. “Grandpa only says that word when he’s really mad.”
“Well, I was really mad,” Adeline explains. “He was being a total duck.”
“I really don’t love the duck thing,” I mutter.
“Just go with it,” Winnie prods as she picks up the cheese pie and shuffles over to the kids. “It’ll get easier.”
Adeline leans in, eyeing my pizza. “You going to share some of that with me?”
Her scent washes over me, making my chest constrict. “Is this like an apology pizza?”
She tilts her head back and forth. “More like an olive branch.”
Nodding, I smile at her. “I can work with that.”
She dips her chin. “Good.”
“Good.”
With her lip caught between her teeth, she lifts those big brown eyes to mine. “Any chance we can talk after the kids go to bed?”
“Of course.”
“Daddy, where’s my pepperoni?” Avery calls. The rest of the kids have slices of cheese on their plates, but she’s my girl through and through, so she must have what I have. God, I love her.
“You gotta share with Avery too,” I tell Adeline.
She laughs softly. “My kinda girl.” She snags the box from in front of me and walks away. “Look what I got, Avey girl. Extra pepperoni just for you and me.”
