“They’re in the kitchen,” I replied. “Still in the cabinets, but they’re there and they’re clean.”
Jesse sighed. “I guess that’s going to have to be good enough.”
Theo appeared from somewhere, grinning as his gaze skipped between Jesse, Jacque, and me. “Who ordered the pizza and who ordered the chaos?”
“Pizza,” Jesse said.
Kate called back at us from the hall. “Just because we brought the chaos doesn’t mean we ordered it!”
Theo grinned. “That’s exactly the way I like it. Welcome home, everybody.”
I rolled my eyes and shut the door before trailing after them into the house. Emma had already made it to the grand staircase—or, in the case of a two-year-old, the grand invitation to break your neck.
It was wide and sweeping, exactly dangerous enough to keep Nate permanently on edge. We ended up perched along the steps, passing pizza boxes up and down, forgoing plates so there was less clutter for her to trip over.
She climbed, descended, and launched herself between us at random with absolutely no concern for the laws of physics or consequences. Nate hovered like a true helicopter, stressing over every sharp corner and hard tile in the vicinity, and there were many.
“We grew up here,” I said. “This is, at present, her preferred place to nearly kill herself, but we survived and so will she.”
He narrowed his eyes at me. “Don’t start today, Zach. Please?”
I lifted my hands in surrender. “Who is starting? I’m just saying. Take a page out of your wife’s book and sit down.”
He completely ignored me, hovering two steps below her with a look on his face that told me he was mentally calculating every possible way this could go wrong. “God, I don’t like this.”
“She’s fine,” Kate said easily, taking a slice of pizza. “Do what your brother said and take a page out of my book. Look at how laid back I am. Do you really think I’d just be sitting here if Ithought she was actually about to get hurt? She needs to learn, babe. She’s not going to do that if you don’t let her make any mistakes.”
“She’s also not going to break her damn neck,” he grumbled but accepted the slice she handed him on his way back down the stairs after her.
Emma climbed onto Jesse’s lap, then immediately stood on it like it was a platform designed specifically for her. He laughed, taking one of her little hands in one of his and moving his legs underneath her.
“Watch out, Em,” he joked. “It’s an earthquake.”
She squealed with laughter, but Nate reached for her like she was about to be electrocuted. “Okay. No. We’re not doing earthquakes. Emma?—”
“She’s fine,” Jesse echoed, steadying her with one hand while eating with the other. “Leave her. I need some cuddles with Little J all the way on the other side of an ocean.”
Nate looked like he might actually combust. Theo leaned over to Kate, keeping his voice low enough that Nate probably couldn’t hear him. “He looks like he’s about thirty seconds away from a stroke.”
Kate laughed, not bothering to keep her voice down in turn. “He’s the best dad in the world, even if his blood pressure is through the roof most days.”
I leaned back against the step. “That’s not healthy.”
She glanced up at me and smiled. “You’re telling me, but you should be telling him.”
Emma launched herself again, off Jesse’s lap this time and toward Theo, but Nate caught her mid-air this time, scooping her up and cradling her against his chest. “Okay. That’s quite enough of that. We’re taking a break.”
“Nobweak,” she wailed, immediately protesting at the top of her lungs, but Nate was already carrying her to the downstairs drawing room and the soft couches inside.
“You need a break, sweetheart,” he said firmly. “Your mother needs a break.”
“I’m fine,” Kate called after them, her head shaking but her smile soft.
“You’re not,” Nate shot back over his shoulder. “Your heart is about to give out.”
The rest of us watched him go, but Theo was the one who finally said it. “That man is going to age ten years in the next six months.”
“What do you mean,going to?” Jesse said. “He already has. What you should say is that he’s going to ageanotherten years.”
