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His eyebrows shot up. “Serious?”

I nodded.

“Maybe there are some risks he’s willing to take,” Knox suggested.

“Maybe,” I allowed.

“Are you going to finesse that?”

“Can you assure me no unsavory detritus is going to infiltrate Byron’s life in a way that makes it dangerous to date him?”

“Life throws curve balls, baby,” he said quietly. “What I can say is, he’s a solid guy. He’s sharp as fuck. And he makes a small fortune doing what he does.”

Something to think on.

“Did you have a good day?” he asked.

“Outside learning about Byron, yeah.”

His head ticked. “Are you pissed about that?”

“You guys could have told us,” I pointed out.

“According to Byron, that’s need to know,” he replied. “Though, I encourage you to look at it in the sense that we knew you women would find out, and that was why we started a pool.”

I guessed that was complimentary.

Mom appeared in the doorway, eyes on me. “Time to strap down the kids. Can you help with that, smoochface?”

Smoochface.

Mom had a way with an endearment. I kept thinking she’d eventually run out of them, but she kept coming up with new ones.

Like smoochface.

I pushed out of my seat, saying, “Yeah.”

I noticed Knox getting up, thus I turned to him. “You are not hefting around children with a bad leg and bad shoulder.”

“None of them weigh even fifty pounds,” he retorted.

God!

He was driving me crazy.

“Are you going to backtalk me every single time I say something, that something being said trying to look out for you?” I returned.

He grinned even as he bent, scooped Feather up under his arm like she was a sack of flour, she squealed in delight, and he replied, “It’s more fun that way.”

Ugh.

I saved Harmony from the confines of the playpen, called to Dusk, and headed to the dining room.

Knox and Feather followed.

“Okay, so, your mom and me have made a decision,” Dad declared halfway into us scarfing down Mom’s scrumptious lentil pasta.

Great, so this wasn’t a let’s-just-spend-some-time-together family dinner.