I laugh and sit in the chair while he takes his glasses off and sets them aside. “I took a gamble that you weren’t jerking off without first locking the door.” I look at him and gesture towards his body, the one that’s calm, fully clothed, and obviously not in a post-orgasmic state. “Looks like I was right. Besides, if you’re jerking off to your law textbook, we have way bigger problems here.”
He fights a grin while he tells me to fuck off. It completely disappears when I tell him about the text I just got.
“So we’re going clubbing now?” he asks. “You know, that thing that you and I never do because we both hate it. That’s what we’re doing tonight?”
I shrug and say, “It might not be all that bad.”
“You’re just hoping Sitka will be there.”
I don’t deny it, but I also know the possibility is very slim. Maybe they make allowances, though, if she’s with her brothers.
When I stay quiet, he groans and says, “Fine, let’s go see what these crazy fuckers get up to at night.”
While he gets ready, I slip into my own room and yank my hoodie off, switching the T-shirt I’m wearing underneath for a thicker long-sleeve tee. With my hoodie back on, it feels a lot warmer, but I’m guessing I’ll still get cold, so I grab my leather riding jacket and gloves, not caring if I’m dressing like it’s winter.
Ev meets me upstairs, just as bundled up as I am, neither one of us giving a fuck if everyone else is in T-shirts. Max and Talia meet us in the living room with a sleepy Lyra. She’s freshly bathed and fed and wearing a cute pink sleeper. I reach for her without thinking. She smiles up at me and immediately grabs at my jacket, fisting the collar in her small hand. I quickly learned after my cousins started having babies that I’m a complete pushover when it comes to them. I know it, and they can easily sense it.
When Lyra babbles out a long string of sounds that I’m sure make total sense to her, I grin and kiss her head, breathing in the sweet scent of her baby shampoo. A big part of me would much rather stay here and babysit, but I can’t resist the slight chance of seeing Sitka, so I kiss Lyra’s chubby cheek and hand her back over to Talia.
I’d feel embarrassed about my complete lack of desire for clubbing if Ev wasn’t right next to me asking, “You sure you don’t need me to babysit tonight?”
“Go have fun,” Max insists. “At least you know you’ll be on land.”
“Maybe,” Talia says, giving us a wicked grin. “They’ve been known to night swim.”
“Talia,” Ev groans, “don’t say things like that. Your family is crazy. I’m sorry, but it has to be said.”
She gives a good-natured laugh and says, “Takes one to know one.”
Ev looks to me and Max. “I feel like our family is slightly more sane. Yeah, we have Sasha, but they basically have three of him, so the math is gonna math on this one.”
“Please tell me that one day you’re going to saythe math is gonna mathto a jury.” I give him an almost pleading look when I add, “I can’t tell you how happy that would make me.”
We all laugh while Ev says, “Maybe I will. I plan on being good enough to be able to pull it off.”
“I don’t doubt that for a second,” I say. “If anyone could pull it off, it’s you. Just make sure you’re wearing your smarty glasses while you do it. The jury will eat that up.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” he says, and then Lyra gives a happy squeal and he’s forced to smile instead of telling us all to fuck off like he’d prefer.
I look at my watch and tell him we need to go. We wave to Lyra who returns it with the all-out exuberance that kids do so well as Max and Talia follow us to the door.
“Call me if you need me,” Max says.
“Okay, Dad,” I tease.
“I’m being serious,” he says.
I laugh while Ev says, “That’s what makes it so cute.”
“They’ll be fine,” Talia tells him. “The math might be mathing, but my family won’t let anything happen to them.”
“Nice,” I tell Talia, giving her a grin while I walk to one of the black motorcycles Dima and Bran left for us.
“You’re laughing now,” Ev says, grabbing the helmet on the seat, “but if our asses end up in the ocean tonight, I may never forgive you.”
“I’m more worried about our asses ending up in a strip club, to be honest,” I tell him.
Ev groans. “Don’t say that. If I wanted to spend the night surrounded by strippers, I could do that back home. I have no desire to sit in a club with a bunch of guys sporting hard-ons.”
