AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Sem wanders up next to Magnus, pulling him into his side and kissing the top of his head and then Lucy’s.
“How are the walls?” Sem asks my brother.
Magnus grins triumphantly. “Only one down. The rest are fine.”
Sem grins and then swivels his head around for Kieran, who is off the porch and digging in the dirt with a stick.
“Look, Daddy, I digged a ditch to bury things!”
“Good god,” Magnus says with a laugh.
“We can put a body in here!” Kieran says and Magnus scurries over to him, talking to him quietly.
Sem chuckles, and Magnus looks at him fiercely.
“Sem, I will have words with you.”
“It was only a joke,” Sem says with a shrug, and Magnus rolls his eyes. He turns that gaze toward us and purses his lips.
“You guys staying for lunch?” he asks, and everyone nods, Emery pulling out a sucker and popping it into his mouth.
“Can we do dessert too?” he asks. “Oh god, tell me you have dessert.”
August leans toward him and whispers gently, for only him to hear. “Em, they’ll have dessert. They always do.”
“Oh, thank god,” he gasps and then pulls another sucker from his pocket and puts it into his mouth as well.
I’ve never in my life seen someone suck two lollipops at the same time, but here we are. This guy seems like one of a kind.
“They’re sugar-free and quite disgusting, but if you mix the flavors, it’s not so bad,” Emery explains when he catches me watching him with a raised eyebrow.
I nod and turn back to Coop, who is talking animatedly with Caleb, something about a potato gun and fireworks? God, who fucking knows with this crew. I’m just happy I’m here, with my brother, with his family, with Coop.
My fucking niece and nephew.
I glance over at them and watch as Lucy tugs on her brother’s hair and Kieran places some stones in the grave he dug.
Little psychos, I think. But honestly, fuck, I’m glad I’m here.
“Oh my god, the way I felt shooting that potato gun,” Coop says, nearly breathless with excitement. We’re back at our place, and he’s still reeling over it, repeating the experience over and over again. To say Coop had fun is an understatement. He got along with that entire crew far too well.
Maybe Coop is a little psycho too. Still like him though.
The entire time they were shooting things into the stratosphere and blowing shit up, I just hung back with Whit and watched it all.
“This is your life now,” Whit said ominously, and I just cracked a smile at him.
“Yeah? I’m glad you had fun,” I say to Coop as he pulls his shirt off and leads me to the bathroom. I watch the lean lines of him move. He’s like a cat, always so graceful.
“No, I’m serious. I want one. And I want one now. As soon as we’re in bed, I’m going to find out where to buy one and then we’re going to go shoot it as soon as it’s here. Right into the ocean. I’ll even order potatoes so we have the ammunition.”
I chuckle as we strip down and step into the shower. We had lunch and dinner out at Sem and Magnus’s place, arriving home at the end of the day, with nothing left to do but sleep. But I’m happy, fulfilled. It was a fucking good day.
I got to know my brother a little better, Sem too. And Lucy and Kieran were a delight. They’re so fucking cute. When I sent Max a picture of me with them, he called to FaceTime us. He wanted in on the action as well.
“And listen to this,” Coop prattles on as we wash each other methodically. “Sem even told me the name of a deluxe flamethrower. Did you see the flames that it spit out?”
His hands clap loudly in front of him as he describes it. He’s so goddamn cute.
