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Chloe starts laughing, and then, so do I. Then we hug, a silent declaration that we’re okay.
Walking over to where Danny is, Gwen looks up at him.
“What do you think, York?”
“You do good work, Danny.”
He basically slides down, holding just the sides as he laughs. “My greatest creation was Aggie.”
He turns out his hands, and she dives into his arms. He hugs her as he tries to kiss Chloe, but she leans away.
“We need you, Daniel Aiken. Don’t do stupid S-H-I-T, like come down a ladder like that.”
“Mommy cross with you?” Aggie asks him.
“That’s how Mommy flirts with Daddy.”
“You’re an A-S-S,” Chloe says, hiding a laugh.
I look at York, mostly because I’m doing a stellar job of ignoring Roman.
“Let’s go see how the ribs are doing.” He kisses Aggie’s cheek then looks at Roman. “We owe you a meal for the help today. Come eat. Bring Elle.”
“Puppy!” Aggie exclaims.
He looks at me, asking without words.
“Invite your family over, too.”
“It’s Tuesday, Cecilia. Sunday and Monday headed back to Virginia. Hudson drove Monday.” He scratches his head. “Mom’s Monday, yeah?”
I snatch Elle’s leash out of his hand. “Aggie wants to see Elle. You can come, too, if you behave.”
He chuckles as he follows me.
At the door, he grips my hip and leans into me. “By behave, you mean, no island action, or?—”
I elbow him, and he grunts as I open the door and walk in.
When we walk in, Aggie’s dragging the giant stuffed monkey into the kitchen. “Puppy wanna play with me and Nananas?”
“Elle’s just a baby. She might chew on Bananas.”
Aggie giggles. “Puppy likes Nananas?”
Roman squats down next to her. “She likes pretty much anything she can get her teeth on. The past couple of days, it’s been mostly shoes and baseball gloves.”
She lifts her palm up and asks, “You tell her no?”
“Sometimes. Usually, I grab one of her toys and distract her.”
Rome and Aggie continue talking while Elle sniffs the stuffed monkey and I help set the table.
“You make the best housewife.” I hip-check Danny to get him away from the stove so I can pull out the leftover mac and cheese and bacon-wrapped sprouts, all of which I made enough to feed a small army.
“I’m the king of checking off the honey-do lists your sister makes,” he jokes.
“You’re so full of beans.” Chloe laughs and then looks at me. “Danny can’t sit still without passing out. And he passes out because he can’t sit still.”
