Page 25 of Flirting with Trouble

“Now, that sounds like my brother,” I say.

Jules wraps her arms around Grant’s waist, smiling up at him. “And that’s just one of the many things I love about our great protector.”

Grant looks at her with a softness I never knew existed until he and Jules came together and says, “Love you, too, Pix.” Pix, or Pixie, is his nickname for Jules, because she flits about like a pixie spreading happy dust. I never would have put Jules and Grant together. Happy-go-lucky Jules, a self-professed music aficionado who can never remember the correct lyrics to songs but sings like she’s onstage anyway, and the brother who seemed to live under a dark cloud for too many years to count. But she’s the yin to his yang. Grant is an incredible artist, and he’s not only painting again, but he founded and runs the Silver Lining Foundation, which provides resources for amputees.

My father claps a hand on Grant’s shoulder. “I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, son. Get used to it. You’re going to be perpetually tired for the next twenty years.”

I don’t know what went down between Grant and my parents, but things have gotten better since he and Jules got together.

“Stop being a baby hog,” Keira says as she and Bellamy join us in the kitchen.

Bellamy is holding Stevie, tickling his belly. “You don’t want to go to Auntie Keira, do you? I know you love your Auntie Bellamy best.”

“Ohmygod,” Keira says exasperatedly. “You’re such a brat.”

Bellamy flashes a cheesy grin.

I’d like to hold the little guy, but I’m not about to step into that spider’s web.

“Careful, Bell,” Fitz says. “I hear babies are contagious.”

“That might be possible if there were a man in my life, which there isn’t,” she quips. “And that’s another reason I should hold him and not Keira. She had a date last night. I wouldn’t want her catching baby fever.”

That surprises me, since Keira claimed to have sworn off dating a while ago. “Who’d you go out with?”

Keira rolls her eyes.

I glance at Fitz.

He shrugs and says, “It’s not my day to keep tabs on her. Are you still hosting poker tomorrow night? Jamison is in town, so he’s coming with Brant, and Jock and Levi are busy, but Archer will be there.” Jamison and Brant Remington and Jules’s brothers, Jock, Levi, and Archer, are some of the guys we grew up with. Brant and Jules’s brothers live on the island, but Jamison and Brant’s other brother, Rowan, moved away years ago.

“Yup,” I say. “It’ll be good to see Jamison. Grant, are you coming?”

“We’ll see,” Grant says.

“He’ll be there,” Jules says. “He’s not missing another game just because he’s a daddy.”

“Does Jamison even know how to play poker?” Bellamy asks. “He’s a science nerd.”

“A hot science nerd,” Keira says.

“He’s an astrophysicist,” my father interjects. “I doubt there’s anything he doesn’t know how to do.”

“Except women,” Keira says. She and Jamison dated in high school, and it did not end well.

“You’d know,” Bellamy says.

“Shut up and give me the baby,” Keira snaps.

“See, Grant?” Jules exclaims. “This is why we shouldn’t wait too long to have another baby.”

Grant looks at her like she’s lost her mind, and I laugh.

“She’ll just hog that baby, too,” Keira complains.

“All right, enough of the baby war.” My mother holds her hands out, wiggling her fingers. “May I please have my grandson?”

As Bellamy hands Stevie to my mother, Keira says, “Are you freaking kidding me? Am I invisible over here? Do you not hear my voice?”