Page 2 of Hot Dad Summer

Tyler’s older brother, Flynn, ran out of the garage, chasing his son. His sun-streaked blond hair was almost as wild as Charlie’s, and his bright blue eyes were already narrowed with exasperation. “Charlie! Charlie, stop!”

“Hey, D? He’s going to stop, right?” Rat sounded like he already knew the answer.

Charlie let out a loud war cry and dove off the four-wheeler, making me think he didn’t know how to stop. He executed a pretty decent roll and then popped up with an agility I’d never known, running at me parallel with the four-wheeler that hadn’t slowed down much.

Tyler’s other brothers, Max and Wes, came sprinting out of the garage, their daughters in front of them. Hazel was dotted in paint and chasing her little cousin, Poppy, with a paintbrush and a wicked smile. Poppy was more paint than little girl and despite running from Hazel, she looked thrilled about it.

Max was hard to miss behind them, tattooed and built like someone I wouldn’t want to meet in a dark alley. Wes was beside him, broad through the shoulders with a dark beard that made his usual serious expression look downright intimidating.

In the space of a second, I recognized that the dads had lost control of their children and needed help. The muscle memory was there and the oftentimes unhealthy internal demand that I prove myself useful was ever present. As always, that drive overrode the rest of my thoughts and I was grateful for the distraction from Tyler’s continued absence.

I moved forward to catch Charlie but Hank was still circling in front of me so I tripped over him and went down hard, the ominous ripping sound from my dress hurting more than the fall. I groaned but before I could focus on the humiliation of tripping in front of Tyler’s older brothers, a louder sound filled the air.

“Aww, shit, man.” Rat appeared over me, his young face turned down. “Little dude just trashed my whip.”

“That thing is closer to whisper than whip, Rat.”

“Haters gonna hate.” He reached down and proved that he was stronger than his lanky frame suggested by grabbing me under the arms and lifting me to my feet. “D, you sure you aren’t interested in a younger man? You’re thicker than a snicker.”

“I will murder you.”

Before I could clap his cheeks and pinch them like the child he was, Max stepped up beside me. I hadn’t even seen him cross the driveway. He looked down at Rat’s hands, still loosely wrapped around my arms, and then lifted his gaze to Rat’s face.

Rat immediately let go of me.

Flynn came up on my other side, breathing a little hard from chasing Charlie. “You always hit on grown women, kid?”

“Only the hot ones.”

Wes stopped in front of me, his gaze moving over my scraped knee and torn dress instead of Rat. “You hurt?”

“I’m fine.” I looked between the three brothers and fought the strange urge to laugh. Max was still scowling at Rat, Flynn looked entertained, and Wes was studying my knee like it had personally offended him. “Everyone relax. Rat’s barley eighteen. His brain isn’t fully formed yet.”

“Eighteen in one month,” Rat muttered.

“Congratulations. I’m sure your frontal lobe is very excited.”

I clapped his cheeks and then pinched them like a grandma. Then I saw the damage Charlie’s four-wheeler had caused to the tiny car. Rat was right. His whip was trashed. “Damn. How much does a toy like that go for? I’ll write you a check.”

“You’re not paying for that.” Wes said it immediately.

Rat looked between the three brothers and then at me. “Damn, D. You got a whole security team up here.”

I rolled my eyes, but something about the three Calloway brothers standing around me made the back of my neck feel warm.

Everyone had frozen when the crash happened, even Charlie, but Rat’s loud laugh thawed them and proved the chaos never truly stopped. Charlie finished the run to me and climbed me like a tree to press a wet kiss to my cheek before jumping down to stare at Hank in awe.

“What is it?”

Hazel scoffed. “It’s a dog, doofus.”

Rat snorted. “Doofus? Where’d you learn your insults, kid?”

Poppy launched herself at me, covering me in paint. “Aunt Daisy! I missed you so much! Oh, you have something on your dress…”

My dress was already ruined so I squeezed her tight. “I can’t imagine what that something is.”

I was promptly relegated to second most interesting thing as the kids obsessed over a stoned Hank. It gave me the chance to really look at Tyler’s brothers. Flynn still wore the easy grin he seemed to have been born with. Max had retreated a few feet but his hazel eyes were still fixed on me beneath his permanent scowl. Wes stood closest, massive arms crossed over his chest, looking like the responsible adult in a family that had clearly run out of them.