“Me! But Jake’s helping. Mom and Rhodes aren’t playing very well.”
“Is that so?” my sister replies with a laugh. “Let me tell you, I kicked Uncle Bryant’s butt.” She holds up her hand, and Harvey doesn’t leave her hanging, smacking his palm against hers triumphantly.
“You rock, Aunty Faith.”
“I know, but not as much as you, Harvey Duncan. You’re a rock star.” She smiles warmly at my son. “You’ll have to come out with us to the driving range one day. We can see how far and how hard you can really hit a golf ball.”
Harvey turns to me, his eyes pleading. “Please, Mom. That would be so cool.”
“Of course, bud. Anytime you want.”
“Right.” Faith looks at me. “We won’t hold you up any longer.” I can see the questions in her gaze, all of which I cannot answer.
Rhodes’s gentle laughter from beside me grabs my attention.
“Yeah. Prepare yourself for a big phone call later, Bry. I think your wife is expecting a date debrief tonight.”
My brother-in-law pulls my sister into his arms and chuckles. “I’m used to it with these two. Even as kids they’d sneak into each other’s rooms and whisper all night until Patricia would catch them out and send them to bed.”
“Hey. It’s not our fault they separated our bunk beds and made us get our own rooms.”
“Faith,” he says, trying to hold back a laugh. “You almost made her pass out when you were trying to test a hypothesis about hanging upside down for too long.”
Faith’s eyes meet mine, and we both dissolve into giggles.
“Oh no. Now we’ll never finish the game,” Harvey says.
“Why’s that?” Jake asks.
“Once Mom and Aunty Faith start giggling, they’re lost forever,” he replies dryly.
I simmer down and quirk a brow at my son. “Hey, mister. You do know I can hear you, right?”
His lips curve up, and suddenly I have images of a teenage Harvey doing the same thing to me. Dammit. Why do kids have to grow up?
“Well, we’ll leave you all to it. Have fun. And, Rhodes, you should come over and see the renovations we’ve done,” Bryant says, shaking Rhodes hand again.
Rhodes’s head jerks back. “You’re renovating again? Jeez. I haven’t even completed renovation round one on my place”
Bry shrugs. “Whatever the wife wants, the wife gets.”
“And this wife wanted to change my theme to mid-century modern, starting with tiles.” Faith flashes us a beaming smile.
“Cool. I’ll definitely call around for a beer on one of my days off then. Maybe I’ll bring Dee and some of Faith’s design ideas can rub off on her too. Lord knows I need all help I can get with colors and fabrics. That was always Lily’s domain. Jake and I make do, but there’s something to be said about a woman’s touch, right?” He pulls me into his side again and, as if it’s the most natural thing in the world, I wrap my arms around his waist, anchoring myself to him like he’s doing to me.
I crane my neck to meet his gaze. “Oh, maybe you’ll bring me along, huh? To my own sister’s house. Jeez. Get set up, they said. He’s a good guy, they said.” I’m trying to hide my surprise at the ease in which he talked about me helping renovate while seamlessly mentioning his wife’s name in the same breath. It’s definitely an adjustment for me, but I’m slowly getting used to the fact that Lily is still a big force to be reckoned with in the lives of the Anderson men.
“Damn, I think I like it when you’re a little feisty,” he murmurs, snapping me from my thoughts.
“See you,” Faith and Bry say, seemingly enjoying this show far too much.
I wave goodbye but don’t look away from Rhodes’s beautiful blue eyes, totally ensnared in his charming web. “You want me feisty? Oh, honey, you ain’t seen nothing yet.”
“Is that so,” he murmurs, his gaze dropping to my mouth, my tongue instinctively darting out to wet my dry lips. The rumbling growl deep in his chest has me pressing myself closer to him.
“Um . . . guys?” Jake says.
We both turn our heads at the same time to meet the amused grins of both Jake and Harvey.
Jake winks at us. “We’re just going to go get some snacks.”
“You want my wallet?” Rhodes asks.
“Nope,” he replies, jerking his head in the direction of the food carts we saw when we first arrived. “C’mon, Harvs. Let’s go refuel for the rest of our butt-kicking mini-golf mission.”
“Oh, man. I could kill a hot dog right now.”
“Me too. And fries.”
“And donuts.”
“A mini-man after my own heart.”
“Don’t you mean stomach?” my son asks, and I bury my face in Rhodes’s chest to stifle my giggle.
“That too, bud. Let’s go,” Jake replies as they walk away, leaving us alone, Jake looks back over his shoulder and shoots us a devilish, knowing grin. “Don’t worry, parentals. We’ll take our time.” And then to Harvey, he says, “Had to get you away from the adults, bud. They’re gonna kiss, and we don’t need to see that, right?”
“Yeah. Eww. Girls are gross.”
Rhodes is still chuckling when he cups my face and gently tilts it to meet his. “Lucky for me, I don’t think girls are gross . . .” he murmurs against my lips. “In fact, I think this girl is a tease and a flirt, and I’m the one who’s going to get lucky when I peel her out of these jeans later.”
I arch a brow, my lips twitching. “Is that so? And when, pray tell, did you plan on telling me that you were gonna be peeling me out
