Page 43 of Clap Back (Carter Brothers)

“We have to eat lunch before we can have dessert. You know the rules.” I ran my hand down her hair, smoothing the crazy fly aways onto her tiny little head.

“Ugh.” She leaned forward and rested her face on my chest.

Something inside of me eased at her closeness. The ugliness of today thawing slightly with her nearness.

And with a swiftness that surprised me, she fell asleep in my arms.

“Well?” Quincy pushed.

I looked up to find all of them staring at me expectantly.

Instead of beating around the bush, I told them exactly what had happened over the last few days.

Some of it Atlas was aware of, but other parts he wasn’t.

“I should’ve stayed,” Atlas grumbled. “Fuck.”

I shrugged, knowing he probably wouldn’t have been able to stop anything from happening with me and the chief even if he had been there.

“So what are you going to do?” Dad asked, leaning back in his chair.

Before I could answer, the waitress came and took our orders. It was only after she was long gone that I said, “I have no fucking clue.”

It was Quincy who asked the next question that had me spinning my wheels. “Is she worth it?”

I swallowed. “I think so.”

“You know so,” Atlas corrected me. “It’s been a few days, and you’re already willing to give up your career for her.”

He had a point.

“How about you give it a few more days?” Dad suggested. “Think on it. Then, bring this problem to her. She’s not going to appreciate it if you make the decision for her, and you know that. It’s her decision to make, and if she wants to put her business in jeopardy, then let her.”

When he put things like that, it always made sense.

“What about y’all, though?” I asked. “I might be willing to lose my job, but I’m not willing to let y’all lose yours.”

“We’ll just move to Sunnyvale PD,” Dad suggested. “They’re hurting bad for officers, and we live over there now anyway.”

“I’ve already been thinking about doing that,” Quaid admitted. “It’s so fuckin’ far to drive, and I’m losing like an hour at home with the kids.”

“Same,” Quinn said. “It’s bad enough that Shayne has to come in that far to go to work for twenty-four hours. But when I’m doing it, too, it’s putting a lot of strain on y’all.”

“You damn well know that we love seeing the kids,” I corrected him. “Don’t make any choices like that unless you want to. We’ve got a good thing here.”

For emphasis, I gave Dalia a little squeeze.

She let out a loud snore, causing the table to chuckle.

With all of us having houses in Sunnyvale now, it was fucking awesome for the brothers who had children. If a mom or a dad couldn’t be there, a grandpa, an uncle, or an aunt could.

Between all of us, there was never an issue with children having supervision in an emergency.

“Then it’s settled,” Dad said. “Plus, I’m getting to retirement age now. There’s no reason I even need to still be working.”

Meaning, if Dad and the chief had it out, there was no reason that Dad wouldn’t just leave before it got taken too far.

That let me take a deep breath.

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