Page 120 of Daddy By Design

I bumped her arm with mine. “No shortage of babysitting around here.”

“No kidding. I’m going to make bank.” She turned around to open the gate with her butt. “Dahlia’s here!” she called out.

Gideon looked up from his manfully huge platter of meat. “Long time no see, stranger.”

“Hey, Gideon. Smells amazing.”

Michael sped around the smoker with a plastic flipper. “Dahl!” He crashed into me and hugged my legs. “I haven’t seen you in forever!”

I transferred the salad bowl to one hand so I could ruffle his dark hair. “Hey, buddy.”

“Do you want to see my pork?”

I resisted the snicker. “You ready to do all the shredding?”

“How did you know?” His silvery blue eyes widened.

“Just a good guess.”

“Mom is gonna let me use the Wolverine claws!” He fist-pumped with his flipper like a sword.

I glanced up at Gideon in question. “They really do look like them.” He bared his teeth. “Ready to shred?”

“Yeah!” Michael raced off to the stairs with his spatula.

Oh, to have that energy.

“No running!” Macy’s voice thundered from the inside the kitchen.

“Aww, Mom.”

“Don’t ‘aww, Mom’ me. It’s a gorgeous day. I don’t want to spend it in the ER for your fifth batch of stitches.”

Michael giggled.

“C’mon in. You didn’t have to bring anything,” Gideon said as he lifted the platter with both hands. That was a hell of a lot of meat to shred.

I followed him up the back porch stairs into the kitchen, with Dani bringing up the rear. She set the lemon bars on the counter.

“If there’s room in the fridge, you might want to put them in there. With this.” I handed her the pasta salad.

“Got it.” Dani went to the fridge and shoved them inside before slamming it shut. “I’ll be outside.”

“Take your brother,” Macy called after her.

“Aww, c’mon.”

“Hey! I gotta do the Wolverine!” Michael’s lower lip jutted out.

Macy took the spatula from him. “Come back in ten minutes.” She pushed a kitchen timer into his hands and set it. “Now scram.”

“Can I swim?”

“Not until after we eat. Play with the cats. Now out!”

“Fine!” Michael stomped out after Dani.

“You run a tight ship, Mace.”

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