Page 85 of Wanting a Family Man

“I can spare five minutes. And why thehellwere the beds made?”

“Dude,” Logan cautioned him on his tone.

“I’m sorry, did I cross a picket line?” Cloe picked herself up off the crutches to stand taller. “When I woke up, I remembered I hadn’t done it yesterday, so I did it.”

“With a sprained ankle. You went up and down those stairs, on crutches, on a boat. That’s what you did?” Trystan was flabbergasted. Furious, actually.

“I had a few shots of tequila first.” She looked to Logan for a laugh, but Logan was giving Trystan a hard stare that Trystan ignored.

“Now you’ve walked all this way, downhill, on that shitty road full of potholes—”

“Oh mygawd, Trystan. Fabiana is past the age of owning tampons. Okay?” Cloe shook one crutch so he would notice the small plastic bag she had tied to the cross bar. “Is it fine by you that I came here to buy some? Should I have asked you which stall to use when I went into the pub to insert one?”

She was bright red with anger and embarrassment. He was hot from hairline to guts, sorry he’d pushed her into saying that. He was irritated that Logan was listening. Logan was still glaring at him and wore a dark shade of ire himself.

“Hey, dum-dums,” Sophie called as she came out of the hardware store. “Are you playing hide-and-seek with that kid? Em’s here.” She pointed.

The water taxi was approaching the wharf.

“Guess who’s here, Storm? Let’s go see.” Logan brushed by him to catch up with Sophie as they hurried toward the wharf.

“I’m not afraid to buy tampons. You only had to ask,” Trystan muttered, hanging back to pace alongside Cloe as she swung out on her crutches to follow Logan.

“I’m a grown woman who can buy her own fucking tampons.”

They weren’t arguing about tampons.

“I want to help you, Cloe. You can still ask me for things.”

“I don’t want to.”

Wow. That was a knee in the gut he had not expected. It left his stomach feeling curdled and radiated a dull ache through the rest of him.

She didn’t try to go down the ramp. She stopped on the grassy verge to look down to where the taxi was tying up. Her severe profile softened as she watched Emma scramble off the water taxi to gather up Storm.

Storm was beside herself, crowing with excitement and crying a little, throwing herself into Emma’s arms, then clinging like any baby mammal to its mama.

“Did I miss it?” Glenda came up beside them. “Oh, look at them. That’s cute.”

Storm had her fist curled around the open zipper of Reid’s jacket as he encircled both Emma and Storm, but Storm kept her head on Emma’s shoulder. Reid kissed her hair before he stepped away to help Logan bring up the luggage.

Trystan moved to reopen the back of the SUV. Emma had taken an empty suitcase and would have filled it with clothes and other things for Storm. There was probably a pallet of diapers and other bulk supplies, too.

“Glenda!” Emma was already beaming as she came up the ramp from the wharf, but brightened even more as she saw their small party waiting. She squashed Storm between them as she hugged Glenda, then she made a sympathy face at Cloe’s ankle. “I heard about that. It’s not broken, though?”

“Just a sprain,” Cloe confirmed.

“Good. Hi, Trys.” She gave him a brief hug and kissed his cheek.

“Good trip?” he asked.

“Really good.”

Reid and Logan arrived with the luggage. Trystan took what was in Reid’s hands and stowed it so Reid could hug Glenda.

“I’m inviting myself for coffee with you and Emma before Fabiana and I go over to Bella Bella for the night,” Glenda told Reid.

“Reid needs to meet with me and Trys for a minute,” Logan said as he slammed the back of the SUV. “And Cloe needs a lift to Fabiana’s. Can you drop her?”

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