Page 123 of Mr. Broody

Kyleigh and I are finishing our wine when the door to the back room opens. In walk Rowan and Henry, who’s carrying Bodhi. He has a balloon tied around his wrist, and he’s holding his goodie bag.

“Look, our girls are becoming besties,” Rowan says.

Kyleigh scrunches her eyebrows at him. “I think I have to cut you off from the reality TV shows.”

“You’re the one who got me into them.” Rowan takes the seat next to her and kisses her briefly.

“Jade, look what I got.” Bodhi wiggles out of Henry’s hold and climbs up on my lap, dumping his bag out on the table.

Henry leans in and kisses me quickly. “Should I get a drink?”

“Yes, you should,” Kyleigh says. “And get Bodhi his Shirley Temple.”

“It’s late, but…” Henry shakes his head and leaves the room.

“He’s really started loosening those sugar reins, huh, Bodhi?” Kyleigh asks him as he’s picking up each item to show us.

“Yeah, he does anything Jade asks,” Bodhi says.

Kyleigh and Rowan crack up laughing, and I’m surprised by his words, so my reaction is shock. Henry walks in with two beers and a Shirley Temple with a lot of cherries.

“One, and we’re going upstairs.” He sets it on the table in front of Bodhi.

“Unless Jade says differently,” Rowan says, unable to keep his laughter to himself.

“What did I miss?” Henry sits down next to me, putting his arm on the back of my chair. I love this feeling of being a couple again.

“Your son just said you’re?—”

I cover Bodhi’s ears.

“Whipped,” Rowan finishes with a grin.

“And proud of it.” Henry kisses my cheek while I roll my eyes. “By the way, he thinks the same thing of you.”

Rowan scoffs. “I am not.”

Kyleigh leans forward and whispers something in his ear. Rowan stands and holds out his hand.

She laughs. “Point proven.”

“You can’t use…” Rowan looks at Bodhi. “That. Every guy is when it comes to using that.”

“Let’s put all this back in the bag so we don’t lose anything,” I say to Bodhi, distracting him from what Rowan’s referring to in case he decides to ask questions.

“Hey, wanna do me a favor?” Henry asks.

Rowan raises his eyebrows because I’m pretty sure he knows what Henry’s going to ask.

Henry points at the top of Bodhi’s head.

Kyleigh, being as sweet as she is, says, “Bodhi, Rowan was telling me the other day about how he is sooo good at pinball. Want to team up and beat him?”

Bodhi jumps off my lap and hops onto the big stool in front of the pinball machine.

Kyleigh winks at us.

Henry grabs my hand. “Hey, Bodhi, Jade and I will be right back. We just have to go get something upstairs.”

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