Page 20 of Momcom Vacation

Brooks: Kiss-ass.

Gavin: I’m your coach too.

Brooks: Yeah, but you need me more than I need to suck up to you.

Me: HA. Did Sara steal your phone?

Brooks: Hi, Beckett! Hope you’re having a fabulous time in the Keys. Tell the wife I said hello.

Me: I can’t because she doesn’t know I’m here. None of you better tell her.

Brooks: Aye, aye, Captain!

“That’s what we should do,”I mutter.

Cortney eyes me. “Do I even want to ask?”

I rub my hands together and stand. “Team meeting!”

The entire house shakes as the kids stampede from every corner. Every one of them, save Willow, knows to hustle to the living room when they hear those two special words, and even the baby is bouncing in her dad’s arms, eager for our huddle. If we’re meeting like this, then it’s because something good is coming, and they know it. I know the kids want to get outside. We’re on a beach, after all. But if the women go for a walk along the sand and discover us only a stone’s throw away, I’m dead. I want my wife to have an enjoyable weekend free from me and the kids. She deserves this time. But I also want to be here in case she needs me.

Maybe it’s pathetic.

Nah. It’s incredibly romantic.

If pregnancy didn’t make my wife permanently annoyed with me, she’d swoon at the gesture.

“Stop talking to yourself.” Cortney nudges me in the side.

“I’m not.”

“Your lips are moving, but no sound is coming out. You’re talking to yourself. It’s what you do when you’re trying to convince yourself that some boneheaded scheme is your best idea ever.”

My chest tightens. “I don’t do that.”

One brow arched, he stares me down.

“Okay, maybe I plot a bit on occasion. But my plans always work out.”

He sighs. “Just tell me you’ve got a plan for these kids. I can’t take it if we’re trapped inside for another forty-eight hours. The complaining is getting to me. I’m still dealing with my mother’s texts on top of all that. And if the caretaker shows up again, I’m out. I’m tired, man.”

Shit, tired is an understatement now that I really look at my best friend. Hell, we all look a bit worse for wear. This might not have been my best idea. I probably should have gotten us a bigger place. I’ll definitely be upgrading the caretaker’s house so we have multiple homes to stay in next year.

“She was wearing a bathing suit,” I remind him. And thank god for that. Her husband heard my scream and appeared before she beat us all up for shocking her in her own home.

“I’ve got a plan that’ll get us all out of here for a little while.”

“Why can’t we just go to the beach?” Winnie asks.

I smile at my favorite girl. “We can’t go to the beach because we aren’t telling your mother we’re here, remember?”

Enzo sighs. “Rowan spent the night with Shay. Dylan already knows. Let’s just go hang out on the island with our girls. They’re bound to find out, and when they do, it will be so much worse for you.”

The kids all nod, voicing their agreement in unison.

I shake my head. “Come on, the Brownstone Crew never gives up.”

“Brownstone Crew?” Man Bun mouths.

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