Page 604 of The Winslow Brothers

“What the heck?” Roman groans, and Ryder grins like a maniac.

“Ha-ha! I won!”

Out of nowhere, my wild girl Izzy jumps right into the wrestling fold, climbing on top of both of her cousins with a battle cry. If there’s one thing that’s a certainty about Roman and Ryder, it’s that they might be batshit crazy ninety-nine percent of the time, but when it comes to Izzy and Carmen and the rest of their female cousins, they’re surprisingly gentle.

Hawk runs past me—completely naked, mind you—with Meadow chasing after him in one of his superhero capes.

My mom is quick to yell, “Hawk, put your pants on!”

But it does nothing. He just zips past her, yelling, “Grandma, I’m the Flash!”

“Oh boy,” my mom muses, laughing instead of stopping it, and takes Izzy’s and Carmen’s overnight bags from my hands to set them down in the living room. I follow her into the kitchen, and Howard is sitting at the table, completely unfazed by the madness, drinking a cup of coffee. Ty’s daughter Emily sits at the table with him, her focus on the book in her lap.

“Is it just me, or does Jude’s son never have any clothes on?” I ask, shaking my head on a chuckle.

“Oh, Rem, you shouldn’t be surprised,” my mom chimes in. “I swear, for the first five years of Jude’s life, he was naked.”

“Like father, like son, huh?” I tease and Howard laughs.

“Rem, five bucks says Hawk’s still naked when you pick up Carmen and Iz in the morning.”

My mom just shrugs on a laugh. “I’m not taking that bet, Howard. We both know we’re going to be lucky to get him to put on pajamas.”

“I’m not in charge of that,” Lexi announces as she walks into the kitchen to grab a bottle of water and sit down beside Emily. The two of them fall face first into books, their calm and quiet routine of reading a stark contrast to the wild saloon showdown a room away.

My sweet Carmen wanders into the kitchen, apparently done with all the chaos, and turns to Howard. “Howie, you gots any cookies?”

“Of course, kiddo.” Howard smiles at her. “You know where they are.”

Without hesitation, Carmen marches straight to the cookie jar, completely ignoring everything else.

“Like father, like daughter,” my mom muses before she manages to scoop Hawk up mid-sprint and plop his bare butt onto the counter. “Flash, honey, let’s put on some underwear, okay?”

“Grandma,”Hawk whines like she’s ruining his whole life, but eventually agrees, “Fine.”

Once my little Carmen has her cookie, she sits down at the table beside Emily and Lexi. Izzy, though, the little wild child, is in the living room still, wrestling around with Roman and Ryder while Meadow cheers them on, “For glories! For glories!”

Hawk screeches like a dinosaur before jumping into the pile, sending little bodies flying and bumping into the couch so hard it scoots an entire foot. I wince.

“Are you guys sure you’re good with all of them?” I ask, looking between my mom and Howard.

“Of course, honey,” she says, beaming. “They’re my grandbabies. Besides, Lexi is here to help, and Howard is a pro.”

Howard just lifts his coffee cup in agreement. “We got this.”

I look over at Lexi. “You willingly gave up your Saturday night for this chaos?”

She shrugs. “Technically, there was a bribe involved.”

“Who?” I laugh. “Your mom or Wes?”

“I’m not at liberty to say.”

I chuckle at that. “Well, I can only hope you got one hell of a bribe to be roped into this chaos.”

She just shrugs. “I’m being compensated generously.”

At that exact moment, something else crashes in the living room.

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