Page 144 of Love Without Control

“If he gives you too much trouble, let me know, and I’ll deal with my brother.”

Dane kissed the tip of my nose. “You’re so protective of me.”

I gave him a wink. “I’m a wildcat, remember?”

“Auburn and Gianna really know how to throw a party,” Kassie said, stuffing the last bit of cupcake into her mouth and groaning. “And your husband is a damn baking genius.”

“He definitely is.” We were in the kitchen, and I peered around the corner into the living room. Dad was bouncing Paulie on his knees, making him laugh while the other kids looked on, enraptured with their new baby cousin. Gianna and Auburn’s twins, Jaxon and Jane, were seven, and Kass and Monty’s little boy, Sully, was six. I already adored all of them.

My eyes drifted to the balcony where my husband was standing beside the grill with Monty, both with beers in their hands. I returned to sit across from Kassie. “Our husbands are on the balcony together, and they don’t seem to be attempting to throw each other over.”

“I’m calling that a win,” she said, eyeballing the platter of desserts Dane made earlier. “I had a talk with your brother last night and set him straight. I told him if he makes Dane feel uncomfortable with the family, you guys might decide to just move back to Florida.”

Gianna walked into the kitchen and caught the tail end of the conversation. “Noooo, Evie. Please tell me you’re staying. I’m already addicted to that little nugget you birthed.” She waved a hand at me. “I mean, you and Dane are pretty cool too.”

I laughed and reassured her. “We want to stay. We talked about it last night and decided to look for a place to live here in New York.”

Her green eyes lit with excitement. “Oooh, goody. I think I can help.” She tilted her head back and called, “Auuuuburn!”

Ten seconds later, he appeared beside her, hands going to her pregnant belly. “What? Are you okay?”

Her voice turned into a purr, and she walked her fingers up his forearm. “I was wondering if Evie and Dane could have that apartment that just opened up downstairs. Pretty please? I’d do anything if they could live in our building.”

Oh, she’s good.

My brother grasped her chin and kissed her hard on the mouth. “You don’t have to bat those pretty eyelashes at me, baby girl. I was going to offer it to them anyway.” Then he bent closer and whispered, “But I’ll still take you up on thatanythingyou were offering.”

“Gag!” I whined. “We can hear you.”

Kassie rolled her eyes at me in commiseration, letting me know their PDA wasn’t an uncommon occurrence.

Auburn flashed me a look of chagrin. “You and Dane are welcome to the apartment. Consider it a gift.”

“I’ll talk to him about it, but we have money,” I protested. We still had a chunk of the original seven million; plus, both our jobs paid well.

Auburn appeared to be deep in thought for a moment. “There’s still your trust fund as well. I’ve been managing it for you, and it’s grown substantially over the years.”

I was a little stunned. I hadn’t thought about that for a long time. “Thank you, Auburn. I guess I thought… I’m not exactly sure what I thought,” I finished with a laugh.

“Do you plan on working? I’m sure there aren’t as many turtle-related opportunities here as there are in Florida, but I know of an excellent fashion company where you could put your marketing degree to good use.” He waggled his dark brows at me.

“Are you offering me a job, big bro?”

“If you want it. Monty and Cruz work at Bouvier too, so we might as well have the whole damn family involved.”

“That sounds great,” I said, fighting back the tears. “I’ll talk to Dane about that too.”

“Speaking of Dane,” Gianna said, “have you tried these cupcakes?” She selected a yellow and pink one and held it up for her husband to taste.

His eyes rolled dramatically back in his head as he chewed. “Dear god, that’s the best thing I’ve ever had in my mouth.” Then he winked at Gianna. “Well, the second best.”

“Again, Kassie and I are sitting right here,” I griped, scrunching my nose up at them, though I wasn’t really offended. They were pretty damn cute together, and I loved how happy my brother was with her. For years, all I’d seen were stoic photos of him online or ones where his smile was obviously forced. But that was all pre-Gianna. Now he just looked… happy.

“What kind of cupcake was that anyway?” he asked, ignoring my complaint.

“That was a Battenberg. The Neapolitan are good too,” I told him, pointing at the black-and-white ones with pink frosting on top.

My brother snagged one of those, holding it up for inspection before eating half of it in one bite. “Mmmm. Maybe I’ll open a bakery in the lobby of the Bouvier building and let Dane run it. Though I’d probably put on about forty pounds.”

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