Page 301 of The Reluctant Hero

“That’s a step up,” she rolls her eyes. When she sees the guys her eyes narrow and shift to me. “And who is this?”

She’s trying to figure out which one I’m interested in. If I introduce just one of them, she’ll have someone to focus on. The joke’s on her, though. I introduce them all at once, which should piss her off.

Instead, she practically squeals when I introduce Jake.

“I’m honored to meet you in the flesh,” Jake grins.

Mom prances over to him and grabs both his hands like he’s a miracle she has to touch.

“Wait,” I begin warily.

“He texts her at three o’clock on the dot every day to give her updates on you,” Dad mutters to me.

My head snaps around so I can gape at him.

Jesus, this is the team-up literallyno oneasked for.

“Oh, no,” I groan.

“Oh, yeah,” Dad smiles back, perfectly content as he drops the next bombshell. “She’s datingallof them, Suzanne.”

Mom’s jaw drops, her arms falling to her sides in shock. It takes a minute for that to process while I shift in discomfort. Dad bails out on me and finds a glass and the whiskey.

“May I?” He looks back at Gabe with a gleeful smile overflowing with smugness.

“Just one,” Mom and I say at the same time with the same glower.

“Cade looks like he would love snickerdoodles,” Dad throws out as Gabe nods warily to approve the alcohol consumption. As a man saying that about another man I grimace for him. It sounds so wrong.

But it makes Mom focus on Cade with the intensity of twenty suns. She misses the fact that Dad fills the tumbler almost to the top.

“Dad,” I hiss, looking from the glass to him.

“How many kids are you thinking of having, Amanda? Three?” He raises a brow, salutes me with the glass and takes a sip. His other hand rises to flip me off while Mom is getting closer to a very nervous-looking Cade.

“Five, obviously,” Mom inserts with narrowed eyes. “One from each. I think that would do to start. And if there are any doubts that someone got skipped you can try again. Not a big deal.”

Ace gapes at her. Gabe looks stoic. Jake is grinning with delight.

“Don’t listen to her,” I assure Mikael quickly. He looks like he’s about to pass out.

“I was a big baby,” he tells me roughly. “You’re so small.”

“Aw, it’s really sweet that you’re concerned,” Mom coos at him before going back to being her real tyrannical self. “Amanda has wide hips. She’ll be fine.”

“Mom,” I groan and slap my hand over my face.

“Don’t let those hips go to waste,” Mom lectures with a raised brow. “Really, Amanda, I’ve been waiting for years.”

She begins to pace as she rants. I mimic her silently word for word. This lecture is way too familiar. It’s all about babies and my biological clock ticking down like a time bomb. The only thing that changes is the amount of time that’s passed. The script takes a sudden flip I wasn’t ready for.

“So, which one are you marrying?”

My jaw drops as I stare at her with bugging eyes. Who says that?

“I’m barely a widow.”

“He was scum, and I’m tired of waiting. Which one?” She eyes them like she’s sizing them up at auction.

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