Page 82 of Shaken

“Ours?” I ask.

“Yeah, Huck Finn. Pretty sure this is the good doctor’s house, not yours.” Jace, the little kiss-ass, hands me a cookie and a glass of milk, then sits down next to me with a stack of his own. Okay. I can handle this kind of ass-kissing.

“Remind me why you haven’t gone back to the hockey house yet?” Sawyer glares, and I bite my tongue. I kinda like having Jace here. I never got to know what having a younger sibling was like. Seeing them together is entertaining.

Jace sighs dramatically and shakes his head, like that was the most ridiculous thing he’d ever heard. “For starters, the view is much better here.” Then he dips his cookie in my milk, and I reconsider my earlier thought about wanting a younger sibling. “And the food is better too.”

“Hey...” I snag the chocolate chip cookie out of his hand and enjoy the pout he gives me. “Get your own milk.”

The devilish Kingston does just that. And when he sits back down to a still-glaring Sawyer, he announces, “I like her, Sawyer. She’s gonna fit in with the rest of the crazy women in our family just fine.”

I point a cookie at his face. “You do realize I’ve known your family longer than you’ve been alive, right?”

The little shit bites the cookie right out of my hand.

“Then you better learn to protect your food and your booze. We’re savages.”

* * *

“They really are more savage than I remember,” I admit to Maddie that night while the two of us sit in her living room, watching the Kingstons fight over who baby Teagan will love the most.

Maddie’s tired eyes close for a moment. “They are. But man, they love hard.”

“Hey.” Her brother, Brandon, joins the two of us, with Teagan tucked in his monstrously big arms. “It doesn’t really matter which one of them thinks they win that fight. I’ve already claimed the title of favorite.”

The tiny baby is sleeping soundly against her uncle’s broad chest, and I’m not sure who looks more content—him or her.

He looks me over cautiously, like he doesn’t trust me. Something about that doesn’t surprise me. “You’re Sawyer’s woman?”

“Brandon,” Maddie chastises. “This is Dr. Davenport. She delivered Teagan.”

“Oh, shit. Sorry. Good job, doc.”

“Thanks. I guess. But your sister was the one who did all the work. I just caught Teagan. Maybe that’ll makemeher favorite.” I like the sound of that.

“Are you planning on being around that long, doc?” Maddie asks nonchalantly as Brandon carefully transfers Teagan back to her momma.

I look at Sawyer, who’s laughing with his brothers, then back to the baby in her mother’s arms. “Yeah. I think I am.”

* * *

When we change for bed later that night, Sawyer does a little striptease I think is supposed to be sexy but in reality looks silly. “What are you doing?” I snicker.

He turns around and shakes his delectable ass. “Reminding you what you’re willingly giving up, Red.”

My little snicker threatens to turn into hysterics, but I purse my lips and push it down. “Oh, Kingston. I think we can do better than twenty-four hours without sex.”

When he turns around, he looks like I kicked his puppy. “It was worth a shot.”

I press up onto my toes and kiss his lips. “I love you.”

“Can we at least make out like horny teenagers?” He runs his tongue along the seam of my mouth and cups my breast in his big hand.

“That sounds like fun...”

Apparently, I hadn’t thought this through because making out for hours was amazing. But not coming at the end of it was stupid. This wholecelibacything might not last very long.

SAWYER

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