Page 104 of Grin and Bear It

“Not long now. You can do it. I know you can, because I’ve seen you do it over and over. Just gimme another forty five minutes and you’re off the hook. I’ll fight your Uncle Cole if I have to.”

He smiled then, it feeling like the first genuine smile I’d seen from Knox since the news about his parents.

“I think I want to see that more than I want a muffin,” he replied.

“How about a muffin, and I kick his arse. Deal?” I held out a hand then and the boy reached over and shook it.

“Deal.”

The two boyssettled down again and I tried to keep my eyes on them, on the watch and the minutes ticking by, but I couldn’t seem to stop myself from looking up. Tyson was watching me then, his expression unreadable, as he didn’t even pretend to pay attention to what Maddox was doing any longer, entirely fixated on me. I wasn’t sure that was a good thing, but part of me also revelled in the attention. So I lost track of time, space, even the room as I met his gaze and held it.

Had any man ever paid me this kind of attention? He wasn’t cataloguing the parts of me and deciding what he liked and disliked. He wasn’t measuring me against some internal yardstick. Just looking at, seeing me. His throat worked, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallowed hard, his brow creasing slightly as if he was about to say something, anything, but the minutes ticked by, stretching out for an aeon, the two of us trapped in some kind of temporal glitch, broken only by the sound of my watch alarm.

“Yes!” Knox threw his hands up in the air after tossing his pen down. “Muffins, get in my belly.” He leapt out of his seat, going over to the fridge and pulling down a round container sitting on the top of it, revealing the sweet scent of sugar and chocolate. “Heads up, Mads.” His brother held his hands out, catching a muffin expertly when it was tossed across the table, Knox stuffing one into his mouth.

“Hey, guests first, you little animals,” Tyson growled.

“Sorry…” Knox’s voice was muffled then, crumbs of muffin going everywhere, but he brought the container over and offered the contents to me.

“Oh my god, these do look amazing!” I said, plucking one out. “A two muffin day is always a good one.” I took a bite and then groaned.

“Good?” Tyson seemed to record my every reaction. I nodded enthusiastically, covering my mouth with my hand as I chewed.

And they were. Just as the boys described, the combination of chocolate, dried apricots and waxy macadamias was beyond rich and indulgent.

“Ty cooks the best shit,” Knox said with a big grin, reaching for another muffin. “You’ll have to get him to cook one of his cakes for you, Miss…” His smile faded slightly and he blinked for a second, seeming to realise what he was saying. I braced myself for a negative reaction, but the boy straightened up in his seat and then looked at his uncle. “You could make that triple chocolate cake you made for my birthday.”

“Knox—” Tyson started to reply.

“I mean, Miss is your mate. You have to make your best shit for her, right?”

Tyson went quiet then, a small smile forming before he turned to me.

“I’ll always do my best for my mate.”

The twins looked at us, then each other before erupting.

“Gross!” Knox declared, getting to his feet after snagging two more muffins, handing one to his brother. “C’mon, Mads, let's go shoot some hoops.”

“Knox?” Nash called out from the front door. “Maddox?”

“In here!” they replied.

“Where’s… Oh, hey.”

I blinked as Nash appeared in the dining room, Lin at his back.

“Hey…” I said weakly, my mind’s eye showing me the versions of Nash I’d gotten up close and personal with over the last few days. Neatly dressed Nash of last night, naked Nash as he… I shut that train of thought down abruptly. And now here was tradie Nash. Dressed in a high vis shirt and jeans, worn work boots on his feet. I admit I had a little moment. Because his sleeves were rolled up over thick forearms. Because those big, broad hands that had worked so hard to wring every pleasure out of me were grimy now, looking like he’d put in a hard day’s work. He looked rough, immediate and somehow that was fucking catnip for me. Something he must’ve noted, because he and Lin grinned suddenly.

But then he turned to the boys. “Get your basketball uniforms on. You’ve got training in twenty minutes.”

“Training?” The hope and fear in Knox’s voice was obvious. “But the coach kicked us off the team.”

“And I had a big chat with him and let the coach know that I fucked up.” There was a pause then as Nash nodded slowly. “But you need to get your arses ready and…”

Anything else he might have to say was cut off by the boys wrapping their arms around their uncle's neck, hugging him so hard and fast it took him a moment to respond. But just as I felt like I was intruding on this incredibly personal moment, the twins jerked away, running down the hallway, doors opening and slamming shut as they got ready.

“Lin and I will be out for an hour or so,” Nash told us with a wink. “So don’t go doing anything I wouldn’t.”

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