Page 9 of Forbidden Love

“Exactly. It’s a house for baseball players. Want to help us build them?”

“Can I play inside?” Maggie asked.

I would have said yes to whatever she wanted. “Once construction is done.”

I had visions of her learning the construction business alongside us, but she was only five. Construction zones were still too dangerous for her.

“Can you build me one?” Maggie asked me, and I knew I’d have a hard time telling her no.

Mac waved a hand at us. “She saw a picture of these storage houses in backyards that had been turned into a playhouse.”

“What do you want it to look like?” I asked her, never wanting to deny her something that we could make for her.

We scrolled through pictures, and she pointed out the designs she liked and explained how she wanted room for a table and chairs, maybe even a play kitchen. The windows would have curtains, and the house itself would have a tiny porch.

I heard Natalie and Maggie come home from their shopping trip. I didn’t move from my spot since I was holding Maggie. Mac went inside to help them with the packages and bags.

“You going to talk to Kylie about the dugouts?” Sam asked me.

“I was supposed to text her about meeting up sometime this week.”

Sam stood. “You can talk to her tonight. She’s here.”

“She is?” I asked. Maggie scrambled off my lap and raced toward Alice, and I followed her. Alice lifted Maggie in her arms and gave her a smacking kiss on her cheek. She squeezed her tight and said how much she missed her. But it was Kylie standing next to Alice that had my attention.

She wore a sundress and a jean jacket, with white sneakers. It was cute and sporty. Her exposed skin was tan and soft-looking. I stood and moved closer to her. “What are you doing here?”

Her eyes widened. “I went shopping with Natalie and Alice.”

A weird sensation entered my stomach. They were friends. I’d be seeing her all the time. “You hang out together.”

“Do you have a problem with that?” she asked, moving past me to sit in one of the chairs.

I returned to my seat and said, “I was just surprised.”

“I was friends with Natalie when we were kids, and she introduced me to Alice.” The look she gave me said everything—she didn’t think she owed me an explanation, but she gave me one anyway.

“That makes sense.” My brain was still trying to play catch-up and make sense of the fact that Kylie was in our lives now. She wasn’t the younger sister of the Wilde brothers I could easily avoid; she was best friends with my brothers’ fiancées. There’d be no avoiding her.

“You’re close to Maggie?” Kylie asked.

She must have seen her sitting in my lap. “She’s my niece.”

Sam grinned. “Mac and Tyler are enamored with her. There’s nothing they wouldn’t do for her.”

“Which apparently means building a playhouse,” Mac said.

“Can you show her the picture, Uncle Tyler?” Maggie asked, coming up to my side. She was an ace at getting us to do whatever she wanted. All she had to do was ask in that baby voice, and I was mush.

I opened up the pictures and handed my phone to Kylie.

Kylie scrolled through them as Maggie sidled up next to her. “These are so nice. What will you have inside?”

Maggie went through her ideas, her hands gesturing wildly as she described everything she wanted. When she was done, Kylie said, “That sounds amazing. You’re a lucky girl.”

“She’s lucky she has two uncles who will indulge her every whim,” Sam said.

I was close with my brothers because we worked together, but we were good friends too. When Sam had Maggie, it brought us even closer. Maggie’s mother moved to Maryland, and he needed our help. It was a little less now that he had Alice, but we still loved spending time with Maggie. And now that Mac was dating Natalie, we had her daughter, Delaney, to spoil too.

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