Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 59119 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 296(@200wpm)___ 236(@250wpm)___ 197(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59119 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 296(@200wpm)___ 236(@250wpm)___ 197(@300wpm)
I stuffed my face with the whole pancake.
No fucking part of me was polished, that’s for sure.
Family is everything.
Yeah.
Adrien would probably like Roe and Jake. They were complete foodies too. Whenever I went over for dinner, we either barbecued or ordered in. They were always trying new restaurants.
“Dinner at my uncle Roe’s house is never a brief affair either,” I said. “Sometimes I even spend the night.”
He smiled a little. “You know, I didn’t know they were married until Jack told me last year. I thought Roe and Jake were just friends.”
I chuckled with my mouth full of food. “Dude, we all did.” Jake had been an honorary Finlay for years, and if it hadn’t been for the fact that they’d had kids with their ex-girlfriends—ex-wife in Roe’s case—maybe we would’ve suspected something sooner. But… I shrugged. “In retrospect, the signs were there all along, but apparently we’re only nosy with the younger generation. I can’t take a shit without Mom asking about it—’cause I’ve had problems with stress after deployments—but Roe can slide right under the radar and surprise us with a hey, by the way, Jake and I are together.”
Adrien grinned and reached for a croissant. “I listen to their podcast sometimes on my way to work. They have great chemistry.”
Yeah, they were fun.
The family celebrities. They were filming in freaking Africa this year.
“Do you have any extended family in LA too?” I asked.
Almost my entire family was on the East Coast—mainly New York and Virginia. Otherwise, it was just Roe and Jake with me in LA. I liked LA. It had the climate that New York sure as fuck did not.
“A couple more cousins and their families,” Adrien confirmed. “My mother had three brothers and was particularly close with the eldest. He’s the one who moved out to LA, so it’s his kids we meet up with at holidays.”
I nodded and filled my next pancake with strawberries and whipped cream. “That’s cool. By the way, where’s Bucko? He out fetching the next newspaper for you?”
That amused him.
I probably wasn’t subtle with my fishing for information, but whatever.
The mainland couldn’t be too far away if they made frequent visits for newspapers and fresh fruit.
Just sayin’.
“Fred…is probably asleep,” he replied. “I gave him the day off since he doesn’t need to bring you your meals anymore.”
I snorted and dug in. “So that was his only job, huh?”
“He’s here to learn.”
Uh-huh.
“And what mainland is closest, exactly?” I pressed.
He just shook his head at me.
Fine. I could dig more later.
“I’m more interested in your family,” he said. “Seeing your brothers on Instagram has been…enlightening.”
I raised my brows and chewed.
“Maverick is essentially a younger version of you,” he went on. “Kaden seems more…sensitive?”
I weighed my answer. Sensitive wasn’t the word, but he was calmer and more like Mom. “He thinks before he speaks, I guess.”
“So, less of a hothead?”
I grinned. “I didn’t say that. He just puts more thought into being a dick than Mav and I do.”
I was mostly kidding. Kaden was all right. He’d matured a lot since he became a dad. Total oops baby with a chick who’d flaked. Mom didn’t mind that part because she’d never liked Kaden’s ex.
“Would you describe yourself as a dick?” Adrien wondered.
“The charming and lovable kind.” I winked.
His mouth twitched with mirth he tried to hide. “I don’t buy that for a second.”
Oh, here we go. Lemme guess, he’d made some sort of profile based on my Insta updates and Facebook posts. “Let’s hear your stalker report, then. What would you call me?”
He hummed and broke off a piece of his croissant. “First, I’m a little unclear about how many nieces and nephews you have.”
“Technically, only one,” I said. “But since there aren’t that many years between Roe and me, his and Jake’s kids call me Uncle Crew.”
“I see.” He inclined his head. “For one, you know all their birthdays—”
“Because Mom reminds me the day before,” I laughed.
He chuckled. “Fair enough. You still give each and every one of them a shout-out on their day. Your Instagram is a shrine dedicated to your family and your abs. There’s a gym selfie for every two photos of you and a family member. Most recently, a selfie of you and a little girl named Sam—you wrote a sweet message for her on her birthday about how badass she is.” Well, she was. That was one of Roe and Jake’s daughters. “Before that, there was a similar birthday message to a niece named Kyla…?”
Technically not my niece either. “That’s one of Uncle Greer’s kids. So what?”
“It’s the time you give them, Crew,” he said. “Gym selfies notwithstanding, social media for you is clearly reserved for family. I don’t think I’ve seen you and Maverick exchange a single nice word to each other, but you have each other’s backs twenty-four seven. You still visit each other. Behind every fuckface and loser, there’s devotion and protection.”