Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 55744 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 279(@200wpm)___ 223(@250wpm)___ 186(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55744 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 279(@200wpm)___ 223(@250wpm)___ 186(@300wpm)
"So, what happened with Madison last night?" he asked his brother.
Damian glanced away from the grill and looked at him with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "You've heard already?"
"News travels fast when one of the angels gets into trouble," Nick teased, although it looked as if his brother was not happy.
Damian frowned and Nick could tell just how upset his brother was. "We'd warned her three times about texting late at night. Shit. She's supposed to be asleep."
Not particularly shocked and not really thinking the transgression was all that terrible, Nick asked mildly, "How'd you catch her?"
"Cell phone statement," Damian answered.
"Past her eleven o'clock bedtime again?" Nick mocked, expecting this 'late night' terminology to mean eleven-fifteen or so.
"Dude. Two o'clock in the fucking morning."
Nick just stared at his brother, stunned. "You have to be shitting me."
"I shit you not."
"What the hell do fourteen-year-old girls need to talk to each other about that late at night?"
Damian turned completely toward him but only smirked condescendingly. "You have a lot to learn, little brother."
"What do you mean by that?" Nick asked, confused.
"Madison hasn't been texting a girl. Hell, no. Not as easy as that."
Nick was completely floored. "She's texting a boy at two a.m.?"
"Oh, it gets worse," Damian announced, his muscles stiffening as anger became apparent on his visage.
Nick couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Do I need to sit down?"
"You might."
"Tell me," Nick demanded.
Damian lowered the boom. "The kid she's been texting is sixteen."
Nick stared at his brother for a moment before glancing at Madison who was lying on a lounger with ear buds in her ears. Christ. Were those curves on that little kid? Moving his eyes to Melissa, her twin, he saw the exact same curves but she was rambunctiously playing in the pool with her cousins and little brother so they weren't as transparent. Nick swallowed and glanced back at his brother. "Have you put out a contract on the kid?" he asked, only half-teasing.
"Wish I could. Just wait. You'll see, it'll happen to you one day."
Ignoring that prediction into his future, Nick asked, "Where'd she meet him?"
"School. Summer practices. He's on the football team."
Nick caught on quickly and felt his brother's pain. "Fuck . . . she made freshman cheerleader."
"Yeah, and classes start next week. It's not like we can ground her from school," Damian said flatly.
"You think anything's going on?" Nick asked, almost flinching at the thought.
"We don't think so, but we're pretty much dumbshit parents, you know? You think we grew up fast man? These kids grow up at warp-speed."
Nick shook his head, not liking the sound of things. "How's Angie handling it?"
At the sound of his wife's name, Damian turned, his gaze searching for and finding her. "Better than I am. She's talking to Madison about it, a lot," he said, continuing to watch his wife from across the yard.
"Well, that's good, I guess," Nick answered, although it appeared he'd lost his brother somewhere. Damian's attention was firmly on his wife, and as Nick glanced in Angie's direction, he saw she was watching her husband as well. Her glance moved to Nick for a second, and she flushed before quickly smiling and then looking away. Feeling as if he was interrupting a moment that was suddenly private, Nick cleared his throat.
Damian's attention turned back to Nick and the waiting grill. "You guys going to stay for lunch? We've got plenty," his brother offered, almost as an afterthought.
"Can we take a rain check?" Nick asked. "We have a million things to get ready with school starting next week."
"Sure, no problem."
"I better get to it then," Nick breathed out. "You know how long it's going to take to round 'em all up."
Damian just laughed, nodded his head and began flipping the burgers again.
****
Later that night, all four kids were accounted for and in their bedrooms, if not asleep.
Nick leaned back in the bed, hands behind his head and waited for Courtney to come from the shower, his body hardening at the mere thought. He loved the smell of Courtney all the time: when she was made up and ready to go out, when she was fresh from a swim in the ocean, even when she was covered in dirt from working in the garden.
But the smell of her right out of the shower did him in every time. It wasn't so much because of her squeaky clean scent or because he knew she'd be naked under her nightclothes.
It was because she was ready for bed. And the connotation of that was like a red flag to a bull where he was concerned.
He certainly didn't live his life just for their love life. He loved every second of every day of his life. He loved the family they had together. The kids meant everything to him and Courtney was completely happy now, and she was the perfect mother.