“She’s an animal,” Dax complained, although he winked. “I can’t keep her off me.”
Rodrigo whipped a cushion at his brother-in-law. “Dude, that’s our sister.”
The barking from the floor had turned to growling, and Rodrigo looked down to find Santiago sitting by his foot, lips drawn back ferociously from his teeth.
“Can you call off your attack son before he bites my kneecaps?”
“You assaulted his alpha with a pillow. Now you must pay the price.” Dax shrugged. “Don’t
worry. He doesn’t have many teeth yet, so he’ll probably be satisfied with piddling on your shoe.”
“Dog peepee!” Santiago crowed. “Pee on your shoe!” He started to laugh, then saw a bird go by outside and ran to the window to bark at it too.
“I see he inherited his intelligence from his father,” Fidel said, sipping at his beer.
Dax flipped him off affectionately.
“Do you think Minnow should get one of these sexy dresses with the open back or something more princessy?” Mayte called from the dining room table.
“Nothing super sexy like that, May,” Minnow objected. “Just something simple.”
“How about something short and flouncy with those long socks she wears around the house,” Rodrigo suggested, giving Minnow a heated look.
Minnow flushed and killed him with eye daggers.
“Hmm... Easy access,” Fidel said, shaking his head in disapproval. “You’ll be late for your own wedding, and I sure as hell don’t want to be the one who gets sent to look for you.”
“I still can’t imagine how all that works.” Dax’s brows drew as he dangled his giggling son upside down by the ankles. “You and Severin with that teeny girl? How is Minnow not squashed like a pancake? And do you, like, take turns? Or...”
Mama cleared her throat pointedly at Dax, whom she’d apparently overheard, and frowned at him. He grinned back at her, all too aware that as the father of her only two grandchildren, he had diplomatic immunity in the house.
“What? Like we haven’t all wondered?” He arched a brow at Fidel, as though daring him to deny it, but Fidel only nodded in agreement.
Mayte raised her eyebrows, warning Dax into silence. It saved Rodrigo from responding.
“Are you and la bestia wearing matching suits, Ro?”
“Maaayte,” Rodrigo growled in warning.
She rolled her eyes. “Sorry. Severin.”
Minnow met Rodrigo’s gaze, still as in the dark about Severin’s preferences for the wedding as Rodrigo was. It had been Severin’s request that they start planning it as soon as they got home from Belgium, and yet whenever they tried to get him to participate in choosing things, he went quiet and made himself scarce.
“I don’t know. Probably not, unless he wants to. He did wear a tie to his brother’s wedding.” Minnow’s face turned a brilliant crimson for some strange reason, and Rodrigo made a mental note to ask her what that was about later.
Mayte sighed and patted Minnow’s shoulder. “Girl, I thought I had it rough with Dax. You have two of them to keep in line.”
Minnow snorted. “They keep themselves in line. I don’t manage them.”
Both Mayte and their mother raised their brows at Minnow. In their family, the women were anything but submissive. He could just imagine them trying to groom Min into being more assertive. Ha.
“So you said you don’t want to invite anyone from your family?” his mother asked again, incredulous.
“My family wrote me off because I took care of my mother’s estranged father when he was dying. Other than you guys, the only family we have are Severin’s brother Church, his wife and their girls, and his other brother, Loïc.”
“We can’t invite everyone and their dog,” Rodrigo reminded his mother and sister. “Even the immediate family overwhelms him.”
Mayte blew out a frustrated breath, but Mama nodded.