The Reluctant Romantics Box Set (The Fall, The Mind, The Heart)

“Are you okay?” I asked as he peeked at us with his good eye.

“You Whittaker women… colorful,” he said with a smile and incredulous head shake.

“Technically, she’s half Martin, but we’ll take that compliment,” I said as I leaned into Anna to nuzzle her neck. “Won’t we, baby?”

Jack looked at me with clear regret. “See you tomorrow, Rose.”

“Thanks again, Jack. It was… stimulating.” Without waiting for his reaction, I turned to walk back into the building to join my sister. I watched her as she finished typing an email and then closed her laptop to look over at me.

“Seriously, could you have made that any more awkward? You’re such an ass!”

She blew me off the way she always did when I called her out on her behavior. “I can’t believe you got on the back of a motorcycle when you bought and tested four different car seats for the kids!”

“I bought a damned sports car too, got my first bikini wax, and spent a fortune on girl crap I didn’t need. Do you think I’m having a mid-life crisis at twenty-eight?”

Dallas’s jaw dropped as she studied me. “You got some sun, too. I was only gone a day. What in the hell happened?”

“I broke into my piggy bank and I lived a little,” I said, letting Annabelle down to Godzilla around the office.

“Good for you!” she said with a smile. “And Jack?”

“He’s not boring, but we still really haven’t had much of a conversation.”

Though he did just give me my first orgasm in years, and he’s practically seen me naked.

“I wasn’t really interested in knowing if you’d talked about the weather.”

“I’m well aware of that, dear sister,” I quipped with distaste.

“Jesus, that man is hawwwt. If I didn’t already have a perfectly good steak on my plate—”

“Don’t finish that sentence, Dr. Martin,” Dean said to his wife in warning as his son proceeded to fly into the room with an announcement. “We got echinni!”

“You did?” I said, just as animated.

Grant smiled up at me with a nod. “Mommy says it’s sooooo fatering. But Dad

dy says he no care what mommy says.”

No amount of restraint could keep the full belly laugh I had to let out as Grant’s parents stared each other down. I knew Dallas would burst if she didn’t get her digs in, and I was just about to start the countdown when I heard her sound off to Dean. “Your daughter just pooped. I fed her broccoli and breast milk for lunch. I’ll plate your food.” I couldn’t stop my laughter as Dean pulled his daughter into his arms. When the smell hit him, he visibly cringed.

Dallas plated Dean’s fettuccine with a heaping helping of broccoli while across the hall we heard unpleasant grunting. I looked at my sister who was cutting Grant’s noodles and gave her a smile.

“You are totally happy with him, aren’t you?”

She sighed with a smile and looked up to me with a gleam in her eye I’ve only seen a few times.

“Dallas, it’s okay to let it show. I want you to be happy.”

She studied me for a moment and concluded I was being honest. “It’s like the most fun I’ve ever had being an adult, and the hardest at the same time. But, yeah, I’m totally happy with him and them,” she said as she eyed Grant. “They’re yours too, you know,” she reminded, still cutting the noodles, afraid to make eye contact with me.

“I know,” I said before standing to take my leave, suddenly exhausted from the day’s events.

“Stay with us and eat,” she said, stunned when I didn’t move to grab a plate.

“Not tonight, but soon.”

“Where’re you going?” Dean asked, carrying a freshly changed Annabelle into the office. There was absolutely no doubt who fathered her when they were so close to each other.