I was holding Tamsin’s broken hand over the table, so she raised her free one at them. “Hey, it’s great to see you both. Jarrod, your brothers are food geniuses. You must be proud.”
“Absolutely. They’ve worked really hard, and seeing the reviews online and hearing people talk about it is great.”
All of us chuckled when Katy licked her lips at a dessert a waiter carried past us.
“Are y’all here to eat dinner, or did you just come to say hi to your brothers?”
Shaking his head, Jarrod nodded at the woman who clearly made the earth spin for him. “We just had a family dinner at my parents, but Katy wanted to see the pains in the ass and have some dessert.”
Shifting closer to me, Tamsin pointed at an empty table behind them. “Do you guys want to join us? You could pull the chairs over from there. You’re related to the owners, it’s not like you’ll get in trouble.”
After getting a nod from his woman, Jarrod picked the chairs up from the other table and moved them to ours, making sure Katy was settled before taking his own seat. Almost like they smelled him in the air, both of his brothers appeared almost immediately.
“Let me guess, she wants the rosewater and pistachio cake again,” Canon said as he leaned in to kiss her cheek. “Great to see you, Kitty Kat. It feels like it’s been forever.”
Making a point of looking at her watch, she snickered, “It’s been just under two hours since I saw you at your parents’ house. But I never say no to seeing you guys.”
Bond winked at Tamsin across the table and made the sign to call him, getting a snicker from her in return.
“Have you told Zuri your thing about me, Jarrod, Bond, and Reid being quadruplets?” Canon asked Katy as he took some plates from the waiter who’d come over and started placing them down in front of the four of us. I didn’t know what we were eating, but it looked phenomenal.
“Okay, so, Zuri, back me up here. Don’t you think they’re four versions of each other? They could totally be quads.”
Blinking, Tamsin looked at me and then at the three brothers. “As in you’re saying they look so alike they could be quadruplets?”
Sighing, Katy got up from her seat and covered Bond’s mouth, making me smile widely. “From the nose up, he looks like Canon. But if I cover the end of his nose, he looks like Jarrod, too. If you cover the eyes, he looks like Reid. It’s like that with all of them. It’s like there were a few identical pieces, and their creators just mixed them around every time their parents bumped uglies and made one of them.”
“Take it back,” Canon hissed at her, snatching up her plate from the table and holding it over his head. “Our parents have never done anything like that.”
Tapping her foot, Katy crossed her arms and glared at him. “We’ve had this discussion before—immaculate conception isn’t a thing, and you’re not proof of it. Your parents did the dirty and made the four of you. Get over it, and give me my damn cake back.”
As she said this, Tamsin looked over at me and raised her eyebrow, reminding me that she’d said the same thing about my parents.
Putting her plate back on the table with a thud, Canon pointed at Jarrod. “You need to educate her, my guy. Mom’s a saint and would never do that. We also don’t look alike at all.”
Tamsin was just in the process of shoving a piece of the dessert in her mouth, but she paused for long enough to say, “Yeah, she did, and yeah, you do. You’re not identical at all, but I can see what Katy’s saying.”
Glaring at her, Canon reached in to take her plate away from her but snatched his hand back when she stabbed him in the hand with her fork.
“I don’t see what’s wrong with looking like me,” Bond shrugged. “You should be grateful to have some of my awesomeness.”
“Shit for brains,” I coughed into my hand, getting a laugh from everyone at the table, including Canon. The only one who didn’t was Bond, who was rubbing his eyebrow with his middle finger.
“Anyway, we hope you enjoy the cake,” Bond said, then looked at Katy and added, “again. And no, you can’t have the recipe.”
With a wave, the two of them moved away and split up to cover the other customers.
“Your bros are dope,” Katy mumbled around the mouthful of cake she had. “Dopedy dope.” Then, pointing at me, she said, “And your bro’s dope, too. He let me put the lights and siren on in his car today.”
Putting his fork down, Jarrod looked worriedly at her. “Why were you in his vehicle?”