Looks nice, now. It’ll look even better when it’s finished. Rianne’s gonna love it.
I finally leave Alyssa’s old bedroom, pulling the door shut behind me on the way out. When I get to the kitchen, I see Amber perched on her dining chair—legs curled up under her, ass off the seat, leaning across the table on her elbows. She’s playing, a twinkle in her eye as she flirt-torments her boyfriend, Greg.
“She better not,” she’s saying to him. About what, I don’t know.
The way Greg blushes when he looks up at me commands my curiosity. I stop in front of the table. “Who better not what?”
“Nothing. No one,” Greg offers quickly, shaking his head vehemently. “Nothing. She’s kidding.”
He says it all so quickly and nervously that Amber laughs and sits back down on her chair. Lifting her mug of coffee to her lips, her blue eyes flash with mischief and she tells me, “Greg has an admirer. She keeps coming into the hardware store, trying to get his attention.”
I look back at Greg and cock an eyebrow. “Is that so?”
“It’s not my fault,” he swears. “I try to look as ugly as possible when she comes in, I swear to God.”
I watch him sweat while I look him over, then I tell him, “Well, I suppose you can’t do anything about a woman being attracted to you. As long as you don’t return the feeling or add fuel to that fire, it’ll be all right.” Pointing at him, I add, “You better keep your hands to yourself, though, Greg, or I’ll chop ’em right off.”
He pales beneath the flush climbing up his neck. He’s seen the things I buy at his hardware store firsthand, so he believes me.
“I would never cheat on Amber. I’d have to be crazy to even consider it,” Greg promises.
“Damn right you would,” I mutter, looking back at my sister-in-law. “You let me know if he steps out of line.”
“Oh, I will,” she assures me.
“Thanks, babe,” Greg says dryly. Looking back at me, he adds, “You know I’d marry her if you’d let me. My commitment cannot be called into question.”
“Maybe after she finishes nursing school,” I tell him, but it’s nothing he doesn’t already know.
I want Amber to be finished with school and able to stand on her own two feet if she needs to before she goes making any kind of commitments or compromises for men and babies. It was the one stipulation I gave her when I started helping her out financially so she could focus more on school.
She also works at my bar now, has since she turned 21. That way, her boss does give a damn about her future. And, if I’m being honest, it has helped me keep a watchful eye on her little ass to make sure her love life doesn’t spin out of control.
I know Amber has a self-destructive streak and she’s not prone to liking the best kind of men. Greg, he’s a pretty good one, but sometimes the peace she has with him must feel so foreign to her, she starts looking around for trouble to get into. With her working for me, I’m able to make sure she doesn’t let her head get turned by some empty-hearted douchebag in a tight shirt.
I’ve had a couple close calls, but Amber’s enough like her sister that she’s not too suspicious of me, so she doesn’t even know I’ve banned those assholes from the bar. She just figures they must not have been very interested after all.
Drawing my attention back to her, Amber says, “Hey, does Bri need us to bring anything else to dinner? She told me to bring my little folding table to set up for the kids, but she didn’t say to bring a dish or anything.”
I shake my head, thinking of all the damned groceries Alyssa has sent me out for as she thought of more and more things she wanted to bring to Thanksgiving dinner this week. “Nope, we’ve got more than enough. Bring 12 of your closest friends and we will still have more than enough.”
Amber chuckles and takes another sip of her coffee. “Yep, that sounds about right.”
“Santa! Santa! Uncle Brant, Santa’s on the TV!”
I’m sitting on the couch watching the very same television Rianne is watching, but she’s sure I’ll miss the red fella waving in the sleigh if she doesn’t point him out to me. “I see that. You better behave yourself—he’s probably watching.”
Rianne bounces up and down with excitement then runs into the kitchen to scream at her mom and aunts about Santa Claus closing out the parade.
Rudy is sitting on the floor with my nephews, where his sister was before she jetted off to the kitchen.
My little Mackenzie is curled up against me on the couch, though. She likes other kids enough most of the time, but sometimes she takes after her daddy and just wants a little peace and quiet. There’s not much of that with Bri and Amber’s kids around, so sitting on the couch with me is as close as she can get.