Canon (Klein Brothers 2)

Reid stiffened and put his hands on his hips, making her shake her head rapidly. Wow, I couldn’t do that with my head. I had jello holding mine on my shoulders.

“I promise I’m not a dealer. I just hate it when we get prescribed medications that don’t work and leave us functioning like zombies or unable to function at all. This way, people get pain relief, and they can at least eat something yummy at the same time.”

“You’re putting CBD in the brownies?”

Mrs. Gallagher winced. “Well, uh, not exactly. I mean, it’s close to CBD.” Whatever expression was on my brother’s face made her defensive suddenly. “I’ve got a prescription for it.”

“In what state?”

The older woman lifted her chin. “Does it matter? It’s a prescription from a doctor. It’s ridiculous that we can’t all have one law and that we keep splitting things up depending on what state we’re in. Medicine is medicine.”

“You tell him, Mrs. G,” Bond mumbled from where he was now melted across his desk.

Reid managed to shoot him a glare before turning back to her. “My brothers didn’t need medicinal brownies. Have you seen the state of them? Jesus, Bond looks like he’s been sticking his face in a mountain of cocaine, and Jarrod sounds like Nemi when she sees someone.”

“Brownies are good for the soul,” Jarrod announced, holding up one of them before taking a big bite out of it. “My soul has no holes, and my bones feel drowny, all because of a bomb ass brownie.”

I couldn’t help it, I started laughing so hard that I slid off my chair and onto the ground.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Reid groaned, the sentiment followed by a quick, “Sorry, Mrs. G., I shouldn’t swear in front of you.”

“No, you’re right to do it. I’m so sorry for my monumental fuck up with the damn brownies.”

For some reason, hearing the woman swear made me laugh even harder. I only just recognized the sounds of my other brothers laughing with me through the pressure in my head from the force of my own laughter.

“Can you watch them a second for me, please? I just need to go and do something.”

I didn’t catch what she said back to Reid, but by the time he came back, I’d managed to calm myself down and was wiping under my eyes.

The voice that spoke next filled me with an insane amount of happiness. “What the hell happened? Did y’all have a gas leak? Carbon monoxide’s a silent killer because you can’t smell it, but—”

“No, it’s not that,” Reid cut off Jacinda’s rant as she squatted in front of me. “They ate something that disagreed with them, and I can’t get them all home myself. Sorry for dragging you into this, but I saw you and your sisters when I came in and figured Canon would be good with you while I call Katy to—”

“Dude, no,” Jarrod cried, trying to get up and failing. “She can’t leave the house ‘cos her belly’s got two sumo-sized babies in it.”

The mental image was too much, and I snorted in Jacinda’s face, getting a dirty look and an eye roll from her in return.

Reid glared down at Jarrod. “She’s what?”

“I already told you. Man, I’m hurt.” Jarrod pouted and rubbed his stomach. “My heart literally hurts right now.”

“That’s your gut, not your heart, dick face,” Reid snapped, then groaned. “Sorry for being crude, ladies, but these guys are driving me insane.”

Both Mrs. Gallagher and Jacinda waved him off.

“It’s the same thing. How could you forget my wife’s carrying my love babies? Are they even babies if they come out over six feet tall?”

Reid looked between Bond and me. Deciding Bond was the better one out of the two of us to ask, he rapped his knuckles on the desktop in front of his face.

“Yo, what’s he talking about?”

“Katy’s pregnant with two giraffes,” Bond slurred, smoothing his hand over where Reid’s knuckles had landed. “Don’t ruin the wood. It’s smooth and shiny.”

Reid’s head snapped around in Jarrod’s direction. “She’s pregnant with twins? Why didn’t you tell me? Do Mom and Dad know? I only saw her about an hour ago, and she didn’t look pregnant. When did it happen?”

“See, when a man loves a woman,” Jarrod sighed, “they do something called se—”

“I asked when, not how,” Reid clipped.

“I can’t give you that answer right now. My brain doesn’t have it.”

Growling, Reid pulled his phone out. “Fine, I’ll take you home while Heidi picks up that one.” He pointed at Bond, who was busy playing with his lips.

Hearing his wife’s name, though, he stopped. “No can do, bruh. Had to leave earlier ‘cos she was sick and my stomach’s sympathetic.”

“Pathetic more like,” Reid grumbled, shoving his phone back in his pocket and tipping his head back to glare up at the ceiling.