“Say that in one tone, I dare you,” Tana taunted, shooting him the bird behind Toby’s head.
“Everyone goes through puberty. You still need to grow a pair of tits,” Hart snarked back, so focused on the screen that he didn’t see the hand Croix was smacking him around the back of the head with until it was too late. “Stop hitting me. She deserved that, and you know it.”
“Go and change your underwear, skid mark. You don’t talk to females like that, especially not your sister. When it comes to her, she has no gender identifying parts and any kids are via immaculate conception. It’s a universal law.”
“How the hell am I meant to do that when he’s smooching her?”
Damn, this was entertaining. Nudging Tana to move over, I dropped down onto the couch cushion next to her, my leg pressed tightly against hers from knee to hip.
Once I was settled, I threw my arm over her shoulder, and pulled her into me. Toby grinned up at me, and I caught a glint of the new tooth that must have finally broken through the gum.
“I see the tooth came through,” I whispered, nodding down at him.
Following where I was looking, she turned and smiled happily. It was like each milestone meant as much to her as it did to me and that both surprised and delighted me in equal measures. I couldn’t say for sure, but I had to hazard a guess not many twenty-three-year-olds would feel the same way that she did.
“He’s not smooching her, you’re just having a nightmare. You can have those while you’re awake, you know. Think of it as the opposite of déjà vu.”
Hearing Croix and Hart still discussing Tana, I turned back to the screen and had to grin at how the brothers were standing. Hart was now nodding his head like what his older brother by thirteen years had just told him was now his new gospel.
As Croix was imparting new sage fountains of wisdom to his sibling, my phone rang, and I looked down and saw Marcus’s name on the screen. Begrudgingly, I got up and moved through to the kitchen, not wanting to interrupt the family video chat.
“Hey, what’s up?” I asked as I opened the fridge and pulled out a beer.
“I need you at the backline on the West side of the ranch,” he growled, and I heard frantic voices behind him.
Swapping out the beer for a bottle of water, I frowned as I heard them getting louder as they all yelled instructions to each other.
“What’s happened?”
“Those assholes the insurance company sent to level Santana’s old place spooked the horses in the paddock. Two steers broke through the fence and are somewhere in the trees, and the others are running around and refusing to settle.”
“Shit,” I hissed, knowing I couldn’t say no. “Okay, I’ll just get my shoes, and I’ll be there in a minute. Are any of the horses saddled so we can go looking for the steers?”
“Yeah, Hayes and Dutch are, and Brody’s getting Valkyrie saddled up as we speak. They were down at the other end of the field when the assholes decided that using a freaking digger to knock down the walls was a good idea, even though we asked them to avoid doing anything like that until we could move the horses.”
I hated it when construction crews acted like they knew best or willfully ignored requests and advice. Doing that always led to mistakes, and this one could endanger the lives of two beautiful animals.
“I’ll call the owner of the company on my way up. I’m not sure the site manager’s much good, seeing as how he only spent two minutes here this morning, anyway.”
Hanging up, I made my way through to where I’d only kicked my shoes off minutes before and found Tana waiting for me with a still smiling Toby in her arms. Pulling them both into my chest, I kissed my kid again and gave Tana a squeeze.
“I’m so sorry, I have to go and help out on the West side of the ranch. The guys knocking down your place for the construction crew did something to spook the steers who were out that way, and two of them broke through the fence. I need to go and give the guys a hand finding them and fixing the damage.”
“That’s horrible,” she breathed, looking horrified at the thought. “Do you need me to call the vet to come and look at them?”
“I reckon Kenyon will already know, baby, but thank you for offering,” I sighed as I squatted down to put my boots back on.
“Why isn’t the construction crew who’s working on building the new place taking the old one down? I’d have thought that was part of what they were hired to do?” she asked, putting Toby down on the ground when Wrecker came barreling around the corner and began jumping up to see his buddy.