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“Mommy doesn’t have a boyfriend!” Gravity announced, leaning on her palms to grab a faraway piece of her My Little Pony puzzle. “She says boys are bad. But she lets Uncle Rhyrand babysit me, because he is okay for a fuckboy.” Pause. “What’s a fuckboy, Mommy?”
Oh. My. God.
Gravity had obviously been doing some intense eavesdropping on my conversations with Cal and Kieran when I thought she was asleep. It was time to reevaluate her naps altogether.
“I said fun boy.” I cleared my throat. “Rhyland is a fun boy. Because he likes to do fun things, right?”
“He is!”
Tucker twisted his entire body toward me, lifting his right eyebrow. “You’re not really engaged,” he said matter-of-factly.
“Of course I am,” I snapped. “She doesn—”
“My parents sniffed around with their old Staindrop friends.” He cut me off. “Your mom had no idea what they were talking about. She said you and Rhyland are just neighbors. I can’t believe she was right.”
I clamped my mouth shut. I really didn’t want Tucker to sit on this kind of ammo against me. “The engagement is…complicated,” I said vaguely. “But we are dating for real. We just haven’t said anything yet, because my brother would kill us.”
This wasn’t technically a lie.
Tucker stood up from the carpet, seemingly forgetting he was in the middle of bonding with his child, and walked over to me. I got up on my feet, refusing to cower in front of him.
“I knew it wasn’t over.” He flashed me a chilling smile, moving his hand to touch my face.
My hand shot out to block him, every instinct telling me to push him away, when I heard a key turning in my door, and it was flung open.
“Honey, I’m home.”
RHYLAND
Maybe it was my destiny to walk into situations where other men were trying to seduce Cosmos.
She and Tucker were standing there in the living room, with Gravity at their feet doing a puzzle.
Only I knew better than to think Dylan actually wanted him here.
“Tucker,” I greeted with a devil-may-care smirk, letting the door slam shut behind me for the full effect. “I didn’t realize you were in the mood for hospital food.”
“Why would you say that?” he sneered.
“You’re standing too close to my fiancée for my liking.”
He stepped back. Gravity shot up and ran toward me, and I picked her up midrun, tossing her in the air.
“Uncle Rhyrand!”
“Little stinker,” I greeted back.
She giggled, and I didn’t know why, but I wanted to rub it in his fucking face. So I hoisted her up on my shoulders and walked toward the kitchen. Her head nearly scraped the ceiling I was so tall. She shot her little hands up, laughing uncontrollably.
“Rhy, you’re going to give my kid a concussion,” Dylan warned.
I opened the fridge, making sure he knew I was right at home in this place. “Nah. I’m never gonna let anything bad happen to her. Right, little stinker?”
“Right!” Gravity hugged my neck from behind, resting her cheek on my head. “I’m sad I can’t pull your hair like a horsey now,” Grav murmured above me. She missed the man bun.
“Run your cheek over my hair. It’ll give you a fuzzy feeling.”
She did. My hair was buzzed and very straight, so the sensation was satisfying.