Page 51 of Badd Baby

"I'm not her man."

"You could be, if you had balls." She cackled. “I’m kidding, I'm kidding. Jesus, relax. You're so wound up, Duncan."

I blinked at her. "You're a lot, you know that?"

She nodded seriously. "I do know. Trust me. There's a reason I’m single. Being a mouthy, sarcastic, know-it-all, pain in the ass is that reason, to be clear."

I laughed. "You'd get along great with my sisters."

"I would. Why?"

"Because they're both mouthy, sarcastic, know-it-all pains in the ass."

"And they're both still single?"

"Nope. Delia is married to Hunter Hawkins. Emerson is married to a computer programmer who gives serious Clark Kent vibes."

"Excuse me?” She turned slowly to face me. “Sorry, sorry, but it sounded like you said your sister is married to Hunter Hawkins?"

"That is what I said, yes."

She blinked up at me. "Pardon me, but the fuck you say."

I laughed. "It's true. He tried a corporate takeover of our family business a few years ago."

"Tried?"

I shrugged. "He ended up marrying into the family, funding the revamp of the restaurant Raquel and Hamish are getting married at tomorrow, and now they have a kid together."

"Your sister snagged the world's most eligible bachelor?"

I got out my phone and pulled up a photograph of Delia, Hunter, and me together from a weekend trip I took to NYC to see them over the spring. I swiped to show her a pic I took of Hunter, Delia, and Sebastian, my nephew. "That's them with their son."

Lindsey sighed, disgusted. "Well there goes my fantasy of Hunter Hawkins sweeping me off my feet and taking me to his private island estate in the Mediterranean for a week of swinging-from-the-chandeliers sex."

"He sold that estate off last year," I said.

She frowned at me. "That was a joke."

I cackled. "Well, he really did have a Mediterranean estate, and he did have a habit of bringing girls there, before he met Delia."

"So I could have had a week of hot monkey sex at Hunter Hawkins's Mediterranean estate, but I'm too late?"

“Yup."

She shook her head. "There's no justice in this world. I swear." She eyed me speculatively. "You have any brothers?"

I stared back blankly. “Yes, one. He's an ugly old troll who lives under a bridge."

"I can't tell if you're joking or not, Dora."

Rune crashed our conversation, then. "Stop gossiping about me, you two."

Lindsey flipped her off. "You could have told me his brother-in-law is Hunter Hawkins. You know how I feel about that man."

Rune rolled her eyes. "I only found out myself recently. And you were never gonna get with him, babe."

"I could have, you don't know. I can be very alluring, I'll have you know." She tossed her hair with a funny little bob-and-shake of her head and a faux-prim expression.