Page 41 of Catch Me (Townsend Legacy #4)

A ndreas

“What’s this about now?” I ask, glaring at Kyle.

“See? I told you he would be pissed,” Diego, my cousin, says as he opens the door to his basement oasis.

He shares the three-story, farm-style home with his wife, Monique, and their two daughters. All of them are out with the other women in my family, including Ivy, having a spa day.

Meanwhile Kyle, Diego, Dae, and I have come over to his place. Against my will, I should add. What I want is to see Ivy, but we were told to stay away for the day so the women can have a day for themselves.

Whatever .

“Just go in,” Kyle says, gesturing toward the entrance.

As soon as I enter, I see why Diego calls it his oasis.

There’s an entire entertainment system complete with a movie theater size screen, and a blue and grey sofa sectional.

On one side of the couch there’s a glassed-in shelf that houses awards Diego won for some of his building designs, along a few hand family pictures of his wife and two little girls.

At the center of the room, is a large poker table with four chairs around it and a deck of cards and chips placed at the center.

“Mo prepared snacks, too,” Diego says as he opens the mini fridge. “I have the best wife.” He sighs.

“Then why aren’t you spending time with her instead of dragging us here?” I ask with a glare. “We’ve been out all damn day,” I gripe.

“I agree with the kid,” Dae says from behind me. He looks as displeased as I am to be separated from the women in our lives. “Kennedy could go into labor at any moment.” A thread of worry laces my brother-in-law’s tone.

Kyle doesn’t say anything as he looks over at Diego. A short pause, and then both of them crack up.

“The hell? He’s right,” I tell them.

“We’re lucky he hasn’t swung on either one of us yet,” Diego tells Kyle.

“I think my little brother’s close to swinging, too.” His eyes drop to my clenched fists.

I hadn’t even realized I’d balled my hands into fists. But their laughter accompanied by my anger of being separated from Ivy is getting to me.

“We’re leaving tomorrow afternoon,” I remind these idiots.

A week has flown by. Not to mention, once we get back to L.A. my life is going to go from forty to a hundred in the blink of an eye.

I already have two meetings scheduled to discuss two separate films. Both meetings are out of the country. I have to check up on post-production, and we start ramping up promotion for Late Nights.

That’s on top of my meetings for sponsorships and brand appearances.

“Don’t let us waste your time,” Kyle says. “We’re not your fucking family or anything.”

I narrow my eyes at my brother, an expression which he returns in kind.

“Layoff,” Diego says, swatting Kyle’s arm. “You’ve already locked down your wife and have two kids with her. Andreas hasn’t done that yet, so he’s feeling a little unsettled being away for too long.”

“Plus, Riley told you not to come home before seven,” Dae says.

“How the hell do you know that?” Kyle demands to know.

Dae shrugs. “Kennedy told me when she kicked me out, too. All of the women are having their girls’ day.” He sighs in frustration.

“And yet you’re still anxious to get your ass back home,” Diego reminds him.

“She could go into labor at any?—”

“Yeah, yeah. Aside from the fact that that’s an exaggeration since she’s not even seven months pregnant, she’s with her mom, my mom, aunts, and our wives.” He gestures between him and Kyle. “All of whom have given birth. You think you’ll be more helpful to her than the group of them?”

Dae pinches his lips.

“Look, they insisted we find something to do instead of being up their asses all day,” Diego continues. “Besides, we have business to handle on our own.”

I raise an eyebrow. “What business?”

“Finally, a relevant question,” Kyle states and nudges his head toward the poker table.

Ten minutes later we’re seated at the table with the snacks Monique prepared on a side table, cards dealt out, and a pile of poker chips at the center of the table.

“I’ll take two,” Diego says.

Kyle hands him two cards, face down. Diego’s face doesn’t give anything away as he looks at the cards.

“Call it,” Dae says.

“Rushing the game isn’t going to make seven o’clock come any sooner,” Kyle says with his eyes on the cards in his hands.

I look at the clock on the wall. I curse when I see it’s only four o’clock.

“As big of a pain in the ass as my older brother is, he’s also right,” I tell Dae, who’s glaring at all of us.

He pushes out a breath. “Fine.”

“Call it,” Diego says fifteen minutes later as we sit around, cards in front of us and a pile of poker chips in the center of the table.

I lay my cards down, and everyone except Kyle grunts in frustration.

His bet paid off this round and he draws the pile of chips in his direction. “Like taking candy from a baby.” He chuckles.

“I never got that expression,” Dae mutters, handing his cards to Diego to be reshuffled.

We all look at him.

“Learning English, idioms was one of the hardest things to understand,” he explains since he was born and grew up in Korea.

“There are some Korean idioms I’ve tried to explain to Little Warrior, and she just stares at me, waiting for the punchline.” He chuckles.

Little Warrior is his name for my sister. At first, I got the ick from hearing it, but in the three years they’ve been married it’s become as normal as hearing her actual name.

“Yeah, I remember you tried to explain one to me,” Kyle says with a shake of his head.

“Also, have you ever tried to take candy from a baby?” Dae continues.

“I tried once when we were babysitting Kyrie at your place,” he says to Kyle, referring to his youngest daughter.

“She’d gotten into Riley’s gummy worms. After twenty minutes of wrestling the bag away from her, she cried at the top of her lungs.

Easy my ass,” he gripes while the rest of us laugh.

“You just used an idiom, too,” Diego points out. “Good job.”

We all laugh at Dae’s mystified then astounded expression as he realizes what he just said.

Kyle clears his throat, takes the deck from Diego, and starts to deal out another hand.

“That’s really why we’re here, little brother.” He looks between Dae and Diego who give nods.

“What?” I ask.

“Family.”

“Come again?”

“Our dads and uncles have their golf outings,” Kyle explains before gesturing to the table between us. “And now, we have our poker meetings. For the past couple of years, it’s just been the three of us.”

“Why only three?”

“We’re the only married men in the group. From our generation,” Kyle clarifies.

I sit back in my chair and look between my brother, cousin, and brother-in-law. They’re all peering at me to see if I understand what they’re telling me.

A slow smile crests on my face as I place my cards face down on the table.

“You all know I’m next.”

“It’s obvious from the way you can’t stop looking at her whenever you’re in the same room,” Diego points out.

“You call her your future,” Dae adds.

“Because she is,” I say.

“We’ve noticed,” Kyle says. “Hence, we invited you to our private poker game.”

“This is our thing,” Diego adds.

“They forced me into it,” Dae gripes.

“Like you forced my twin to marry you after that bullshit you pulled. Locking her in your house,” Kyle scoffs, then glares.

“That was fucked up,” I repeat with a glare.

“My wife’s forgiven me,” he says. “And everyone at this damn table knows if she didn’t want to marry me, she wouldn’t have. Hell, I wouldn’t still be alive.”

“You better fucking know it.” That’s Kyle again.

“Back to you, little cousin. This is your initiation.”

I raise an eyebrow at Diego.

He nods at Dae. “We don’t just play poker. We do serious shit. This guy’s about to become a dad for the first time. We need to make sure his shit is up to par. I won’t have just anyone raising my little niece or nephew.”

Dae cocks his head to the side. He still doesn’t know what they’re having since Kennedy wants to be surprised at birth.

“So,” Kyle begins, “since Dae lost and it’s Andreas’ first time, we’ve prepared a little competition for you two.”

“You mean set us up,” Dae corrects.

“Fuckers. What is it?”

Diego claps and rubs his hands together as he stands. “Diapers.”

Confusion shines on my expression as I watch him disappear into the small closet and emerge with three life-sized baby dolls and a huge pack of diapers.

“What the?”

A half an hour later, Kyle and Diego are counting down along with the stopwatch one of them holds as Dae and I struggle with these damn dolls to be the first one to change the diaper.

“Done!” Dae shouts, raising his arms in triumph.

“Man, fuck you,” I grumble. “That’s the third round he’s won. It’s not fucking fair. He’s babysat for both of you before.”

“True, but he beat you even with twins,” Diego points at the twin dolls in front of Dae. Diego and Kyle added the second doll to Dae after he beat me the first two rounds.

“How the hell did you change two diapers before I finished one?” I look from his dolls to mine, which is only halfway changed.

Kyle points. “And you got fake baby shit on the onesie.”

“Eww,” Diego comments. “That would definitely require a bath.” He shakes his head.

“You’re not babysitting my kid with diaper changes like that,” Dae says, giving me a pitiful look.

“I’ll take that up with my sister.”

“ My wife,” he counters.

“Fuck all of you. I can change a damn diaper. Babies can’t be too hard.”

Kyle and Diego go completely still. Diego slow blinks before asking, “What did you just say?”

I repeat myself.

“Right, not until you’re up at three a.m. with a baby who only stops crying once you keep pacing the damn hallway.”

“Because she’s teething,” Kyle adds.

“Oh, and only wants her mom but you want your wife to sleep so you have to take her to an entirely different part of the house for your baby to accept that she’s gotta stick it out with just you.” That’s Diego.

“So she begrudgingly accepts that it’s you who’ll be the one to put her back to sleep, but she makes you work for it with yet another diaper blowout.”

“And falls asleep while you’re giving her a bath, but by then it’s four-thirty and you get thirty minutes before her next feeding.”

“Which she never sleeps in for,” Kyle again.

“Never,” Diego finishes.

They both pause, arms folded, and stare me down.

“But then, there is that time after feeding they’re clean and calm and they just lay their perfect little heads against your chest with their fists in their mouths, gurgling nonsense.”

A wistful look invades my cousin’s face.

“There is that,” Kyle adds, wearing the same expression. “Or the first time they wrap those tiny little fingers around yours.”

“Oh, and when they see you walk in the door from work and drop whatever they’re doing to smile and crawl over to you,” Diego says.

“That shit is the best.”

“Nah,” Diego counters. “Seeing my wife’s face in that smile is the best.”

“Is it seven yet?” Dae asks, looking at the clock, a new anxiousness to leave in his tone.

Ivy isn’t pregnant with my child, yet, but I feel his urgency all of a sudden.

“What do you know?” Diego says as the four of us look at the clock. “It’s ten of.”

“By the time I make it home it’ll be seven,” I say heading for the door with Dae and Kyle right on my heels.

“Hey,” Kyle calls right as hit the unlock button to my rental. He puts an arm around my shoulders. “You know I love you, right?”

I roll my eyes. “Of course I do, idiot.”

He squeezes my shoulder, hard.

“Dumbass.” I push him away.

“We do this once a month.” He nods in the direction of Diego’s house. “Change the location every time though. So the women don’t get sick of us.”

“Now you’re begging for an invite to L.A., huh?” I joke.

“Never needed an invite.”

“But you have an open one,” I say. “You know that, right?” I turn his question around.

He half smiles and nods. “Noted.” His expression turns serious.

“The diaper competition was just for fun, but everything else was serious. I’ve known you your whole life. I know when you’re serious about something, and I can see that Ivy is your future. If you need anything, anything?—”

“I know where to go.” I hug my brother, then I pull back and look at him. “Do you think the same is true for Thiers?”

His eyebrows spike.

I look toward Diego’s home. “This.”

Kyle sighs.

“I don’t think your twin is keen on anything that might keep him in one place for too long.”

His words ring too true for my liking.

It’s not that I want to see Thiers settled down just for the sake of it. It’s that I want him to stop unnecessarily putting his fucking life in danger.

“You know what happened to him and everything since isn’t your fault, don’t you?”

I nod, but only because I know that’s what Kyle wants to hear.

“Go home to your future.”

“You were the one holding me up,” I reply. “Catch ya later, bro.”

On the drive, I can’t help but to wonder what a little girl the mix of me and Ivy would look like.