Page 32 of Free to Live

A smile breaks across his face. “Okay, then I don’t feel like we’re imposing.”

“Not at all,” I say warmly. “Now hand over your coats and I’ll hang them both up.”

Shrugging out of his jacket, Joe looks around. “You all live here?”

“If you mean on the property, then yes. We haven’t lived together since we built our individual homes though.”

“It’s nice you all have that.”

I toss him a smile over my shoulder as I hang up his and Grace’s coats in the hall. “Thanks, we think so as well.”

Joe shakes his head. “You know, you made quite an impression on Grace.”

Closing the closet, I raise my brows. “I did?”

“Yeah. I spent half the ride here telling her that your hair wasn’t actually going to burn your head off.”

I choke as Joe and I make our way into the great room where the kids are dancing amid the adults. “You’re kidding me, right?”

“Nope. She was worried ‘Kalie’s Holly’ was going to get hurt.”

“Now that I find absolutely precious.” Reaching over, I squeeze his bicep. I ignore the feel of it beneath my hands and the fact a small part of me wouldn’t mind spending time running my hands over the sinewy muscles. Attributing the feeling as to the fact I’m an artist and I appreciate a well-built man’s body, I continue. “If no one has told you lately, you’re doing a remarkable job raising her. She’s a treasure.”

He lets out a deep breath. “Each time I hear it, it’s like the first time. So, thank you.”

I tighten my fingers once more before I let him go. “Now, what can I get you to drink?”

“I don’t drink while I have Grace in the car…” he starts to explain. Instead, I launch into a litany of soft drinks we keep on hand.

“And that’s if you don’t want us to make you a mocktail or something fancy,” I conclude.

“A Coke sounds perfect.” He grins. “Water for Grace until dinner.”

“Then make yourself at home. And I’ll apologize in advance if they let the inmates out of the ward too early this evening.” At his confused look, I explain, “My family likes to unwind. Sometimes that involves arguing. Sometimes that involves dancing…”

Corinna adds to my comment as she breezes by with an antipasto platter in her hands. “She’s being polite, Joe. She’s not adding on that often we dance on tables.”

I roll my eyes at my sister at the slack-jawed look on Joe’s face. “I was trying not to scare our guest, Corinna, but thank you for doing so,” I grit out.

“Meh. No worries.” She sends Joe a saucy wink before she plunks the antipasto in the center in the table. Sauntering her way over to her fiancé, she grins at the antics of the kids dancing. Colby leans down and whispers something in her ear that makes her laugh.

I hear the front door open behind me and in rush Phil and Jason. “Sorry we’re late!” Phil calls out.

“You didn’t miss anything,” Em shouts to be heard over the noise.

“Other than it being your turn to cook,” Cassidy yells out. Joe blinks at her, likely wondering where my mild-mannered sister disappeared to.

“I was…held up,” Phil beings to explain. And we all break out in laughter. Even Jason can’t hold back the laughter.

“Babe, I think that worked on them when they were eighteen and we were dating,” he tells Phil.

Phil shrugs unapologetically. Then he spots Joe and grins. “Hey, you made it!”

I don’t know why, but I jump in front of Joe and throw out my arms. “No. Just no. You are not tormenting our guest to get out of your own colossal…”

“Yes?” Phil purrs.

My eyes dart around the room, and I spy all the children. I can’t say what I really want to as loudly as I want to my older brother. Instead, I lean in and whisper, “If you mess with our guest to save your own ass, I will have you drugged, then brought to a tattoo parlor to have Keene’s name tatted on your ass in a color to match his eyes.”