Page 120 of Protecting What's Mine

“How’s my favorite brother?”

“No.”

“I haven’t even asked. You could at least do me the courtesy of letting me ask the question before you say no.”

“Fine,” he grumbled.

“Can I drop the boys off at the station?”

“No.”

“Before you say no—”

“I already did. Twice.”

“Listen. You know how they’ve been asking for a dog?”

Linc pinched the bridge of his nose. His sisters knew exactly what buttons to push. “Don’t go there, Jillian.” She absolutely would use his love of dogs against him.

“So I reached out to the rescue where you got Sunshine.”

Ah, shit. He was going to end up with his nephews running around the station like lunatics.

“This isn’t fair. This is a fire station, not a daycare.”

“They have the perfect dog,” she plowed on. “He’s six. He loves kids. And the poor guy has never lived in a home before. His previous owner had him tied to a stake—”

“I hate you. Bring the boys by, but I’m putting them to work,” he warned.

“You’re the best,” Jillian chirped.

BRANDON,Mikey, and Griffin were part of what looked like a very young United Nations delegation. Jillian was a blonde-haired, blue-eyed volleyball player who’d fallen head over heels for a pharmacy major from the Philippines with a passion for cycling and hot wings. They had Brandon, the oldest, who got his hair from his father and just about everything else from the Reed side of the family. Then Jilly and Vijay were bitten by the adoption bug, and in the years after added Mikey to the family from a Venezuelan orphanage and Griffin from foster care.

“Uncle Chief Linc,” Griffin said, powerwalking over to him where Linc leaned against the engine. The kid was always in a dignified hurry.

“Hey, Griff. How’s it going?”

“Uncle Chief Linc, is Mom abandoning us?” Brandon asked with a worried frown.

Griffin rolled his eyes while Mikey, hands in the pockets of his track pants, strolled around the engine inspecting it.

Brandon had recently slept at a friend’s house who wasn’t as well supervised as Brandon was used to. They’d watched a horror movie about kids whose parents abandoned them after selling them to a traveling circus. He’d been sleeping on the floor outside his parents’ bedroom for the past week.

The dog would help, Linc predicted.

“I don’t think so,” he said, ruffling his nephew’s thick, dark hair. “I think she’s just running an errand.”

“If she does abandon us, will you come live with us and Dad?” Brandon asked earnestly.

“Absolutely,” Linc promised. “Five bachelor guys in a house living it up?”

“Is bachelor when all the ladies show up to live with you and you have to pick the prettiest one or the one that yells and cries all the time?” Mikey wanted to know.

Another unsupervised victim of television.He couldn’t wait to tell Jillian.

“That’s a different kind,” Linc assured him.

His nephews lined up in front of him and waited expectantly. “So?” Brandon asked.