Page 29 of The Grump I Loathe

CONNOR

“How did Ali react to the suspension?” my oldest brother, Liam, asked as he ripped a piece of naan in half. It was my turn to pick the restaurant for our weekly brother meetup, and I’d chosen Rishi’s, an Indian restaurant halfway between the office and the airport. Liam and Finn had flown in from LA an hour ago, and we’d spent the first thirty minutes of the meal talking about Grace’s suspension.

I shrugged. “By the time she responded to my message, I’d already done the whole spiel—talked to the school, had a serious talk with Grace, and settled on her punishment.”

Liam hummed. “Figured Ali might want to weigh in on that.”

“You would think, but she basically said, ‘Sounds like you’ve got it sorted. Tell Grace she can’t be fighting.’ As if I hadn’t already done that.” A week and a half had passed since Grace’s suspension, and I hadn’t heard anything else from Ali. This was exactly the kind of thing we should have presented a united front on, but she hadn’t even made time to call Grace.

“Suspended,” Finn said, shaking his head. “I still can’t believe it. Our little Gracie is growing up.”

“Don’t even start with that,” I said, threatening him with my fork. “I donotwant a repeat of this behavior.”

Finn smirked. “It’s not like I’m encouraging her to put toads in Ms. Marilyn’s desk.”

I sighed. “I’d rather have her do harmless pranks like that than fight with other kids.”

“I think ‘fight’ is a bit of a stretch,” Liam said. “There weren’t any actual injuries, right?”

“No, just some hair pulling,” I agreed.

“In that case, suspension feels harsh. I mean, they’re nine years old, for Christ’s sake.”

“It’s that fancy school you have her at,” Finn cut in. “They take everything so seriously. Kids need to be free to work things out on the school yard.”

“And what would you know about what kids need?” Liam teased.

“Sierra’s got me volunteering at all sorts of youth film workshops,” Finn said. “So I’d say I know way more than you.”

He snorted. “Not for long.”

I caught Liam’s eye, watching as an unusually giddy smile appeared. His entire demeanor shifted, like a light had been switched on inside him.Holy hell.

“Shut the fuck up,” Finn said, barking a laugh as he stared at Liam. “You’re having a baby?”

Liam’s smile somehow widened. “Technically,Mia’shaving the baby. But, yeah, we’re pregnant. Just over eight weeks along.”

“Shit,” Finn said, pressing his hand to his forehead. “I’m gonna be an uncle again.” He turned to me. “As the wiser and more experienced uncle, don’t be surprised when I’m the favorite.”

I grinned. It was just now dawning on me that Iwasgoing to be an uncle for the first time. “Grace is gonna be ecstatic to finally have a cousin.” I got to my feet to give Liam a hug. “You want me to tell her?”

“Nah, I’ll call her tonight. Mia wanted to be there.”

“Sounds good.”

“Well, my news really pales in comparison to that,” Finn said. “But our rom-com is officially flying through post-production. We’ve got some good early buzz from the test screeners, too.”

“That’s great,” Liam said. “What are you cooking up next?”

Finn smirked, but it couldn’t hide his genuine enthusiasm. “Sierra had this wacky idea about aRun ’n’ Gunspinoff set in the Wild West. And you know what? I can’t get it out of my head.” There was no denying that financially, Finn was one of the most successful producers in Hollywood, but it was only recently that he’d started working on projects he actually cared about rather than shoot-’em-up cash grabs, and his professional happiness was way up.

Of course, his personal happiness had absolutely skyrocketed to the moon since he’d worked things out with Sierra. She did costumes on his productions a lot, so work and personal life kind of blended together for the two of them.

“Oh God,” I teased. “Have we finally stumbled upon your self-insert film? Don’t even try to pretend you’re not itching to put on a cowboy hat.”

Finn laughed. “Maybe it’ll be a whole family affair. There were babies in the Wild West,” he said, nudging Liam.

“I amnotputting my newborn on the big screen.”