Can't Fight It - Kaylee Ryan Page 0,75

gave them to you,” I deduce, not wanting to draw out his misery anymore.

“On his little willy,” Chase bellows with a laugh.

“It’s not so little. I got all the good Callahan genes,” Colton argues, giving his brother a smug grin.

“I’m not so sure about that,” Gabby chimes in as she fights her own smile. The way she looks at her husband tells me all I need to know about something I really don’t want to know anything about.

“That’s right, baby,” Chase croons at his wife and nods.

“Tell them,” Colton says, and I realize he’s talking to me.

“What?” I gasp, my eyes surely bugging out of my head.

“Tell them who clearly is packing the heat below the belt,” Colton instructs, leaning back with his own smug grin.

“I will not!” I insist, my eyes connecting with his parents. I can feel the blush already taking over my face.

“The blush says it all,” Colton tells his brother as he pulls me into his side and kisses my forehead.

“Anyway,” Chase interrupts, “as my delusional brother was saying, he got itchy dick from his girlfriend, but didn’t realize it was the pox until Mom had to take him to the doctor.”

Colton groans. “We’re back on this?”

Chase just looks at his brother. “We never left it, Colt. You just tried to distract us with talk about your little dick.”

“Wait, you went to the doctor?” Gabby asks, her eyes dancing with humor.

“Oh, I had to take him. It was about three or four days later when he started a rash,” Connie says, telling the rest of the story. “I caught him discretely scratching his area several times, and I was afraid it was something else.”

“Crabs,” Chase adds.

Connie nods. “You never know, and I wasn’t going to let my son have a crab infestation.”

“Jesus,” Colton mumbles, rubbing his forehead. “It wasn’t crabs, okay?”

“Well, we know that now, don’t we?” she says to her son. Then, she looks at me and adds, “We didn’t know it at the time. I suspected he had something going on down below because he started to get a rash on his thighs and lower stomach, so I took him to the doctor to get a prescription. I didn’t want him spreading crabs to the family through the toilet seat.”

“It was chickenpox! I had it everywhere, not just on my groin!” Colton hollers, startling Milo in his high chair. The baby starts to fuss, but when Colton goes to take him out, he starts to reach for me. Colton just glances my way, a small smile playing on his lips as he nods for me to step in and take the fussy baby.

“Anyway, it turns out it was just chickenpox,” Connie confirms, “and they just had to run its course, but they appeared all over his chest and arms pretty quickly too.”

“I kept him home for three days,” Wes adds. “It was horrible watching your son scratch all day long.”

“And Calena was out too since she had them all over her body,” Chase chimes in.

I start to stand and gently sway with Milo against my chest. He reaches up and grabs my hair but doesn’t pull it. He just wraps his little hand around a strand and holds it.

“Now that we’ve discussed how I got chickenpox in high school, I think I’ll take my son and my girlfriend—if she doesn’t leave me because of my inappropriate family—home.” He gives me a look with a silent smile, letting me know he doesn’t think I’ll actually leave him. At least not for something like this.

“Actually, you didn’t really say how you got them,” Gabby says, her tiny little devil horns popping up from her head, making me grin from ear to ear. Chase laughs.

It wouldn’t take much imagination to guess how he got chickenpox in high school.

“And we’re not going to,” Colton says as he heads over to retrieve the diaper bag.

“Next time,” Harrison adds, glancing down at his daughter. “We’re out too. This one needs a bath and a bottle.”

“Oh, Harrison, I made you up a little to-go bag. I had some extra chocolate chip cookies, so I threw those in there too,” Connie says, heading over to the counter and grabbing the grocery sack.

“What the hell?” Chase says, glancing at his brother.

“Seriously? You’re sending all the cookies with Harrison? He’s not even a son,” Colton argues.

Connie just rolls her eyes. “I have some for you two as well.”

“But we all know who her favorite is,” Harrison says, heading over to give Connie a hug.