squeeze their way inside the brightly lit kitchen and they were now watching the entire thing.
Pressing a hand to her belly, she blew out a breath and then shifted her attention over to Denise and the twins. The hell if she apologized to Sebastian, the jackass. But Denise, the twins . . . it was their day. “Denise, guys, I am so sorry,” she whispered.
Denise’s eyes snapped and burned, but she smiled at her. “Abby, I don’t think you’re the one who needs to apologize.”
Sebastian’s eyes narrowed as he slid his mother a look.
Then he looked back at Abigale and like he was chewing off ragged bits of rusty metal, he bit out, “Sorry.”
Without looking at anybody else, he turned to go.
Zach, until that moment, hadn’t said a word. But then, after a gentle squeeze on her shoulder, he eased around her. “Sebastian, kid . . . you and me need to have a word.”
Abigale groaned. She knew that tone.
Passing a hand over her face, she said, “Zach, just let it go.”
But it was like he didn’t even hear her, and before she could try to go after him, Zane barred her way. “Leave the two of them alone,” he advised.
“They don’t need to be fighting at the twins’ party—there are kids here. They don’t want to fight around the kids.”
A grin split his face. Thick brown hair tumbled into his eyes as he caught her in a hug and pulled her close. “Oh, now come on, Abby. Since when have we ever managed to have a single party or even a cookout without one of us getting mad about something?”
She scowled and wiggled away from him. “Just because you always do it doesn’t mean you have to keep doing it.” Shoving her hair back from her face, she looked around and figured she could take another break, since nothing was in the oven, and all the food was outside except the next round of bread. “Look, I’m—”
Most of the family had started to trickle out, but Denise was still there and Abigale felt the blood start to crawl up her neck under the weight of that gentle, watchful gaze. “I’m just going to talk to Zach,” she finished lamely.
A shout came from somewhere off in the depths of the house.
“Abby.”
As she untied her apron, she put a lot more focus on the task than she knew she really needed to. “I’ll just be a few minutes, Denise. I—”
“You’re so stubborn.” Denise slid an arm around her shoulders. Then she hugged her. “Leave the boys alone. They’ll work it out. Sebastian has words he has to say. He’s wrong. He needs to figure that out. And Zach probably has a few words of his own, and after that scene? He’s more than entitled.” She reached up and brushed Abigale’s hair back. It was such a gentle, familiar, loving gesture, it left an ache in Abigale’s throat. “Leave them be for now, okay, sweetie?”
Another shout rose, this one followed by a string of curses.
Denise winced. “If they were a few years younger, I’d have to dig out the bar of soap over that one.”
Abigale closed her eyes. “I knew this was going to turn out bad.”
“Oh, hush.” The older woman kissed Abigale on the cheek and then stepped back. “Come on. Let’s get the bread out there and eat so we can dig in to the cake. I tried that new lady you recommended and it looks divine.”
* * *
Zach pressed a knee into Sebastian’s back. If the idiot kid didn’t stop jerking around, he was going to get really mad and hurt him. Just then, he was trying to remember that Sebastian was still pretty damn young, and like the typical youngest sibling, he was spoiled as hell. He was also headstrong, thought he could do no wrong, and thought he knew everything.
Zach was tempted to disabuse him of all that in a painful way, but he figured it wouldn’t help things if he broke his baby brother’s nose when the jackass was supposed to be back at work in a few days. “Kid, if you don’t stop it, that pretty face you’re so proud of isn’t going to be so fucking pretty. I’m going to do some rearranging and you’ll have a lot of fun explaining that to the agent you’re always trying to ram down my throat.”
Sebastian grunted and tried once more to dislodge Zach and when he couldn’t, he swore. “Look, man. The reason you’re so pissed