Raiden (The Kent Brothers #2) - A.M. Hargrove Page 0,47
her about the birds and the bees.”
“I’ll show that part of the discussion.” I imagined him shaking his head.
“So, back to the other reason I called. Mom and Dad want you to come and stay here at Cruze’s. They’re worried about you over there, alone.”
Being immersed in Scottie’s absence and my misery, I hadn’t thought about it. The safety aspect itself was reason enough to go there.
“Does Cruze have enough room?”
“He does. You could have Olivia’s room and we could move her into one of the hall closets.”
“You’d put your daughter in a closet?” The idea was appalling.
“Shut up. I’m talking about the huge walk-ins he has upstairs that are empty.”
“Oh. I thought… never mind.” I saw poor little Olivia being shut away like Harry Potter. Then a chuckle burst out of me.
“Yeah, I figured your brain was going there. You know damn well I’d never do that to my kid. Anyway, she doesn’t need a bathroom and those closets are huge. They can hold a crib and all her other things. They even have windows in them.”
“I know which ones. If you don’t mind, then I’m game.”
“Get your ass over here then and I’ll tell the others.”
“Gotta pack and I will.”
I threw a bunch of clothes in a duffle, grabbed a few suits, shirts, and ties, and then my toiletries. The bodyguards loaded them up and off we went.
Cruze’s house was inviting when I entered. Mom and Isla’s mom, Liv, were at the stove cooking. It smelled great.
“A home-cooked meal?” I asked.
“What else did you think?” Mom answered.
“Do you do this every night?”
“Raiden, what do you think? We both love to cook and it gives us something to do.”
“I didn’t know I was missing out on this. If I had, I would’ve moved in sooner.” I hugged my mom and then Liv. But when I went to lift off the lid of one pot, Mom slapped my hand.
“Get out of there.”
“I was only peeking.”
“No, you weren’t. You were going to dig a spoon in and get your germs on everything, weren’t you, Raiden Kent?”
“But, Mom…”
“But, Mom, nothing. Now scram.”
Her scolding made me laugh. It was like living at home again. Cruze walked in and asked, “Are you already in trouble?”
“Appears so.”
“Then come up and help us move the crib. The baby is ready to go down and we need to get this done, pronto.”
I jogged up the stairs behind my brother to the so-called closet. Acer was there with the crib mattress in hand, and Isla behind him.
“Raiden,” she said, “we’re so glad you’re here.” She hugged me.
“I am too. Thanks for offering to move my niece into a closet.”
“Some closet, huh?” she asked.
“Hey, bro, come help me a sec,” Acer said.
He’d already dismantled the crib, so we each carried parts of it from the room I was to occupy to the closet. Olivia was lying in one of those baby carriers. She was smiling and half asleep. Damn, she was cute.
We quickly put the crib together and set the mattress in. Then Isla put the sheet on while Acer went to get the baby. They’d already set up the video monitor, and she didn’t fuss at all when they set her in the crib. We shut the door behind us and that was it.
“That’s all you have to do?”
Isla held the video monitor in her hand. “Look.” I did, and Olivia lay there with her eyes closed.
“She’s sleeping already?”
“Yeah. She’s a fast one. And she sleeps all night. We’ve been lucky with her.”
“I thought babies cried when you put them down.”
Isla said, “Some do, I suppose. Olivia is just happy and never really did. If she gets overly tired, she might. Let me do a sweep through the room to make sure everything is out of there. We never used the bed, so you should be good there.”
We both went in and she checked the drawers, but they’d moved everything out. “It’s all yours.”
“Hey, thank you for doing this. I know it was a pain.”
“Not at all. You’ll love it here. The food is amazing.” She patted her stomach.
“Yeah, I am already in trouble with Mom for trying to pilfer from the pot.”
“I’ll leave you to unpack. Come down and join us when you’re finished.”
It didn’t take long before I was hanging out with the guys and drinking a beer. “I feel like I’m on vacation,” I told everyone.
“Only tonight. Tomorrow, we talk business,” Cruze said. “We have a couple new things on the plate the three of