The Slow Burn (Moonlight and Motor Oil #2) - Kristen Ashley Page 0,136
set the bassinette up down here,” Johnny returned. “Less disruption for everyone upstairs sleepin’ when we gotta get up to feed Quinn.”
“You can sleep in the bunks with me, Paw,” Brooks offered. “I get the top, you can sleep on the bottom an’ tell me stories. Or you can sleep on the top a’ the other set a’ bunks.” He paused before he concluded, “An’ tell me stories. You don’t gotta worry ’bout fallin’ out. Daddy made sure the top bunks ’av railin’s.”
Dave ruffled Brooks’s sun-streaked blond hair. “Now, that sounds like a plan, son.”
“You’re not sleeping in a bunkbed, Dave,” Addie declared.
“Why not?” Dave asked her. “We’ll make it into a fort, tell ghost stories, stay up all night, raid the kitchen.”
“That sounds great!” Brooks shouted.
Addie looked to Toby. “Tobias, what are you gonna do about this?”
He’d noted he was “Tobias” a lot during her pregnancy.
It was cute.
And it reminded him of Margot.
So he loved it.
“Nothin’, baby. Thinkin’ about joinin’ ’em.”
She skewered him with a look.
He shot her a smile.
“C’mon, child, let’s let your mother cook. We’ll sit out on the porch for a spell,” Dave invited, sliding his ass off the stool Addie picked and walked through the kitchen Izzy redesigned to the living room that Toby refurnished.
Four dogs followed them.
Somewhere in the house, four cats totally ignored them.
“I think I’m gonna miss the grand opening of the new Gamble Garage next week,” Addie grumbled.
“Why?” Toby asked.
She looked again to him. “Because my hormones are screaming at me to murder somebody, and I don’t think you all would do good trade after a Gamble committed homicide on opening day.”
Toby smiled at her again and advised, “Not sure how good the chicken part of the parmigiana is gonna be if it’s paper thin.”
She looked down to what she was doing.
Then she stopped whacking the chicken.
“You’re adorable, Lollipop,” he told her.
“It’s good you’re able to say that in company or you’d have a meat tenderizer sticking out the back of your skull,” she replied.
“Why do you think I said it?” he asked.
“So, tell me,” Izzy cut in. “Toby speaks fluent German, but Johnny and me are the ones who talk it, and I don’t even know it, and you two are Talon and Lollipop and Toby never speaks it at all. What’s up with that?”
“Johnny’s a showoff,” Toby answered smoothly.
“Toby and me are being Toby and me,” Addie said at the same time.
“Toby and you are definitely Toby and you,” Johnny muttered, reaching out to a bowl of mozzarella that Addie had just finished grating.
“Eat some of that, and die,” Addie warned.
Johnny had very recently lived through a pregnancy.
He gave his sister-in-law a warm smile.
And did not eat any mozzarella.
“You can have a carrot stick,” she allowed.
Johnny looked to Toby.
“She’s on a health kick so we’re all on a health kick,” he told his brother.
“Worse things,” Izzy murmured, and Toby looked to her to see her face dipped close to her blinking baby and she was grinning.
“Let’s get out of here before they gang up on us,” Johnny suggested.
“Good idea, men on the porch, out from underfoot and out of the way of flying meat tenderizers,” Addie said.
Shooting his wife another smile (because even pregnant-bitchy, or maybe because she was pregnant-bitchy she actually was adorable) Toby slid off his stool and he and Johnny headed out.
They stopped at the screen door at hearing Dave say, “And that’s what your daddy found, and your Uncle Johnny. What I found in my Margot.”
Dave and Brooks were sitting on the top step of the porch.
Tobe looked to his brother to see his brother turning to look at him.
“GoGo?” Brooks asked.
They both looked back when they heard Dave’s voice was a titch lower as he said, “Yeah, son, GoGo. The Good Witch of Kentucky.”
“GoGo was a witch?” Brooks asked in shock.
“Yup. Bewitched me, sure as shootin’. And I didn’t mind one bit. Just like your mommy bewitched your daddy. Your daddy took one look at her, he’s big and he’s strong, but not strong enough to fight her spell.”
“Thas good, right?” Brooks asked.
“Best thing that ever happened to him,” Dave assured. “You ask him straight, that’s what he’ll say. Even knowin’ he’s tied tight in her spell. Now your Aunt Izzy, that girl’s got fairy powers. Dazzle and sparkle. She bound your Uncle Johnny up in pixie dust and he didn’t know his rear end from a car fender.”
Brooks laughed.
Toby smiled.
“And he didn’t mind either,” Dave continued.
“I know Mommy and Aunt Izzy got magic,” Brooks told him. “Auntie Dee says they sit out under the stars an’ soak it up.”
“Unh-hunh,” Dave agreed.
Brooks leaned against his grandpa.
Dave wrapped an arm around him.
“Mommy says when I’m bigger, Daddy can teach me how to fly.”
“No stoppin’ your daddy, he was born to soar.”
“But Daddy says when I’m bigger, we’re gonna go scuba divin’.”
“You watch a dolphin, son. You can soar in water. Your daddy knows that. Gonna teach you.”
“If Mommy’s a witch, is Daddy a wizard?”
“Nope, got his feet on the ground. Now, listen to me, Brooks, you’re about to hear the most important thing a man can tell you. That’s what you do. That’s your job. The most important job you’ll ever have. You find a woman and you let her live with her head in the clouds. But even if you’re flyin’ a plane or swimmin’ with the dolphins, you keep your feet firm on the ground so you can keep an eye on her. Don’t ever take your eye off her, boy, don’t ever let her crash to the ground.”
Dave fell silent a moment and his voice was gruff when he finished.
“Let her fly.”
“Let her fly,” Brooks breathed.
“You get that right, won’t matter you’re a billionaire or a brick layer, she’ll be happy. Only thing that matters is, she’s happy. And you know why?”
“Why?” Brooks asked.
“’Cause you make her happy, son, she’ll make you the happiest man on the planet. That’s what your GoGo did for me. What your mommy gives your daddy. What your Aunt Iz gives to your Uncle Johnny. You with me?”
“I’m with you, Paw.”
Dave pulled Brooks closer with his arm.
“Now how many fish we gonna catch tomorrow?” he asked.
“A bazillion!” Brooks answered.
Without saying a word, the Gamble Men silently moved away from the screen door.
It wasn’t until they’d braved walking through the kitchen under the curious stares of their wives and out to the back porch before Johnny cleared his throat.
Toby looked at the trees.
“Good Witch of Kentucky,” Toby muttered. “How pissed do you think Margot is right now?”
“Seriously fuckin’ pissed,” Johnny answered. “Though Daphne will probably chill her out.”
“What are you two talking about?” Izzy asked, pushing through the screen door holding her son, her sister on her heels.
Iz went to Johnny, who took their boy and cuddled him close to his chest at the same time he cuddled his wife close to his side.
Addie came to him and did what she did a lot, wrapping both arms around his middle, her baby bump with their son safe in it shoving against his side and hip.
He slid his arm around her too.
“Just heard Dave givin’ Brooks some wisdom,” Johnny answered.
“And it sent you to the back porch?” Izzy asked.
“They needed their time,” Johnny shared.
“Ah,” Izzy replied.
“You all right?” Addie asked quietly.
He looked down to his wife.
“You got a lot to thank Dave for, baby,” he replied in the same tone.
“What’s he telling our boy?”
“No.” He bent and touched his mouth to hers, but when he was done, he didn’t pull far away. “Always thought it was Margot,” he whispered.
“What was Margot?” she whispered back.
“Who taught me how to treat a woman.”
Her gorgeous face got soft and her body pressed closer to his.
She got him.
“He teaching that to Brooklyn?” she asked.
“Yeah. And he’s soakin’ it in.”
She smiled up at him.
Through her, their son thumped him in the side.
Her smile got bigger then it got brighter when she saw him return it.
Nothing his wife loved more than seeing her husband smile.
His Addie didn’t have her head in the clouds.
But one thing he knew was certain.
He was the happiest man on the planet.
“Gonna put him down, spätzchen,” Toby heard Johnny mutter.
“Okay, häschen,” he heard Izzy reply.
Strike that.
He wasn’t the happiest man on the planet.
It was a tie.
By the by, Johnny and Izzy’s son grew up best friends with Addie and Toby’s boy.
Like brothers.
And Addie and Toby’s daughter grew up best friends with Johnny and Izzy’s girl.
Just like sisters.
Brooks happily took the role as big brother to all.
But Brooks?
He grew up and married a beautiful girl named Margot.