Page 96 of Tango

“Don’t worry, Sloane, I plan to watch and learn.” Sloane gave a wise nod as she left. “Good morning, sexy.” Ivy kissed me on the cheek as she set her laptop down on the counter.

“Is it?” I glared. “I woke to a mechanical monster in my bed.”

“I know you, Ty Beckett.” She sighed dramatically. “If I didn’t get to you first, you’d have been all over it and gotten me.”

“You’ve been spending too much time with Savi.” I snagged her by the waist and nuzzled her neck as I inhaled her perfume.

“Damn straight, she is.” Savi grinned widely. “Us girls stick together in this house.” She leaned forward and winked. “Because we always win.” A shiver went up my spine as the girls clicked their coffee mugs.

“I don’t even wanna know,” Mark raised his hands in the air, “but speaking of winning at tag, who is it, anyway?”

We all looked around at each other, and I caught Ivy giving a slitty eyed look at Paul. He attempted to hide behind the paper, but I caught his smirk.

“What?” I asked the two of them.

“I stand corrected.” Ivy removed her reading glasses from her hair. “You aren’t the dirtiest player of them all. He is.”

“Who, me?” Paul couldn’t contain his smile.

“I saw you at the wedding. I saw what you did.” She paused. “Which means…”

“Morning all.” Doc came in, and Ivy suddenly bolted and the rest of us scattered. “Was it something I said?” he called out, and Paul’s laughter filled the house.

Later that afternoon, our plan was in place, and when the snow stopped falling, Moore and I announced we had the ultimate game for the kids. They were all for it. We gathered all of them in the center of the yard and brought out the bungee cords.

“What’s this called?” Liam crossed his arms as he watched us lay them out in straight lines over the snow.

“Wicked Webs.” I held up one of the cords. “It takes, skill, concentration, and coordination to get out.”

“Looks easy.” He tried to sound cocky, but it wasn’t working for him. Though the twins were troublemakers, they were good kids. They, just like their father, liked to have fun at all costs, all the time.

“We’ll see, won’t we?” I pointed over his head. “Grab your brother and stand over there.”

“Come on, Ethan, let’s show the old folks how it’s done.”

“Did he just call us old?” Moore looked up at me.

“Yeah,” I grunted, “I think he did. Let’s do this.” We grabbed the cords and started to web them together, then we ran the cords in and out and around including more kids as we went. For Tabby, Gabriella, and Reagan, we made sure they would find a way to escape quickly, not because they were girls, but because they really needed a win against the twins. My mind went back to their ruined tea party that morning.

“See this,” I showed Tabby, careful to be quiet, so her brothers didn’t hear me. “When I give the signal to play, just pull it up over your head and you’ll be able to get out. Okay? Show the other girls and you’ll be free.”

“Got it!” She nodded and gave me a thumbs up. She really was a little Mia. Smart and ready to fight.

“Now, this is badass.” Brandon came up and grinned at the younger ones all webbed together. “That’s cool.” I nodded at him and surveyed our masterpiece. “You think you could teach me this, Ty?”

“Sure.” I nodded for him to watch over my shoulder. I saw Olivia emerge from the porch and heard her call out to the others to come look.

It took us a few more minutes to rope in the little suckers, and when we were finished, we stood back with Brandon and Olivia and admired our work.

“That’s impressive.” Olivia laughed. “You do this to the Taliban?”

“No,” I chuckled with Moore, “actually, this was something to screw with our bunkmates in training. While they were all tied up, we’d raid their bunks for booze and candy.”

“You’re quickly becoming my favorite, Uncle T.” I grinned at her. I loved how all the guys here were quickly adopted as uncles. “All right, so now what?”

“Now we watch them struggle,” I purred as we joined the others on the porch. After about three minutes, I gave Tabby the signal and she played her part well. She freed herself and went straight to work on the other girls.

“That’s my girl,” Mark called while the boys struggled hard and tried to figure out how she did it.

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