Page 97 of My Fiancé's Brother 2

I dropped back onto my pillow, unable to open my eyes. “Don’t forget to check for chicken.”

He talked to Chloe, as they went downstairs.

Moments later, the back door slammed, and Jackson called, “Emily, where do you keep the plastic bags?”

My eyes opened wide. “Why?”

“I found some more chicken.”

I grabbed my robe and hustled downstairs. Jackson was on the deck, wearing only a pair of sweats and he held Chloe by her collar.

He looked at me. “Can you take her?”

I hustled Chloe back into the house and then watched through the window as Jackson walked through the yard with bare feet. He bagged the offending chicken, threw it out and then made his way back to the house.

He stood there looking menacing, with his hands on his hips. He wasn’t impressed.

“How often do you find that shit?”

I shrugged. “There hasn’t been any chicken for a while.”

“This pisses me off.”

“Yeah. I know.”

“Why don’t you go back to bed?”

I yawned. “What are you going to do?”

“I’m going for a run.”

I had no idea where the man got all his energy from. “Okay.”

I woke up a second time.I thought I had heard Jackson come in, but he hadn’t come upstairs. On my way downstairs, I found him standing in Alien’s room. He stood in the middle of the room, his hands on his hips as he took in the mural.

The nighttime scene depicted little bear in bed, leaning up against father bear, who sat in bed with him and read him a bedtime story. Mother bear folded clothes and listened with a smile on her face. Grandma and grandpa bear looked on from the doorway with smiles on their faces. I had wanted the father bear and little bear relationship to be predominant in the mural.

He glanced at me in the doorway, but he didn’t speak. His face was blank, but the intensity in the way he studied the mural belied his disinterest. What was he thinking? Did he remember his mom when he looked at these childhood characters? I had wanted to honorhis relationship that he had with his mom, but the amount of emotion that I could feel him hiding was catching me off guard.

He turned his attention to me. “I see that Alien’s crib has arrived.”

“I haven’t had a chance to put it together,” I lied. As if I had any intention of building that thing myself.

His head whipped over to me. “You think I’m not going to man up and build our kid’s crib?”

“Oh, well. If you want to.”

“Damn straight I will.”

I had to turn my face away, to hide my smile that threatened to give away my game.

His lips twitched. “Did you just play me?”

“I would never.”

He grabbed me around the waist. “I walked into that.”

“Well, it worked.”

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