Page 58 of Hot for the Jerk

I smiled and swallowed my own bite.“I dunno, bud.When the right woman comes along, I guess?”

“You want kids though,si?”Vica asked, squeezing in beside her husband.

I nodded nonchalantly.“I’m not opposed to the idea.Whether they’re mine, hers, or ours.I would like to be a dad, I think.”

“Have a boy.We need more boys in the family,” Griffin said.

“We’re evenly matched,” Dom pointed out.“Uncle Jagger adds one more to our side, but that’s it.What do you mean, ‘We need more boys,’?”

Griffin shrugged, took another bite of his pizza, and started talking again.“I dunno.I just think we need more boys.”

“Mouth.Chewing.Talking,” Wyatt reminded him.

“Dad said you were stuck on Wayman Island with Marco Aaronson’s mom, right?”Jake asked, joining us.

I nodded.“Yeah, we were on the same ferry that got rerouted.”

“You should marry Marco’s mom,” Griffin said.“I like Marco.He’d make a great cousin.He loves video games and Pokémon.”

“Are those the requirements for a good cousin?”Wyatt teased.

Griffin shrugged, then nodded.“Not all of them.But it helps.”

Several of the adults snickered.It was just Wyatt’s family and Dom’s family here, tomorrow night—December 23—I was supposed to go have dinner at Clint’s house where Clint and Bennett’s families would be.Then we’d all get together on the 24thand 25th.

“Think about it though, Uncle Jagger,” Griffin said, all serious and adult-like.“I think Marco would be a good addition to our cousin squad.”

“Does how I feel about his mother mean anything?”I asked, saying it before I really thought the question through.Too late.My brothers and their partners all gave me very curious, very irritating looks.

“I guess …” Griffin said.“How do you feel about her?”

“Yes, Jagger, howdoyou feel about Raina Aaronson?”Vica asked, crossing one leg over the other in her chair as if settling down to hearallthe tea.

I shot her, then my brothers each a look that said, “Drop it.”

They all just smirked.

“Like I said, she didn’t kill me.I didn’t let her freeze to death.We … established a truce while stuck at the B&B in the storm.A ceasefire.”

“Gotta start somewhere,” Griffin said, more to himself than any of us as he shook his head and took another bite of his pizza.

I leaned forward and ruffled his floppy brown hair.

“And will that truce carry over now that you’re both home?”Chloe asked from her spot next to Dom on the love seat.“It would make our relationship with the winery a lot easier.Yes, we’re all still vying for the same piece of land—but so are many others.That shouldn’t come between amicable working relationships.You haven’t let it come between you guys and Hardwood Distillery, or Twisted Sisters Cider.”

“That’s the hope,” I said.“I’m not sure we’ll ever get to the point where Marco becomes a cousin, but I’m also not going to wish the woman gets lice or a bad sunburn anymore when I see a shooting star or blow out my birthday candles.”

Silas’s mouth dropped open.“You did that?”

I narrowed my gaze at him and nodded, being playfully serious.“I even did it every time I saw the clock at eleven-eleven, or blew an eyelash off my finger.”

My nephew’s blue-hazel eyes widened.“She must have gotten a lot of sunburns.”

“My wishesarepretty powerful,” I agreed, giving him a wink.

It was impossible to duck the burning curiosity and all the unaskable questions in the eyes of the adults.Hopefully, by the time the children were out of the room, they forgot those questions and steered clear of the topic that was Raina Aaronson.I didn’t want to be rude, but it really wasn’t anybody’s fucking business what happened on Wayman Island, in the inn, in the room, on the bed.

Truth be told, I didn’t know where we stood.

---