Page 215 of Push

The only strange request was when Toby had asked me to sign over that bloody strip club—The Red Room—to Liam.

The reaction that followed had floored me. Liam’s surprise had been downplayed by a dismissive wave and a half-hearted refusal, but there was no mistaking his watery blink once the title deed was in his hands. Owning that club meant the world to him.

“I didn’t bother seeing Mum this year,” Tanya was saying. “I offered to drop by, but she bleated on and on about how I’d abandoned her to squalor. Our dear mother is probably the only person who thinks my old place in Concord qualifies as squalor, but…whatever. She made her bed. She’s got her pension, and that apartment is still more generous than she deserves.”

“Way more,” Toby grumbled.

“Actually, I did run into that hoity-toity friend of hers at the shops. Mina? Mila?” Tanya mimed a cone over her head. “The one with the hair.”

Toby made a face. “What did that old crow have to say?”

Tanya’s lips curved around the top of the champagne glass before she took another sip.

“What?” he prompted.

“Our mother has resorted to online dating. Can youbelieveit? She’s been trying to land herself husband number two. I think she was inspired by our old acquaintance.”

My eyebrow arched. “Kayleigh?”

“I mean, the girldidland herself quite the millionaire,” Tanya said. “Her parents shipping her off to England to dodge the stalking charges hadquitethe unexpected outcome.”

Toby’s face only scrunched up even more. “The guy’s like a hundred years old! I wouldn’t want a wrinkly old man with a beer belly anywhere near my”—he circled a hand around his groin—“you know.Gross.”

“Good riddance to the little witch.” Tanya grinned as she sipped her champagne. “I hope she lives miserably ever after with that old geezer dry humping her into his grave.”

Smiling, I left the siblings chatting between themselves and weaved my way through the steady stream of guests.

On my way to the pool, I wandered past Marnie and Romeo tucked in a darkened corner, his kisses pecking lazily up her neck, and Italian words murmured against her skin. She caught sight of me and wiggled her eyebrows.Yeah, yeah.The man was smitten with her. She was living her best dysfunctional life.

After I wrestled Noah out of his jeep and into his swimmers and floaties, I relaxed with my feet dangling into the pool as he splashed about with John and Alfie to burn off his never-ending toddler energy. Toby bomb-dived into the pool a few minutes later. He swam to the side, pushed back the wet flop of his hair,and only demanded one sloppy kiss before I disappeared back inside.

Elias was busy in the kitchen. He’d avoided all the Christmas cheer by reading in the study until Maree had ducked her head in to ask for help preparing lunch. It was good to hear him laughing for once as they peeled prawns for one of Cat’s platters.

Cat, of course, was in heaven. She hadn’t stopped smiling since we’d arrived. Her life’s wish had been answered—her home was full of laughter and children. Even if the little ones weren’t her own, she treated them all like they were the most precious gifts on earth. She was never too busy to stop and give a cuddle.

“Eli!” Cat called out. “Help me with this other table.”

He hurried to wash up, and after wiping his hands dry on a tea towel covered in gingerbread men, he raced behind her to drag in the little table. It usually had pride of place in the playroom Cat had set up for Noah, but this was a special occasion.

Josie stopped twirling on the grass and watched with suspicious eyes as Cat tucked the table and its tiny matching chairs into place.

“Mama Cat.” Josie crept closer. Her faithful companion, Morag, dragged along the ground behind her. “What dat?”

Cat was all smiles. “This, my sweet little ballerina, is where you’ll sit for lunch today.” She flapped out a fresh red tablecloth and laid it over the top.

Josie’s eyes flicked to the oversized dining table where her mother sat perched on Zach’s knee and then back again. She was clever. She put two and two together almost immediately.

“Don’t wanna sit at thebabytable with thebabies!” Josie’s lip curled. “I’m a big girl!”

“Yes, you are,” Cat said smoothly. “That’s why I’ve given you the very important job of keeping a close watch on those rascally boys.”

Something wicked glinted in Josie’s dark eyes. She bent down to the doll cradled in her arms. “Hear dat, Morag?” she said. “We in charge.”

Zach’s wife giggled into his neck.

“You’re going to regret that,” Zach said with a wink, rubbing an affectionate hand over the barely-there bump rounding Eden’s belly. Number three was on the way. “JoJo takes being in charge very seriously.”

“Do you?” Cat asked the little girl.

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