Page 77 of Fool Me

“Let me give you a hand.”

I hand him the small toiletry bag Harlowe packed. He glances down at it before looking up at me with a raised eyebrow.

Shrugging, I haul the other two bags through the gravel toward the house, giving him a smirk over my shoulder. “I’d never forgive myself if carrying my bag was the reason you couldn’t come out of retirement if the fancy strikes.” That’s as close to playing it cool as I’m going to get.

His hand comes down on my shoulder as a surprised chuckle rumbles out of him. “After the things I’ve heard about your brother, I had doubts, but so far, you don’t seem like a flagrant dickhead.”

The mention of my brother sours my stomach. I set the bags on the porch, taking a seat on the swing, and look from the girls to Xavier. “Even though I’m fake dating your soon-to-be-wife’s best friend to earn brownie points with the town?”

“I thought it was weird as hell at first, but who am I to judge? I’m marrying a woman I made a sex list with.”

“What?” Laughter shakes free.

His eyes go wide momentarily before he relaxes back into a smile. “Oh shit. You didn’t know.”

“No,” I drawl.

“Consider this us getting to know each other.”

The girls join us on the porch, Vivienne going straight to Xavier and wrapping her arms around his waist. “Did you get Haze down for his nap?”

“Sure did, Mama.”

Dark pink stains her olive skin. “God, I love it when you call me that. Never stop.”

“Never,” he murmurs reassuringly before refocusing on us. “Want me to show you where you can ditch those bags? Lunch is almost ready.”

“We have you in the apartment above the barn. I hope that’s okay. We thought it might be quieter than the main house with the babies.”

“You know I’m just happy to be here. You could stick me in a tent and I’d be pleased as a pickle,” Harlowe says.

“Are you going to let me take one of those?” Xavier asks.

“Still a no. I haven’t given up on you coming out of retirement yet.”

Vivienne chuckles. “He’s enjoying being a stay-at-home dad way too much to go back to playing.”

“Is this your version of ‘only a little weird’?” Harlowe whispers.

“Nope. The weirdness hasn’t even started. I’m saving that for when they’re all here.”

Harlowe shakes her head, but I can see a dimple hiding. “And you seem so responsible and put together.”

“When it comes to baseball, I’m just a boy at heart.”

Xavier climbs a set of wooden stairs on the outside of the closest stone barn. There are no animals, just some equipment inside. When we reach the top, he holds the screen door for his bride as she steps inside. “Mom made the twins clean it up this week. Lennox and Lawson still like to sneak dates up here instead of into the main house.”

Next to me, Harlowe’s face twists in disgust. “You couldn’t keep that to yourself?”

The studio-style apartment is cleaner than I would expect from the way the girls are talking. The wood floors gleam and there’s not a speck of dust in sight, despite it being part of an old barn. Vivi crosses the space and opens a closet, grabbing a set of blankets and sheets.

“If I have to know, you have to know. Sharing is caring, and all that.”

Harlowe takes the stack from her, wordlessly placing it on the coffee table in front of the couch. “Not in this case. In my head, the twins are still caked in mud and bugging us to push them on the swing.”

“They’re two years older than Tenley.”

Trying to keep up with the rundown of the Cardoza family tree that Harlowe gave me on the flight is a workout. I’m almost positive Tenley is Vivi’s niece, who’s here from Spain for the wedding, but the Cardoza family tree is a sequoia, not a maple.

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