Page 164 of Forever

Brooklyn would kill me if we played football right before the wedding. We were lucky James and Rob’s faces were good at not swelling. Or Nigel’s juice had just worked its wonders. Also, I was pretty sure Penny wouldn’t love us breaking everything in her living room.

Rob walked in without knocking, holding RJ in his arms. RJ’s eyes were closed and he was sniffling, like he’d been crying the whole way here. And I was grateful for the distraction. Maybe Jacob would forget about playing football for a few minutes.

“Coach.” Jacob tugged on my hand. “Is Axel coming?”

Jacob did not seem that excited to hang out with a bunch of babies. Which I understood. Especially since they were both sleeping. “No,” I said. “But he’ll be at the wedding later. And your abuelo will be here any minute.”

Jacob’s eyes lit up.

“Why do you call Tanner your abuelo?” Rob asked.

“Because he’s my abuelo,” Jacob said.

“But like…why?”

Jacob shrugged. “Because he is.”

“What about your actual grandfather? Mr. Pruitt?”

Jacob lowered his eyebrows. “Me and my daddy don’t like him. If I see him again I’m going to have to hit him again.”

Whoa, what?“Did you hit Mr. Pruitt?”

Jacob nodded. “Yeah. When I met him. I hit him like this.” He threw his fist out toward me, but stopped an inch in front of my nuts. “Like my daddy taught me.”

Holy hell.Jacob was a little boss.

Rob laughed. “Are you seriously telling me that you hit Mr. Pruitt in the nuts?”

Jacob looked confused.

“Right there,” Rob said and pointed to my groin. “In the nuts.”

Stop pointing at my dick, man.I pushed his arm away.

“Yessie,” Jacob said. “I punched him right in the nuts.”

“That’s amazing.” Rob laughed. “I think we’ve all wanted to do that in our lives.”

James put his hand up for a high five and Jacob high fived him.

“Mommy hit him too,” Jacob said. “She gave him a black eye.”

I knew about that one. Honestly, it kind of made sense that Mr. Pruitt had skipped town. He was probably sick of being hit by his family members. I probably should have told Jacob not to hit his grandfather. We were trying to move forward with Mr. Pruitt. But it wasn’t really my place. If his father had told him to do it, I was going to respect Miller’s wishes.

James smiled. “You’re a good kid, Jacob. Come on, let’s go hang out in the family room.” Everyone started walking out of the hall. A few minutes ago he didn’t likethe way Jacob was looking at his daughter. But now he seemed thrilled with Jacob. He probably thought Jacob would be a little bodyguard for Scarlett.

I knew James hated the way Axel seemed smitten with his daughter. They were just kids, but James was reading this wrong. Jacob looked at Scarlett with stars in his eyes. The same way Axel looked at Scarlett. Scarlett was going to be trouble when she grew up if she already had two boys obsessed with her. James was probably going to try to lock her at the top of a tower when she turned 13.

I sat down on the couch and Rob plopped down beside me and handed me RJ.

RJ was sound asleep now, his sniffling done.

“It’s weird how much like you he is,” Rob said.

I looked up from RJ. “I swear I didn’t have sex with Daphne.”

Rob laughed. “I meant Jacob, not RJ. But good to know.”

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