Page 2 of Unicorns Forever
“Riiiiight. So, um. That’s why I made one. Have I mentioned how sexy you are this morning?” He tapped the tip of my nose. “Because you are.Rawr. So sexy.”
“Can it, Cullen. Confess.”
“Ummm. I possibly might have used a jigsaw and some scrap plywood to create a life-sized unicorn rearing on its hind legs? Which I then may have painted with gold and glitter?”
“You…” I gaped at him.
“And used four strands of battery-operated LED lights for the mane, tail, and horn?”
I narrowed my eyes. “Four strands of LED lights you happened to have laying around the garage in the middle of the night just in case a thought like this occurred to you?”
“Exactly.” His smile went thermonuclear, but his eyes danced with repressed laughter. “Now I just need to figure out how to sync my phone so the lights change color in time to my unicorn playlist and maybe add some ribbons for a pop of color. Then we will have this competition onlock.”
He held up a hand for a high-five, but instead I grabbed his hand and rolled back on top of him, my elbows on either side of his shoulders so I could press our noses together.
“I feel like we’ve had this conversation, Constantine. And I feel like, during that conversation, it was discussed and agreed that this is not a competition. Mase and Fenn are here tovisit.”
“But…”
“Heck, they were exhausted when they arrived last night. Fenn’s probably nervous about meeting our whole crew in the middle of a party—”
“Hey!Imet the whole crew in the middle of a party! And we were still hiding our relationship back then! And just look where we are now, baby! Happy as a pair of happy clams. Being happy.”
“—and they just want to relax,” I finished, ignoring him. “Plus…” I hesitated. Shrugged. “I want Fenn to feel welcome. I want them to feel like they can come back often. Or permanently.”
“Aw.” Con’s eyes softened. “I know, Micah. And you know I’d never do anything to jeopardize your little brother’s first serious relationship. They’readorable.”
I bit my lip to stop myself from reminding Con that my “adorable” little brother was still nearly a decade older than Constantine himself.
“You do remember that before Fenn, Mase was engaged, right?”
“Oh,her,” Con scoffed. “Pfft. Victoria wasn’t right for him.”
I bit my lip harder, because every once in a while, Constantine sounded exactly like his mother, but I was smart enough to know that if I ever suggested such a thing, I’d be sleeping in the garage with the plywood unicorn until the end of forever.
“Fenn fits with us,” Con continued. “He’s family as much as Mason. I love them both.”
And seeing how easily Con loved, with zero hesitation, made me lovehimeven more.
“So, then, given all this love… it seems to me there shouldn’t be a competition.”
“Shouldn’t?” Con tilted his head. “Oh, my sweet summer child. Micah, you don’t get this ’cause you were more like a parent to Mase and the twins, but sibling competitions are not about shoulds and shouldn’ts. They’re about the deeply ingrained, primal need to prove to yourself and the idiots you love that you are the most worthy sibling. Everyone does this. Some of us are just more open about it. Fenn gets it.”
I lifted an eyebrow. “Fenn feels this primal need, huh? Thought he was an only child.”
“But he has all those burly cousins.” Con wiggled his eyebrows at the same time he spread his legs to make more room for me, and both of us sighed at the rightness of it. I pressed a kiss to the corner of his lips and rolled my hips just a little bit…
But Con would not be sidetracked.
“You were on the FaceTime when I mentioned how I’d become Olivia’s favorite uncle at her birthday party, right? And Fenn got this unholy, demonic glint in his eye and mentioned, totes casual, that he and Mase had brought ‘a couple things’ for Luna?” He snorted and narrowed his eyes scornfully. “His attempts to subvert me are transparent as glass.”
“Uh huh.” I hadn’t noticed Fenn’s head spinning around, so I still thought Con was a little high on glitter fumes. “I think he literally meant they’d brought a couple things. Babe, there was only one suitcase.”
“Micah, Micah, Micah.” Con shook his head. “Never change, my naïve darling. But you mark my words, that man was googling unicorn impersonators the day they booked their flights.” He sounded disgusted and impressed at the same time. “He’ll go to any length to win.”
“Right. Whereas you merely stayed up all night crafting a glittery unicorn with a light-up horn.”
“Itsyncs to music, Micah. God.” He rolled his eyes. “And at least part of that time was spent putting together the unicorn party playlist. The lights are nothing if the music isn’t right.”
