Page 11 of Make it Real
“Worst dad ever.” I bobbed her around, her infectious giggles making my day. She patted my face, pinching at my cheeks. Babbling up at me in pure adorable baby mode, nobody would guess this cutie had a secret aggressive streak. Any minute now, she’d hook a finger into my mouth or scrape a nail across my eye. I had to enjoy her sweetness while it lasted. “Who loves her Uncle Jed?”
She gurgled back, her conversation gibberish to everyone but her. Her big blue eyes killed me a little for all the trust and joy they held.
“If her first word is ‘Jed,’ so help me.”
Wade’s implied threats hadn’t stopped me from coaching her to say my name when nobody was looking.
“I can’t help it if she has good taste.” Scanning the people moving around in Ty’s house, I came up three short. “Where are Annie and the boys?”
“She took Beau upstairs for a potty break. Dylan went along to supervise.”
“Didn’t realize that was a two-man operation.”
“Beau needs a lot of coaxing in that department.” Wade gave me a look like he’d seen some things.
While I would eat up Maisie’s snuggles and glory every time the boys rallied around me like my own little fan club, encouraging them in the bathroom didn’t fall under Fun Uncle duties.
“I don’t know how you do it, man.”
“One day, it’ll be you up there singing potty songs to your kid, and when that day comes, I will laugh my ever-loving head off.”
“You really know how to sell parenthood.” Didn’t need to know about the existence of potty songs, to be honest.
“There’s a trade-off.” He nodded at the little munchkin in my arms.
“Yeah, yeah.” I tickled her sides until she squealed with laughter. After a minute of squirming and kicking, she laid her head on my shoulder in a rare moment of calm. Exhaling like an old man after a hard day at work, she rubbed her face against me as if she might fall asleep in my arms. Probably just wiping snot on my shirt, but the moment tugged at my heart anyway.
“That’show you sell parenthood.”
“This part’s not so—no—son of a—” Maisie dug her teeth into my shoulder, breaking through our sweet moment of bonding, and quite possibly my flesh. Trying to pull her away only made her bite down harder, a little crocodile refusing to release her prey.
Wade stepped in and got her to let go. He took her from my arms, giving her a scolding about biting people, but her grin proved she wasn’t too torn up about it. If anything, she’d probably gotten a taste for it, like a bear or a piranha. The little stinker.
“Sorry about that.”
“Good Lord, kids bite hard.” I rubbed my shoulder where I probably had a perfect impression of Maisie’s dental progress in a circle of welts. “I thought we were friends, Maze.”
She gurgled away at me, proud as anything.
“What was all that about liking her fiery spirit?” Wade asked.
“When it comes to injuringyou, yes. When it comes to me, I’d appreciate a little less tooth-oriented fire.”
He adjusted Maisie so she faced out, wisely keeping her chompers away from him.
“Pop’s so proud, he looks like a tick ready to burst.” He nodded back the way I’d just come. “I’d be careful, if I were you. Only a matter of time before he starts pressuring you to settle down in earnest.”
“I assure you, the pressure he’s applying now is real enough. I just dodged Marilyn’s plans for a set-up, and he didn’t look too happy about it.” Temporarily dodged, anyway. Seemed unlikely either of them would let that subject drop without a fight. A gently disapproving fight, but I’d be in for one all the same.
“What do you expect of him? There’s a lot of love going around.”
Wade gestured around the rooms packed with couples. Our sister and cousins had all fallen in love in the last year or so, every one well on their way toward marriage. Even Harper, who’d told me in no uncertain terms she wanted nothing to do with her high school boyfriend again, had an engagement ring on her finger from him.
“Hope it’s nothing catching.”
Wade’s chuckle didn’t carry all that much sympathy. “You’ll regret your words one day.”
Callie’s laughter drew my attention across the room. Smiling over some story from Eliza, she was arresting in a way I couldn’t quite define. Beautiful, certainly. Trouble, one hundred percent. I watched her for a minute, that little twist of regret pinching at me all over again.
