Page 147 of Cross the Line
“Ziba. Where is she?” Bibi scans the chaos, catching the older twins by their collars mid-wrestle.
Kian and Kairo freeze as she speaks to them in Persian, then bolt off toward the island to relay her message to Finley.
Fin’s eyes crinkle as she rises and excuses herself. The boys tug at her hands, dragging her our way.
“Bibi, what are you doing?” Jayden asks, his voice is low with a hint of warning.
“I am going to enjoy my cigarette and some saffron tea with my grandchildren,” she croons, giving him a playful wink. Stuffing her lighter and cigarettes under her arm, Bibi takes mine and Finley’s hands. “You don’t have to come, JJ.”
“You’re not my favorite grandma anymore,” he retorts, tugging me back into him.
She gives him a look that could flatten mountains and pulls me back to her side.
“Joke,” he mutters with a grin. “I’ll grab the tea.”
“That’s better.” She squeezes my hand as she leads us toward the back door. “He thinks cocky is charming.”
“I don’t believe he’s entirely wrong. He’s charmed the hell out of us.”
“We didn’t stand a chance,” Finley laughs from Bibi’s other side.
The kid-swarm blows past us as I hold the door open, waiting for them to decide whether they’re going in or out, while I watch JJ prepare a glass teapot with loose tea and a pinch of saffron.
He adds a generous amount of honey while stuffing another square of nougat in his mouth. He’s in his own bubble in the midst of all the pandemonium as he fills the pot straight from the boiling water tap. When he’s done, he adds it to a tray his mom lays out for him.
I can’t hear the conversation they’re having as she hands him some matching glass teacups and he swirls a little more honey into each glass, followed by a sprinkle of dried petals, but I know that her words hit hard.
His eyes flash in my direction. I know he’s overwhelmed. My insides are churning with the emotion quivering on his lips.
“Some people say that our lives mirror our hearts,” Bibi murmurs, wrapping her arms around Finley and I. “For once, I think people have it right. My Jayden has a good heart, a big heart, so it’s only fitting that he has so much love in his life.”
CHAPTER 39
FINLEY
“No, you’re doing it wrong,” Kayla growls at me, snatching the hockey stick from my hands.
It’s more than twice her size, and as she wrangles it under her armpit, she nearly takes out her twin, Kinan, and their older brother, Kayden.
“Look carefully,” she demands, tossing her second-oldest brother the puck JJ gave her earlier. “Drop it when I’m ready, ‘kay, Keyv?”
“Kayla,” Kayden warns, flashing me one of his shy smiles. He’s got the dimple, too, and the freckle below it. “Stop bossing everyone around. It’s rude, dude.”
Without acknowledging him, she refocuses on the stick. When she nods down, Keyvan drops the puck directly onto the blade. I have no idea how she manages to maneuver the stick without knocking herself out every time she flips the blade to slap the puck back into the air.
The fact that her coordination is this good at five years old blows my mind.
“Stop showing off, squirt,” Jayden says, sweeping in behind her and scooping her overhead.
She’s wriggling, kicking, screaming, and cursing him to the depths of hell for ruining her attempt at beating her record, while he keeps tossing her up and teasing her.
Since we finished tea with Bibi, he’s done nothing but fool around with the kids. He even got Eli to join—or rather, Kayla didn’t give him a choice.
Where the younger kids are wild and boisterous, the older boys are assoft as Jayden, with competitive streaks that run deep. Especially Keyvan.
Kayden, on the other hand, carries himself with such quiet poise. He watched and studied every shot JJ and Eli took, then applied their technique to his.
Watching Jayden with him warms my heart. But seeing him with the little ones…My God, it does things to me. I’m jelly inside, and my ovaries are about to explode.
