Page 79 of Fall Into Temptation
“You hear about Clayton’s crotch of cold brew the other day?” Donovan asked, handing Jonathan over when the little boy reached for his dad.
“That’s all it was? I heard Selma dumped an entire pot of hot coffee on him,” Carter said.
Donovan rolled his eyes, well used to the Blue Moon grapevine.
“I heard that Selma threw the pot at his head, and he tossed her over the counter to protect himself,” Franklin piped up.
“This is what happens when you disable the gossip group on Facebook,” Joey muttered.
“What? You get bangs?”
“Stop talking about my hair!”
Donovan reached for Eva and reeled her in. “I can’t believe you’re related to all these weirdos,” he teased.
“Blood and marriage. Youchoseto be here. So, who’s the real weirdo?” she grinned.
He leaned down, intent to take her mouth with his own, before remembering that Eva’s father was standing next to him.
“Soooo,” Franklin drawled staring at them. “Anything you want to tell your father, Evangelina?”
Donovan looked at Eva, trying to telegraph his mental panic.
“Dad, Donovan and I are dating,” Eva said, looping her arm through Donovan’s.
Franklin nodded, considering. “I actually found out through that spot of investigative journalism Anthony wrote up inThe Weekly Monthly Moon,” he said amicably.
“Sorry, Dad,” Eva grimaced. “I should have told you sooner. It’s been a crazy few days.”
“I’m used to getting the news on Facebook rather than hearing it from the mouths of my daughters. Donovan, you’re a lucky man. Eva, try not to screw this up.”
“Dad!”
It was as much of a blessing as he needed. With a grin, Donovan silenced Eva’s protest with a smoldering kiss.
“Geez, guys. Can you do that somewhere else?” Evan asked. Donovan reluctantly pulled back from Eva’s sweet mouth and caught the kid rolling his eyes.
Niko slapped a hand on Evan’s shoulder. “Not too long from now, Evan, you’re going to be finding things to do somewhere else, too,” he predicted.
Gia appeared out of nowhere and covered Evan’s ears. “Nikolai Vulkov, don’t go putting ideas into his head!”
“Mom, I’m thirteen. The ideas were already there,” Evan argued. “I’m just way more mature about it than all of you.”
“He’s not kidding,” Gia sighed, letting her son wiggle out of her grasp. “He’s so grown up. He’s not going to need me anymore.”
Phoebe put an arm around the lamenting Gia’s shoulders. “Honey, they’ll always need you,” she predicted.
“Mom! How long should the soup simmer?” Beckett called from the porch.
“Mom, did you bring cornbread?” Jax demanded.
“See?” Phoebe said.
Donovan draped an arm over Eva’s shoulder. “I feel like we’re looking at our future,” he predicted.
Wordlessly, she cuddled into his side, resting a hand over his heart, and everything felt just about perfect again.
It got even better ten seconds later when Clementine the goat, cool as a cucumber, ambled by and ducked behind a tree.
