Page 34 of Stunner (Whiskey Dolls 3)

He rolled his eyes and threw his arms out at his sides. “When you say it like that, it sounds bad.”

I blinked slowly, rage bubbling like lava in my veins. “Hey, Jackson?”

His eyes came back to mine. “Yeah?”

I cocked my arm back and drove it forward, right into the nose Owen had almost broken only days earlier. And I had to admit, it feltdamn good.

16

OWEN

Hazel’s little tongue peeked out of the corner of her mouth as she focused on her task with the same intensity I imagined a neurosurgeon would.

“Almost done,” she said softly, then, after one last swipe, she pursed her lips and blew before sitting up straight and hitting me with a beaming smile. “Finished! You look beautiful, Uncle Owen!”

She lifted the mirror in front of my face, revealing the glitter-covered nightmare she’d been working diligently on for the past thirty minutes. When she’d first asked if she could give me a makeover, holding up an entire briefcase of makeup—abriefcase, for Christ’s sake—I’d out my foot down and refused. Then her eyes had gone cartoon-princess-big and glassy, her bottom lip started to tremble, and the threat of tears had me caving in record time. It really was pathetic.

She pulled the mirror down, her little face wreathed with excitement as she bounced up on down on the sofa beside me. “Do you love it? Do you? Do you?”

“Of course, I do, munchkin.” I just needed to figure out a way to wash it all off before my sister came to pick her kiddo up, or I’d never live this down. “You’re so talented.”

She preened under my compliment while Gus didn’t look nearly as happy. The poor guy appeared to be feeling as miserable as I was right then, thanks to the gazillion colorful barrettes and clips and bows Hazel had decorated his entire body with. I could have sworn the doggy groan he let out as he slowly slid to the floor and fell onto his side was his way of communicating that he blamed me for this.

“Yay! Now it’sMinionstime,” she decreed, hopping off the couch and racing around the room with her arms in the air as she chanted, “Minions! Minions! Minions!”

I stood and propped my hands on my hips, trying to look as stern as possible with a face full of sparkle makeup as I said, “If you want to watchMinions,you have to clean up your mess first.”

She skidded to a stop, her shoulders drooping as she grumbled, “Yes, sir,” and got to work repacking the luggage-worth of cosmetics. Once that was done, I popped some popcorn and we snuggled up in front of the TV, Gus at our feet, to watch my baby girl’s favorite movie. I knew it was only a matter of time before she dozed off, her little body only capable of handling so much excitement, and I fully intended on using that as my chance to wash my face clean. Unfortunately, I’d forgotten how exhausting babysitting my niece was, and I’d ended up passing out beside her. I woke to a bright flash of light, and, sure enough, when I peeled my eyes open, Hardin was standing over me, her cellphone pointed right at my face.

“I expect you to delete that,” I grunted as I shifted a still-sleeping Hazel off my lap and laid her on the cushions beside me so I could stand and stretch my neck and back out.

“Pfft. Not a chance, big brother.” She looked down at her phone with a smile. “These pictures are keepers. In fact, I’m sending them to Mom right now.”

I let out an annoyed huff as I tried to work out the kink in my neck from having fallen asleep sitting up. “It’s times like these that I wish I’d been an only child. Or left you for the wolves when you were a baby.”

“Then I guess I won’t be sharing the pizza I brought back from the restaurant for dinner,” she said casually, and at the mention of it, I suddenly noticed the smells of spicy Italian sausage and zesty sauce filling my apartment.

My stomach let out a rumble of appreciation. “Hey, pizza is the least you owe me afterthis,” I said, waving a hand in front of my face.

She faked a pout and dropped her phone back into her purse. “Oh, poor abused Owen. Let me guess, she cried to get you to do what she wanted?”

“You would know,” I grumbled as I moved toward the kitchen in desperate need of a beer. “You’re the one who taught her that particular form of torture, after all.” I grabbed one from the fridge, twisted off the cap and tossed it underhand into the sink. “What the hell does a six-year-old need with a whole suitcase of makeup any damn way?” I asked as I grabbed a couple plates from the cabinet and started plating the pizza.

Hardin hopped up on a stool across from me, reaching down with a laugh to pet a bejeweled-within-an-inch-of-his-life Gus before picking up her slice and biting into it. “Just trying to maintain my place as her favorite parent if or when Keith decides to step up and play daddy.”

My heart clenched for my baby sister at the same time the muscle in my jaw ticked at the thought of her worthless, waste-of-oxygen ex. If I thought for even a second I could fix this situation for her by beating the shit out of the asshole, I wouldn’t hesitate. Unfortunately, that wasn’t an option. As much as I wanted to, I couldn’t make this go away for her.

Returning to the fridge, I pulled out another beer, uncapped it, and slid it across the counter to her. She lifted it in thanks before sucking back a large gulp.

“You know that’s never going to happen, right?” I assured her as I bit into my own dinner and let out a grateful moan as the flavors burst on my tongue. Junior’s had a special sauce recipe that only a select handful of people had access to. It was such a secret that even I wasn’t allowed to know what all went into it, no matter how hard I begged. “You’ll always be Hazel’s favorite person in the whole world. There’s no competition.”

Hardin’s sigh was so heavy, it sounded like she was carrying the weight of the world, and I fucking hated that for her. “I know that. Rationally, I know this parenting gig isn’t a competition, but it’s not the rational part of my brain doing the worrying.” She drank down more beer.

Reaching across the counter, I placed my hand on top of hers. “What can I do to make this easier on you, Hard? You need it, just name it.”

She flipped her hand beneath mine and gave it a squeeze. “You’re doing it right now. Just listening to me bitch and whine and having my back is enough.”

The mood had started to lighten as we continued with our dinner. But then my cellphone rang from its place on the counter right in front of Hardin, flashing Asher’s name like a big, neon sign.

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