Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 68369 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 342(@200wpm)___ 273(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68369 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 342(@200wpm)___ 273(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
I raised a hand, half jokingly. “Excuse me? What’s Ryan’s brand of diplomacy?”
Darius and Ryan exchanged a smirk.
Bo was the one who answered. “You send in a sniper. No evidence, no one to blame, no red tape. A quick in-and-out.”
Gray sighed. “Yeah, in my experience, those quick in-and-outs are never quick.”
Wait, what? “Are you an operator too?”
“Oh no.” He shook his head. “I just happened to meet Darius under, uh, special circumstances, so I got my own experience. And I did complete Hillcroft’s final selection in Ecuador this summer.”
Whoa. Badass.
“I’m more geared toward search and rescue,” he finished.
“That’s cool.” I was impressed. “Do you work with that now?”
“Part time, yeah.” He smiled. “I also help my mom run a bed-and-breakfast.”
Darius didn’t look too happy about the last one. “And more and more lately, you forget to bring home leftover Danishes.”
Oh. I grinned.
Gray cocked a brow. “Because someone was recently told to keep an eye on his blood pressure.”
“It’s still in the normal range,” Darius defended.
Bo and I exchanged a look.
“Do you think that’ll be us one day?” I teased.
“Nah,” he said. “I’m more of a candy apple guy—and you already promised me that.”
I smirked. “As long as you keep an eye on your blood pressure.”
“That was not part of the agreement,” he argued, dead serious.
I laughed.
When Ethan came back, we returned to safer topics, though not as quickly as one might think. By the sound of things, Ryan and Darius were somewhat open with their brother, which was confirmed when Ethan called himself the peacemaking translator in the family. As in, when Darius and Ryan would take on an assignment back in the day, it was Ethan’s job to smooth things out and downplay the reality to their parents.
“After Darius downplays somethin’, you still need to downplay it another ten degrees to appease our mother,” he said.
At which Ryan said Ethan had fallen asleep at the wheel during this latest assignment. Since James had caught on.
And Ethan turned to me. “One thing you should learn about our family is that Ryan will never admit to being wrong. Never mind the fact that he told me nothin’ about this gig, but he literally invited our folks to Hillcroft. Were they gonna keep thinking this is a fishing trip?”
I cracked up.
“That’s bullshit,” Ryan argued. “I’ll be the first to admit when I’m wrong. You motherfucker.”
Gray turned to Darius. “What is it that he says about various shades of right?”
Darius chuckled. “He says he’s not wrong—he just takes one of the alternate routes to another version of right.”
The banter continued with Ryan defending himself and accusing everyone of planning a targeted attack on him, and I couldn’t stop smiling. I fell back against Bo’s good side, so he put his arm around me, and we just listened to the Quinns’ quick back-and-forth.
This family had tons of inside jokes and memories they referred to, and I couldn’t wait to become a part of all that. Because now I saw it. They were welcoming me into the fold, and I was gonna cry about it tonight. Fuck me, had this morning been overwhelming. In the best ways.
Bo had been right all along. They were good people.
Bo kissed my temple and asked me to grab his mug, so I reached for it and gave it to him.
Ethan and Ryan were currently bitching about someone forgetting the “bro code,” and I wanted to know more—
“Ahh, what in the actual…” Bo shuddered next to me and peered down into his mug.
Oh crap! I’d mistakenly given him mine.
“Shoot, sorry.” I grabbed the other mug instead.
“Baby, this is just fucking wrong. You can’t drink this. It’s certifiably undrinkable. It’s garbage.”
Whoa, whoa, whoa! First he called me baby again, and then he threw insults at me?
“You’re garbage,” I tossed back.
Ryan found that funny. “How bad can it be?”
“Field coffee’s a luxury compared to this,” Bo said.
That set the bar high enough for the men to test the claim, evidently. Ryan wanted a sip of his own, and he promptly made a face and passed the mug over to Darius. Who, in turn, only took a whiff at it before he deemed it trash too, and Ethan said, “It’s barely even brown. I ain’t drinking that.”
“It’s the best coffee!” I grated out. What the fuck was happening?
“My son’s first coffee had more coffee in it than that,” Darius chuckled. “It’s cream and sugar.”
I huffed. They were all fucking wrong.
Ethan shook his head in amusement and turned to Ryan. “I’m not saying everything’s hereditary, but do you remember when we started drinking coffee? Jake poured a fuck-ton of vanilla syrup and cream into his. On the other hand, he was like eleven.”
Oh, whatever.
Ryan chuckled. “All I remember is nearly throwing up after I tried a dozen sweeteners in mine.”
Darius smiled a little. “Even as an adult, Jake liked it sweet, though. He used brown sugar.”