Flash Point (Kilgore Fire Book 2) (27 page)

Downy burst into laughter at that visual.

“So what are you going to do about them?” He asked, a wide grin on his face.

“I’m going to have to move all the furniture out and start going room by room.” I grumbled.

“And what about your sister?” He asked. “What are you going to do to her?”

I grinned and pulled the shite Styrofoam box that I’d picked up at the bait shop on the way to work.

“This.” I smiled, shaking the small box.

The crickets started to chirp, and every single man in the room started laughing.

“This is going to escalate quickly.”

He was right.

By the time a week had passed since the goose fiasco, Lennox and Max were both fed up.

“Y’all have to call a truce.” Max growled. “I’m not doing this shit any
more. I found a cricket
in
my cereal bowl this morning. I’m so fucking over it I could scream.”

Payton and I stared at each other, wondering who would concede first.

“Just because I love you, doesn’t mean I won’t kill you.” Payton pointed at me. “If you stop, I’ll stop. But the minute you start up again, I’m going to give it to you ten times as hard.”

“Jesus.” Max sighed. “Y’all can’t give a fucking inch, can you?”

Before either of us could reply to that, Lennox gasped and hunched over, her face going deathly pale before she moaned in pain.

“Lennox,” I lunged for her, making it to her in time to catch her before her knees went out from under her.

My sister hit me like a battering ram the moment I stepped foot out of the hospital room.

“Is she okay?” Payton demanded. “How about the baby?”

I grinned.

My smile didn’t reach my eyes, though.

“Lennox is in some pain, and they gave her a nice little cocktail of drugs. Apparently turning thirty-two means that you all of a sudden can’t handle pain like you used to be able to.” I grinned. “The baby, she’s perfect.”

“Don’t you mean he?” Payton’s brows lowered.

I shook my head slowly.

“No. I mean she.”

Payton’s mouth dropped open.

“Oh, fuck.” She laughed then. “You’re going to have to go exchange all of those clothes. And blankets. And shoes. Oh, my God. She’s probably freaking out right now.”

I grinned at my sister.

“You’d do that for me, wouldn’t you, sis?” I squeezed her up tight.

Payton said something with her face squished into my armpit.

“What was that?” I asked, letting up a little bit.

She looked up at me with a glare.

“I said you have BO.”

I snorted and dropped her, causing her to fall about a foot to the ground.

She jolted and glared.

“Now.” She crossed her arms. “Remind me again why I would do anything for you again?”

Grinning wildly, I ruffled her hair with my fist.

“Because I’m your favorite brother.”

She laughed.

“Because you love me?” I tried.

She laughed harder.

“Because you love Lennox?” I said in exasperation.

That caused her to sober.

“You remember that.” She pointed. “And I get to hold the baby first.”

I held up my hands and turned as the doors to the operating room opened, revealing my sleeping wife and daughter that was swaddled up tightly in her mother’s arms.

“Deal.”