She walked off, and Keane glared at him.
“What?” Shay was not going to fight about bringing his kid to Charlie’s house. But that was not the issue bothering his eldest brother.
“I laugh,” Keane insisted with an angry snarl. “I have quite a healthy sense of humor.”
“Oh, my God!” Shay gasped loudly before lowering his voice and adding, “I never knew you were delusional.”
Chapter 9
When Nelle realized that what was supposed to be a short stopover at Max’s Queens home had turned into a dinner party with pool access, she slipped out and went across the street to change. They all kept extra clothes in Mads’s house because they knew they’d be crashing there at some point. It was a great place to heal from wounds or lie low after some socialite had discovered their half-a-million-dollar painting was missing.
When she opened the front door—using the set of keys she’d made for herself while setting the place up—Nelle walked inside to find Tock sitting on the big couch, watching TV.
Moving across the room, she studied Tock’s expression.
“Why are you pouting like a child?” she asked when she stood next to the couch.
“I’m not pouting. Just watching TV.”
“Watching TV while pouting.” She glanced at the television. “Animaniacs?”
“What? I like cartoons.”
Nelle sat down in one of the accent chairs she and her designer had chosen for this front room. When first seeing it, she’d thought of the space as a foyer with access to stairs leading to the second floor, a half bath, an extra bedroom, and the kitchen and great room with glass doors looking out over the backyard. A room that Nelle, personally, would have called the living room. She knew her teammates better than she knew her own family, however, and Mads wouldn’t look past the first room she walked into. That was where she would dump her bags when she first moved in and that’s how she would think of it. As the living room. Because it would be days, if not weeks, before the woman even noticed the room next to the kitchen.
She knew Mads was still pissed that Nelle had taken it upon herself to have the entire house decorated and stocked with food, clothes, and supplies. But what did Mads expect Nelle to do? Sit around in lawn chairs and pretend to be okay with that? They were no longer eighteen, and nothing was worse than twentysomethings still acting as if they were living dorm life.
“What’s going on?” Nelle asked when Tock refused to do anything but stare blindly at a show for children.
“I didn’t want a party,” Tock complained.
“It’s not a party. It’s a casual dinner involving pasta and Charlie’s amazing meat sauce.”
“She invited the Malones.”
“Of course she did. They’re family now.”
“I just wanted to relax.”
“And you can’t do that in a house filled with badgers, cats, and bears who will be doing nothing more than swimming, eating, and sunning themselves like lizards on a rock?”
Tock’s eyes locked on Nelle and she asked, “Why can’t you just let me be miserable?”
“You’re too good at it. When you get in one of your moods, it takes days for you to come out of it. And I’m guessing we don’t have time for you to lock yourself away in a tiny room with all your tools and equipment so you can build baby bombs until you feel better.”
“I guess.”
“So, instead, why don’t you find a way to entertain yourself?”
“And how do I do that?”
“Well . . . Mads is walking around with a basketball and dressed like she’s about to be teleported back to the nineties so she can actually witness one of the Chicago Bulls’ championships.” Nelle grinned. “Now are you just going to let that go unchallenged?”
*
After stopping first to pick up a new phone for Shay, the Malones arrived at the MacKilligan house with Dani, Princess, and a crate filled with puppies. Unwilling to deal with any of it, Keane simply walked away from the SUV. Finn offered to carry Dani, but she wanted to “help Daddy with the crate,” which really meant putting her hand on its side and walking beside Shay on his left, while Princess stayed on his right.
While they walked together, Shay and Dani discussed her math camp. It was a day-camp thing that her mother had wisely gotten her into. Why a kid wanted to spend their summer break learning about math, Shay didn’t know. He hated math when he was Dani’s age and he hated it now. He used the calculator on his phone for everything and had a very smart brown bear accountant handle his taxes. Anything was better than attempting to do it himself. His baby, though, loved math, and if she wanted to work on equations over the summer, Shay wouldn’t let anything get in her way.
“I go Monday through Friday. Mom takes me there before she takes the boys to practice. Or Aunt Lei takes me.”
“I can always take you, if you want.”
“Really?”
“Of course.”
“Can you hang around and meet some of my friends and the teachers? Or will Uncle Keane be mad? I know you have practice.”
“Uncle Keane will probably want to come, too, to make sure everything is up to his standards.”
“I’ve been in math camp all summer. He wants to come now?”
“Baby, don’t try to use logic when dealing with Keane. You know better than that.”
Laughing, she pulled open the screen door to the MacKilligan house and walked inside. Shay began to follow but had to stop immediately.
Shay wasn’t sure what he’d expected when he walked into that house, but what he didn’t expect was the wave of nostalgia that swept over him like a minor tsunami.
Maybe it was the delicious scent of tomato sauce. Or the grizzly triplets in the living room, sitting around the huge coffee table playing Scrabble and arguing about which were real words and which were made up. “Josaltude” was definitely made up. Or maybe it was the laughter and conversation he could hear coming from the kitchen and outside from the yard. He really didn’t know what it was, but when Nat came out and saw Dani, the pair squealing and running at each other for a big hug, Shay had to turn around and leave the house, taking a seat on the porch bench.
His heart raced. His hands shook. And he was positive he was on the verge of tears. He just didn’t know why.
Princess sat in front of him, resting her big head on his knee while he carefully placed the crate filled with her puppies on the chair cattycorner from him. She patiently waited while he tried to sort through his feelings. Not an easy task. He wasn’t big on, you know . . . feelings. Shay usually just went through life doing what he needed to do. Being dependable. Being a good dad. Trying not to twist people on the F train into pretzels when they got on his nerves. What every shifter did to survive life in New York.
“You okay?”
Shay slowly raised his gaze. Taking in Tock’s red Nike high-tops, bright blue knee-high sweat socks, long blue shorts, and cutoff blue-and-red Detroit Pistons jersey.