“Maybe?” Lucas hesitated to toss his sister under the marital bus.
Nolan groaned. “She’s round the bend over that baby. Wanted to bring him in the house the other night because it was too cold for him outside. I have to keep telling her he’s a wild animal, not a house pet.”
“He’ll be a house pet by the time she’s done with him.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of—having a full-grown bull moose in bed between me and my wife.”
Lucas snorted with laughter. “Might be a good idea to nip that in the bud.”
“Ya think?”
“What’re we nipping in the bud?” Lucas’s father, Lincoln, asked as he came from the family room to join them.
“Hannah’s affair with the baby moose,” Nolan said. “If she had her way, he’d be in bed with us.”
“Oh dear,” Linc said. “Probably best to not let that happen.”
“I hate to tell you this, Linc, but there’re times when your daughter is downright unmanageable,” Nolan said.
“She gets that from her mother,” Linc said.
“I can hear you, Lincoln Abbott,” Molly said, “and you will pay for that later.”
“Sorry, Nolan,” Linc said. “You’re on your own.” Heading toward his wife, Lincoln said, “You heard me wrong, love.”
“No, I did not.”
“No wonder my wife is nuts,” Nolan said. “She was raised in a nuthouse.”
Lucas cracked a grin. “You’re just figuring that out now?”
“Oh, I’ve known it for a while.” Nolan had grown up with Lucas’s older siblings and had been in and out of the Abbotts’ barn for decades. Nolan’s crush on Hannah had developed years after his close friend Caleb had died. And no one doubted Nolan’s fierce love for his wife, despite her moose antics.
The door to the mudroom slammed shut, jolting Caden.
Lucas rubbed the baby’s back. “Easy, buddy.”
“Quit slamming that door,” Molly said to Landon.
“Sorry, Mom.” Landon laid a loud smacker on Molly’s cheek. “It’s my birthday. Don’t I get a pass on door slamming?”
“No door slamming in this house, even on your birthday. It’s in the Abbott family rule book.”
“I never got my copy,” Landon said, making his twin smile. Lucas would’ve said the same thing. “Mom, you remember Amanda, right? I hope it’s okay that I invited her to join us.”
Lucas froze.
Landon had brought Amanda to their birthday dinner? No way.
“Of course it’s all right,” Molly said. “The more the merrier is the Abbott family motto, which you’d know if you’d read the rule book. Welcome to our insane asylum, Amanda.”
When Amanda laughed, Lucas wanted to turn to look at her, but remained rooted in place, barely able to breathe, let alone move. “Thank you so much for having me, Mrs. Abbott.”
“Please, call me Molly. Everyone does.”
Lucas listened to them with a surreal feeling of detachment as his mind raced to catch up. Amanda had come to their birthday dinner. With Landon.
Worst birthday ever.
Chapter 2
“A man who dares to waste one hour of his life has not discovered the value of life.”
—Charles Darwin
As usual, their mom had made pizza from scratch for their birthday—sausage and onion for him and pepperoni and peppers for Landon, along with special orders for the others. Normally, Lucas loved the traditions and the way his mother still paid attention to the details with each of her ten children, even though they were grown and some had kids of their own.
But tonight, with Landon and Amanda seated directly across the table from him, Lucas could barely swallow the delicious pizza or the beer his father had opened for him. He had nothing to say to anyone, which was rare in and of itself. Lucas Abbott always had something to say, especially in the midst of his boisterous family, all of whom had come to celebrate their brothers’ birthday. As the eighth child in a family of ten, one learned to speak up early or be drowned out by the noise.
When everyone was there, they were close to twenty people as his siblings were pairing off, getting married and having babies like wildfire these days. Their elusive, quiet brother Wade had shocked the living shit out of them recently by showing up with a wife none of them had met until after he and Mia had said “I do.” No one had seen that coming, but Wade seemed happier than Lucas had ever seen him. Mia’s long-lost father was throwing them a big wedding in Boston in June that everyone would be going to. Would Landon bring Amanda to that, too?
The noise level in the dining room was probably registering on the Richter scale. Normally, he’d be right in the middle of the fray. Tonight, he had a splitting headache.
Elmer nudged him. “What’s up with you?” Fortunately, his grandfather kept his voice down, so the question wasn’t heard by everyone else.
“Nothing.”
“Not like you to pick at the pizza. You’re more likely to inhale than pick.”
“I’m not that hungry tonight.”
Elmer’s white brows furrowed as he placed a hand on Lucas’s forehead. “You’re not feverish.”
Molly zeroed in on Elmer’s hand on Lucas’s forehead. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. The pizza is great, Mom.”
Though she accepted his answer, he could tell by the way his mother looked at him that he hadn’t fooled her.
Per the tradition, she brought out one big cake, half chocolate for him and half vanilla for Landon, and they blew out their candles together. They’d done that twenty-six other times, and it had never once occurred to Lucas that he ought to have his own damned cake as a grown-ass man. Until now.
“Happy birthday, bro,” Landon said, giving him a warm smile.
“Same to you.” Lucas could barely stand to look at the face that was a mirror image of his own. He felt naked without the beard that left almost nothing to distinguish him from his identical twin.
Clearly Amanda preferred Landon to him if the way she giggled at every stupid thing his brother said was any indication.
She’d worn her dark hair up tonight, which only accentuated her pretty green eyes and the smattering of freckles across her nose that he’d found both cute and sexy. He didn’t recall her giggling so much when they went out and was thankful for that. In general, giggling wasn’t something he found overly attractive in a woman.
But damn if he didn’t find the rest of her overly attractive. She was downright gorgeous. He’d thought so from the first time he saw her in the conference room, surrounded by sex toys as she indoctrinated the family on the line of products her company produced.
And no, it hadn’t been the sex toys that had gotten to him. It’d been her. The confident way she spoke about something that most people had trouble talking about in private, let alone in a room full of strangers, had really done it for him. This was a woman who owned her sexuality and her freedom to express it.
That’s where his attraction toward her had started. But it had only flourished during the evening they spent together talking with an ease he didn’t often experience with someone he’d just met.