He’d never seen Katrin laugh that hard—ever.
“More wine?” Aurora asked, easing herself out of her chair and heading to the kitchen. All the women nodded or said, “Yes, please.”
A few of the guys were still drinking beer, but others—like Liam—had moved on to scotch. Scott had stopped drinking because he was driving, but that didn’t mean that Eva couldn’t enjoy herself.
“Oh, damn it!” Aurora grunted and grumbled in the kitchen. “The cork busted off in the bottle. What the hell?”
“Try again with the corkscrew, Rory,” Zak offered, standing up and wandering over to help his damsel in distress.
“Don’t break the bottle, you big jock,” Aurora joked, swatting him away when his meaty fist looked about ready to crush the neck of the bottle.
“Push the cork into the bottle,” Eva suggested, craning her neck around to see the commotion in kitchen.
“But then how will we get it out?” Aurora asked.
“Leave that to me,” Eva said. “Use a knife to push the cork in, fill everyone’s glasses, and then when the bottle is empty, bring the bottle a thin dish towel over to me.”
“Ooh.” Liam’s brows lifted. “Party tricks.”
Eva grinned. “Something like that. I was a server for a couple of years, and one of the waiters who had worked there forever used to do tricks for his tables.” She thanked Aurora for her now full-again wine glass, then accepted the empty bottle with the cork stuck in it and a dish towel.
Scott’s hand dropped from her shoulder as she scooted her chair in closer to the table, all eyes on her. Pride swept through him. Everyone seemed to like Eva, and she fit in with their little makeshift crew seamlessly. Her boys were thick as thieves with Freddie and Jordie already, with the four kids making plans to have sleepovers during the summer.
He took it all as another sign that she was meant to be in his life, meant to be by his side. Their sons got along. He and Eva were once again on the same page. Now all they had to do was deal with the toxic sludge that was Todd Fletcher, and then they could all ride off into the sunset in her soccer-mom minivan. Complete with orange slices and Capri Sun pouches for all.
Using the corner of the dish towel, Eva made a small Pope hat-shaped open-mouthed cone and fed it into the neck of the bottle. She shook the bottle until the cork bounced its way into the open part of the towel, then she tugged, securing the cork in the towel and up into the neck.
“Well, shit,” Zak murmured.
“Cool,” Mark breathed.
Eva pulled hard, grunting when the towel and cork became stuck in the middle of the bottleneck.
“Need a hand?” Zak asked.
Eva shook her head, grunting again. “Just a sec. I’ll get it.”
Scott had to admire her persistence. She was determined to see her trick through, even though there were men with rippling muscles all around the table. And he didn’t mean himself, per se. Zak and Aaron were practically busting out of their T-shirts. Both were muscly redheaded men with arms full of tattoos. Aaron was a former Navy SEAL turned contractor, and Zak owned a gym. Either one of them could probably bench-press a Smart Car and not think twice about it.
Another grunt, tug and pop, out came the cork in the sleeve of the towel.
Several people around the table gasped. A few clapped.
Eva’s grin warmed Scott from the inside out.
“So cool,” Isobel whispered.
Eva handed Aurora the bottle and cork. “There you go.” She then opened the towel up completely on the table, and while laughing at Mitch’s joke about Eva being hired to do tricks for all their dinner parties, she began to roll the towel.
“Do you have any other tricks up your sleeve?” Tori asked, sipping her wine. “Like can you pull a tablecloth out from beneath the dishes without breaking anything?”
Eva shook her head, then for no reason, she dabbed at her mouth with her napkin.
“Bwaha.” Aurora snorted. “Is that another trick?”
Eva made a face of angelic innocence as she dabbed at her mouth again. “Whatever do you mean? Is there something on my mouth? Perhaps a bit of cream?”
That’s when Scott noticed that she had rolled the dish towel into the shape of a penis—an erect penis—and was dabbing at her mouth with the head.
She just kept revealing more remarkable layers of herself to him—to all of them—and he just kept falling harder and harder for her when each layer was revealed.
“That’s hilarious,” Adam said with a chuckle, patting Brielle’s butt lightly, the baby fast asleep on his shoulder. Mason held a sleeping Willow in the same position, Aaron a snoozing Sophie on his broad shoulder, and Atlas, who had been more quiet than normal, held his cousin’s daughter—and his new foster child—Cecily against his chest after feeding her a bottle. Their little family was certainly growing. So much so that it wasn’t a little family of single dads and their kids anymore.
Eva’s smile was demure, but her eyes glittered as she unfurled the towel and passed it to Aurora. “Another trick I learned from my waiter friend Damien. We had a lot of fun at that restaurant.”
Laughing, Scott wrapped his arm back around Eva and tugged her against his side, planting a kiss to her temple. “It means so much to me that you came to meet all my friends,” he murmured against her hair. “Everyone loves you.”
She blinked up at him, her smile small but hopeful.
She was everything he’d ever wanted in his life. In her eyes, with her in his arms, he saw his future. And not just for the next week or month or even year. He saw Eva in his life and in his arms for years and decades to come. He saw their old, wrinkled and liver-spotted hands linked as they sat in matching rockers in their nursing home watching the ducks in the pond outside. He saw their grandchildren coming to visit them, their great-grandchildren too. He saw a life with her.
“Thank you for inviting me,” she said, keeping her voice low. The two of them now had their heads together, oblivious to the conversations going on around them. “I really needed this. A chance to get out of my head, make some new friends. I really love the women. I love everybody. They’re great.”
“Eva … ” He blew out a breath and touched his forehead to hers. “I love you.”
The look in her eyes said it all.
Too soon.
Fuck, he knew it.
He knew it, but he didn’t know better and went and said it anyway.
“Uh … ” She shifted away slightly, her gaze sliding to the side, where Freddie, Kellen and Lucas came walking toward them, all three of them rubbing their eyes and yawning.
“Mom, can we go home?” Kellen asked. “I’m tired.”
“Me too,” said Freddie.
“Hey, Freddie. Got any jokes?” Liam asked, his eyes following his own son making his way into the kitchen. Jordan climbed up onto Liam’s lap.
Freddie nodded. “Want to hear a construction joke?”
“Sure do,” Liam said.
Freddie yawned. “Sorry, I’m still working on it.”
Laughter pinged around the table.
One by one, tired children with sleepy eyes and heavy feet trudged their way into the kitchen, locating their parent and either climbing up into a lap or snuggling into their side.