It wasn’t my place to question the ritual. “Good luck.”
“You too. If we get to be too much, don’t hesitate to say something. Honestly, if you could kick us out that would be great.”
Her reaction made me laugh. “I’ll give it some thought.”
GRIMLOCK MANOR BUZZED WITH activity when I let myself in through the front door. In addition to the usual butler, a bevy of maids flitted throughout the house, carrying out various tasks. Most of the family was in the main parlor plotting.
“I think we should just wait until they’re inside, throw bags over their heads, and then drag them to the basement,” Aisling announced from her spot on one of the sofas. She had a drink in her hand and was using her foot to rock the bouncy chair her infant daughter Lily was nestled in. For her part, the baby appeared to be in a good mood. She smiled at anybody who made eye contact and made happy noises as the chair rocked. The reaction confused me, because, as far as I could tell, the baby was an empath and usually reacted negatively when those around her were stressed. This was new.
“And what are we going to do with them once we have them in the basement?” Redmond, the oldest Grimlock sibling, asked. He also had a drink in his hand and looked to be sucking it down as fast as possible.
“We let the snakes eat them,” Aisling replied, unruffled by his dubious tone.
“There aren’t any snakes,” Braden shot back, rolling his eyes until they landed on me. The scowl that had taken over his face immediately evaporated and he smiled in greeting. “Hello, beautiful.”
“Uh, gag me.” Aisling mimed vomiting, which caused Lily’s smile to widen.
Braden ignored his sister and patted the open spot on the sofa that he’d obviously been saving for me. “Get a drink and join me.”
I nodded, my attention drifting back to Lily. “Just a second.” I moved closer to the baby and hunkered down so I was at eye level with her. She was a knockout. She boasted the same dark hair and purple eyes as the rest of the Grimlocks. Her father, a police detective who wasn’t yet in attendance, had dark hair and rugged features, but Lily had inherited nothing from him as far as I could tell. She was all Grimlock.
“What’s wrong?” Cormack asked from his usual chair. He was generally unflappable, but his face was red enough to indicate he was a few drinks deep already. “Is something wrong with her?”
He was nothing if not a doting grandfather, and his concern made me smile.
“She’s fine,” I replied, focusing fully on the baby. “It’s just ... she should be agitated.”
“Oh, don’t go begging for trouble,” Braden whined. “She’s been quiet for two hours, happy even. If she starts crying now, my grandparents will make her scream, and nobody wants that.”
“I think Lily screaming would be preferable to Emmet and Mary,” Redmond countered, a dark look passing across his face. “They’re the thing in the closet you hide from at midnight. The nonstop screaming Lily blesses us with is merely an annoyance.”
“Stop saying things like that.” Cormack jabbed a warning finger in his son’s direction. “You’re going to slip up and say that in front of your grandparents if you’re not careful. That won’t go over well.”
“You act as if we should care,” Braden argued, his eyes curious as they roamed my face. “Emmet and Mary aren’t exactly warm and welcoming. I don’t see why we have to act as if they’re not the world’s worst grandparents.”
“Because I asked you to.” Cormack was firm. “I won’t pretend things will be easy with them, but they’re extending an olive branch.”
“And they’re your parents,” I supplied, flashing him a heartfelt smile. “You want to improve your relationship with them while you still can — if that’s possible.”
He momentarily looked helpless. Then he nodded. “Pretty much. This may very well be the last opportunity we have to form a bond that I can carry with me. I didn’t raise my children in a manner that they approved of. I don’t regret breaking from them when I did. But they’re still my parents.”
“It’s all right,” I reassured him. “Nobody is judging you.”
“I am,” Aisling countered bitterly, leaning forward to watch me study her daughter. “What are you doing?”
“Trying to figure out why Lily isn’t upset by all the negative emotions flying around,” I admitted. “In the past, when people have been tense, she’s picked up on it and acted accordingly. It’s almost as if she’s enjoying this.”
“She probably is,” Braden said dryly. “She’s Aisling’s daughter. This isn’t a life-or-death situation. This is us figuring out how we’re going to torture our grandparents while they torture us right back. Lily is her mother’s daughter, so she’s probably looking forward to the chaos.”
That didn’t seem likely, and yet, sure enough, Lily reacted to Braden’s statement by doing something she’d never done before. She opened her mouth and let loose the loudest belly laugh I’d ever heard escape an infant’s mouth.
Cormack jerked forward, surprised. “Did she just ... ?”
“Laugh?” I nodded. “I think she’s definitely feeding off the energy of the room. I’m not sure what that means for you guys going forward, but she clearly likes the idea of torturing her great-grandparents.”
Instead of looking worried, Aisling grinned. “That’s my girl.”
Lily laughed again, her small body shaking with delight.
“Aw, that’s kind of cute,” Braden admitted. “She’s a tiny terror in the making. She’ll be a monster by the time she’s five.”
That should’ve been a sobering thought, but nobody seemed to care.
“She’s a beautiful little genius,” Cormack said, swooping in to pluck her out of her chair. “I can’t wait for her to meet her great-grandparents. She’ll have them wrapped around her little finger.”
Lily didn’t laugh in delight this time. Instead, she threw up all over her grandfather’s expensive shirt.
“She’s definitely one of us,” Redmond intoned. “Maybe this won’t be so bad after all.”
Only a Grimlock could think that.
Four
“No!”
Griffin Taylor, one of the calmest men I’d ever met, practically melted down when he heard his daughter had laughed for the first time and he hadn’t been present to witness it.
“If it’s any consolation, she was laughing because the rest of us were upset,” Braden offered amiably. “That must count for something.”
Griffin pinned him with a dark look. “No, Braden, it doesn’t count for anything.” He whined as he leaned over to stare at his daughter, who was happily perched on her grandfather’s lap. Cormack had changed shirts but otherwise seemed unbothered by Lily’s vomit theatrics. “Why can’t you laugh for me?”
Lily studied her father’s face as if searching for the answers to some big mystery and rewarded him with a laugh.