Chapter 1
Finally. All was as it should be. Michael McCauley nodded to himself as he glanced around his parents’ dining room table.
James and Beth McCauley—his parents—were back together again. Happy, smiling, and doting on Colin, Mike’s pride and joy. Or, as his brothers called the boy, Mike’s little clone.
Colin grinned and exposed a missing front tooth. One that had cost Mike five friggin’ bucks. The tooth fairy had definitely succumbed to inflation. Then again, it was a first tooth. With any luck, he could get away with leaving quarters under his six-year-old’s pillow in the near future. That bottom tooth looked suspiciously loose.
“Thank you, Grandma.” Colin took the extra roll from Mike’s mother and smothered it in butter and jelly, ignoring his vegetables in favor of bad carbs and sugar.
Terrific. “Mom, no more. Okay? Colin needs to finish his broccoli.”
She frowned at him. So of course, his father frowned at him as well. In an attempt to suck up to his wife, James would do anything and everything to stay out of the doghouse.
“Jesus, boy. It’s just a roll. Ease up.”
“Yeah, Dad. Ease up.” Colin smirked.
James winked at his grandson.
“Colin. Dad,” Mike growled. When his mother turned to help Colin cut his steak, Mike leaned closer to his dad and whispered, “Laying it on a bit thick, aren’t you, old man?”
James shrugged. “Hey, I learned my lesson. When your mother’s happy, I’m happy.”
Nice that his father had learned that after thirty-six years of marriage. Mike considered himself a fast learner. After three dates with Lea, he’d known how to please his girl.
Pressure balled in his chest at the thought of her name.
He coughed to hide the pain building inside him and drank his water. Shit. He hated being like this, an emotional basket case. But he turned a little nutty this time of year, no matter how much he tried not to. Thank God he’d learned to hide his feelings, or his mother would be all over his ass to share.
“Del said hi,” Colin said around a mouthful of dough. “Her daddy’s really big. Just like Grandpa.”
Mike started. “Del?”
His mother talked over him. “Isn’t he, though? Liam is just a big sweetie.” Beth smiled, prompting James to scowl. “Oh, stop, James. So we had coffee a few times. Liam is a very nice man. He said encouraging things about you, you know.”
His father’s scowl faded. “Oh?”
“Yep. Said you were so in love with me, you couldn’t help acting like a fool.”
Back when his father had been separated from his mother, Mike had worried they might never get their acts together. He breathed a sigh of relief when his mother’s sly grin soon appeared on his father’s face. Mike didn’t have the energy to go to work day after day and watch his father turn back into a shell of a man. And having seen his mother cry… He never wanted to witness that again either.
“Well, Liam was smart about one thing. He knew better than to lay his hands on my woman.” James pulled her close for a kiss.
“Ew, Grandpa. Gross.” Colin made a face.
“Yeah, Dad. Really? I’m trying to eat here.” Secretly, Mike reveled in his parents acting lovesick. It had been too long since they’d engaged in playful banter. Yet the clear affection showed him how much he was missing as a single dad. It didn’t help, either, that his brothers had all recently found love, making Mike the odd man out. Everything was changing, and he didn’t like it. At all.
He pushed around his mashed potatoes and focused on what mattered—the here and now. Turning to Colin, he asked, “Since when are you and Del hanging out?”
Delilah Webster. His sexy nemesis and constant headache, though she’d captured Colin’s admiration easily enough. Mike didn’t like the woman. Not her sexy tattoos, her brow ring, the stud in her nose, the funky way she wore her ash-blond hair, or those wolf-gray eyes that seemed to stare through him. So not my type. The woman and her mouthy attitude totally put his back up.
Colin frowned. “When Uncle Cam watched me, we went bowling. And Vanessa and Del were there.”
He could see Vanessa ignoring his wishes to keep the woman away from Colin. Now pregnant and engaged to his youngest brother, she had a way about her that didn’t invite question. But Cam knew better.
“Vanessa shouldn’t have—”
“Ahem.” His father frowned at Mike and shook his head. Then he turned to Colin. “Did you have fun?”
Colin grinned. “Yeah. Del has big muscles and her arms are so cool. I want arms like that.”
Sleeves of tattoos. On a woman. Mike did his best to convince himself she turned him off.
“J.T. came too, and he’s huge.” Colin had stars in his eyes. Damn Del. “As big as Daddy.”
“J.T.?” Beth asked.
“Her brother,” Mike muttered, not pleased at all. He’d known as soon as he’d met the guy that Colin would idolize him. The resemblance to a certain celebrity, one of Colin’s favorite people, didn’t help matters.
“I’ll bet he might be as big as your dad, but he’s not as strong,” Beth said gently. For his sake or Colin’s?
“He’s a wrestler, Grandma.”
Mike sighed. “No, son. That’s The Rock you’re thinking of. Del’s brother is someone else.” J.T.—the big bastard—had tried screwing with Mike not long ago. Unfortunately, Mike hadn’t gotten the fight he was still itching to finish. With J.T. or Del.
“He’s fuckin’ awesome.” Colin beamed.
The table fell silent.
Mike met his mother’s stunned gaze, but his father continued to eat and question the boy, so he figured he hadn’t heard what he thought he had. She shrugged and returned to her dinner as well.
After a few moments, he chimed in. “Colin, tell us about your field trip coming up. You’re not going to the zoo, are you?” Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo had always been one of Colin’s favorite places to go.
“Nope. We’re visiting the Reptile Pit.” Colin waxed on about his upcoming visit to the Pit, a popular place that taught kids about reptiles.
Enthused that his son liked school and showed signs of being as gifted with academia as his grandma, Mike encouraged him with questions.
“Yeah, Dad. I’m going to sit next to Brian when they bring the snakes out. He likes them too. Maybe you can come. They need chaperones.”
“I’ll try.” But the timing would be tough. He was right in the middle of a massive remodel that was behind schedule due to some screwups courtesy of the homeowners. He hated being behind.
“Do you get to handle the snakes?” James asked.
“Ew. How about lizards instead? Maybe some cute little frogs,” Beth suggested.
Colin smirked. “Grandma, don’t be such a girl.”
For all that Colin loved his grandmother and crushed on Del, he still had a bias against girls. Not that Mike could blame him. His mother’s recent matchmaking efforts had nearly driven him insane with the opposite sex. Now that she had her hands full dealing with his father, he could ease back into—
“Pass the fucking potatoes, Dad.” Colin waited.