Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 106065 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 530(@200wpm)___ 424(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106065 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 530(@200wpm)___ 424(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
“It’ll all be at the house when you arrive, I promise,” I replied.
I couldn’t wait to show them Denmark. It would be their first time. Only Sloan had come with me so far, last year, so I could introduce him to my grandmother. But this year, we were all going.
“I wanna fly too, Daddy!” Kyla bawled. Like, legit sobbed.
“We will, baby.” Greer couldn’t help himself; he picked her up and chuckled at her dramatic antics. “We’re just two sleeps away, and then we’ll join Corey and Emma-Jo at IKEA.”
“We will pick you up at the airport!” Emma-Jo promised.
Archie snuck over to me and gave me a tight hug. “I want to say goodbye before someone chases me out of here. Have a safe flight, call us when you land, and I love you.”
“Love you too, babe. We’ll call.” I kissed his cheek before he backed away.
I exchanged an amused glance with Daddy in the doorway, and I hurried over to him. Or them. He was holding a very sleepy-looking Dylan.
“Before you ask, yes, I have everything.” I reached up and stole a kiss before I cupped Dylan’s chubby cheeks. “And I’ll see you in two days.”
“We go pwane!” he said.
“Yes, a big airplane.” I grinned and smooched his face.
“Let’s clear the hallway, everyone,” Sloan said, going into Daddy mode. Like Archie had predicted. Sloan didn’t particularly enjoy traveling without me, because he didn’t like the idea of me getting overwhelmed when he couldn’t do anything about it. He was amazing that way. “Kyla, sweetheart, go eat breakfast. Archer, drag your hubby with you. Buddy, Beast, and Bandit, let’s get you outside.”
Greer was quick to open the door for the dogs as soon as he’d set Kyla down.
“Can I have a hug, Kyla?” I squatted down to her level, and she rushed into my arms and sniffled. “We’ll see each other so soon, yeah?”
She nodded, and I wiped away the last of her tears. “Daddy says two sleeps only.” She held up two fingers.
“That’s right, only two.” I kissed her fingertips before I stood up again.
“Daddy, tha’s mine!” Dylan complained.
I glanced over and snorted. Even to his own kids, Greer loved being a hell-raiser. He’d stolen Dylan’s pacifier and put it in his own mouth.
On the other hand, it was a quick way to get Dylan to reach for him and leave Sloan’s arms.
I had to agree with Sloan and what he loved to remind Greer. It was going to come back and bite Greer in the butt one day like whoa, because Dylan was a Finlay through and through.
“I can’t wait for him to sneak out and ignore curfews when he turns fifteen,” I said.
Greer gathered Dylan in his arms and smirked at me. “Why? I’ll just send you out to bring him back.” The pacifier was still in his mouth. Well, until Dylan ripped it out and knocked his daddy’s face with his fist in the process.
I laughed. Hard.
Greer winced and rubbed his jaw. “Jesus, son.”
“Karma, Shep. Karma.” Sloan patted Greer on the back and walked over to me. And to Emma-Jo, who joined me too, ready to get out of here. “Come here, you two.”
“Daddy, please don’t fret all over my new dress,” she told him.
I snickered.
“Please be four again,” Greer replied to her in the background.
Emma-Jo merely stuck her head sideways to peer around Sloan, and she crossed her eyes at him.
I loved her. I loved her so damn much.
Greer eyed me. “That’s your doing.”
“Thank you, Sir.” I took a bow.
He sighed, maybe knowing our time was up for now, so he marched over and pressed a kiss to my forehead. “Love you, punk.”
I smiled up at him. “I love you too.”
Then he did the same with Emma-Jo. “Love you, li’l sergeant. Be good for Corey, you hear?”
She legit saluted him and knocked her feet together. “Yes, Sir, Daddy GeeGee!”
Daddy GeeGee—that was funny. I didn’t think I’d heard that one before. Emma-Jo called all of us different versions of Daddy from time to time, just for fun. Since I’d started teaching her curse words in Spanish, I was sometimes her papi. Sloan was always Daddy, of course. But Greer and Archie were a mixed bag of Daddy A, Daddy Greer, Shepdaddy, Papa Shep, Pop, Daddy-o, and Archie D.
Soon, it was just Sloan, JoJo Beans, and me, and we headed out onto the porch with our luggage.
“I know you said you have everything, but—”
“But you gotta do this anyway,” I replied with a grin. “Shoot. We’re ready.”
He smiled ruefully. “Passports? Money? Tickets?”
I opened my neatly organized travel wallet and showed him. Passport, cash, credit cards, tickets, Ziploc baggie with painkillers and my very rarely used anxiety meds, a coin pocket filled with mints, and a pack of JoJo Beans’s favorite chewing gum.
“I got monies from Pop-Pop and Gramps too,” she admitted smugly.