"Oh, please," Charlotte says, then turns to me. "Welcome back." She smiles big. "I saved you this time. I won’t the next."
I nod at them both and pick up my hand that is in Harlow’s and kiss her fingers. "There won’t be a next time."
"Well, I think there are other people here that are waiting to say hello to us," Harlow reminds me. "Or at least ask him if he’s married." She hits me with her hip and tries to hide the smile while I groan.
"We’ll see you later," Charlotte says, leaning back in her chair and looking out.
When we get far enough away, I look over my shoulder to see Billy still staring at me. "See, that wasn’t so bad," Harlow says as we walk deeper into the yard.
"Easy for you to say, he didn’t glare at you," I mumble and then bump into a girl who is running. Her pigtails are lopsided, and she smiles when she sees Harlow.
"Auntie Harlow." She jumps into her arms. "Gabriel is chasing me and telling me that he’s going to take my nose." She covers her nose right away, believing he can take her nose.
"Elodie." She says her name, and my eyes widen; when I saw her last she was just a little thing just learning to walk. "I’ll protect you." She looks just like Willow.
She looks at me. "Who are you?"
"This is Travis," Harlow says. As soon as Gabriel comes behind her, he looks over at me and stands there with his chest puffing out. He’s a teenager now, and he’s definitely gotten bigger.
"My dad called you a ding dong," Elodie says, and Harlow tries not to laugh.
"That’s not true," Gabriel says from behind her. "He called him a dipshit."
"Gabriel McIntyre," Harlow says his full name. "Watch that mouth of yours."
"Sorry, Aunt Harlow." He shrugs. "Just passing along the message."
"Well, do it kindly." Harlow kisses Elodie on the cheek and puts her down.
"How kindly do you call someone a dipshit?" Gabriel folds his arms over his chest, and if he was tatted, he would look exactly like his father, Ethan.
"I think it’s ding dong," I joke with him, or at least I try to, and he laughs even though I know he really doesn’t want to laugh.
"There you are,” Quinn says when he gets close to us. "Mom has been looking for you," he says to Elodie, who leans toward him and he takes her in his arms.
"Dad," she says, and he looks down at her. "Is ding dong nicer than dipshit?" His eyes go right away to Gabriel.
"Oh, my," Gabriel says, trying not to laugh while he grabs his neck. "In my defense, I was just repeating what you said about Travis."
"Okay," Harlow interjects. "This is enough." She points at Gabriel. "You need to make sure everyone knows that he’s not a dipshit and that he was never married."
She then turns to Quinn. "You need to watch your mouth in front of people before I tell Mom that you are swearing in front of the kids.” Quinn just glares at her. "And you." She turns to me. "I’m sorry that this isn’t as easy as I thought it would be, but I’m sure the next time will be better."
"One can hope,” Quinn says and then Harlow glares at him. "Fine, I’ll be nice." She folds her hands over her chest. "Nicer than I am."
"Now"—she looks at me, and all I can do is smile—"time to go see my parents."
"And to think I almost didn’t come today,” Quinn says. "Let me go first and hand Dad Elodie. He can’t shoot him if he has a child in his arms."
I laugh and look around to see none of them laughing with me. "He’s joking, right?" I say as Harlow slips her hand in mine and turns to walk away from them.
We stop and talk to a couple more of her cousins, and I do get the glare more often than not, but I know in the end they are being somewhat friendly because of Harlow. Instead of calling me a dick to my face, they are waiting for me to walk away before doing it. "Auntie Harlow." Sofia runs to her, and I stop in my tracks at her beauty. Harlow’s face goes into a huge smile when she sees her, and her arms automatically open for her.
"There is my girl," she says, hugging her, and my heart slowly starts to speed up when I see them together. She is giving all of this up for me. I swallow the lump in my throat. We walk side by side as she talks to Sofia about everything going on in her life in the past two days. We walk through the grass, and I smell the food and look over to see her father, Casey, by the grill with her two uncles, Beau and Jacob.