“Do you want to hit up a bar or ten with me?”
I winced. “What did you do?”
“Why do you automatically assume I did something?”
“Because I know you.”
Dominic sighed. “Shit has hit the fan, and it’s got nothing to do with me and Bronagh.”
I sucked in a breath. “The kids?”
“Georgie,” he said, defeated. “She has a boyfriend, and Bronagh won’t let me kill him. He’s Gavin’s boy.”
“Fuck.” I cringed. “Fuck everything. I’m on my way.”
I disconnected the call, looked at my wife, and said, “Georgie has a boyfriend, and he’s a Collins.”
Alannah widened her eyes. “Jesus Christ, go deal with ‘im before the kills the lad.”
I kissed my wife hard on the mouth, jumped up, pulled my sneakers and sweater on, then ran out of the room, and down the stairs. With one shout for my kids to behave, I grabbed my jacket, keys, and wallet, then I was out the door. I reached Dominic’s house in ten minutes flat.
“Are you okay?” I asked when he slid into my car.
He shook his head. “I will be tomorrow, but right now, I’m heartbroken.”
“I’m heartbroken, so I can only imagine how you feel.”
“Tonight my eyes were opened to Georgie being a young woman and not a little girl anymore. The thought of some excited little boy near her makes me murderous.”
“I’m itching to break the kid’s hands and his dick. You aren’t alone, brother.”
Dominic grunted. “Nothing short of his death will please me.”
“He’s a Collins kid, too?”
I didn’t see them often, and if I did, they blended in with my nephews.
I nodded. “Gavin’s boy ... You want to know the kicker?”
I bobbed my head.
“Indie is the picture of Gav.”
“He is a good-looking bastard.”
“Don’t I fucking know it!” Dominic balled his hands to fists. “I almost lost Bronagh to him once upon a time, and now I’m losing my baby to not only his blood, but his lookalike? Fuck. I want to kill him. I don’t even care that he’s a child.”
I snorted. “You’ll be hell bound for killing him.”
“I’ll explain at the gates. Don’t worry about me, I always get what I want.”
I grinned. “A certain Murphy sister is a prime example.”
A smile stretched across his face. “Can you believe I married my high school sweetheart?”
“No, considering I called dibs on her first. I’m still pissed you messed with bro code for a chick.”
Dominic laughed. “What do you think Alannah would do to you if she found out that you wanted to take Bronagh for a round of mattress dancing when we first met her?”
I shivered.
“Don’t ever tell her.” I winced. “She wouldn’t have given me five sons if she knew, that’s for damn sure.”
“Don’t worry, your secret is safe with me.” He laughed. “I’ll take it to my grave.”
I smiled as he pulled away from the curb and drove towards our local pub. When we got there, we settled inside an empty booth, and I ordered a pint of cider, Dominic did too. He stared at the table, then looked at me when I clapped my hand on his shoulder.
“We’ll get you through this, buddy.”
He nodded. “I’ll be good tomorrow. I’ll take one on the chin ... but now ...”
“You just want to be sad that your baby girl isn’t a baby anymore?”
He leaned his head on his forearm. “Call the others ... I need their bullshit right now.”
“I’m on it.” I chuckled, then he added, “You might regret this by the end of the night.”
I spend a few minutes calling my brothers, and both Dominic and I had drained our pint glasses by the time the three of them got there.
“Okay,” Alec said, as they took their seats around our table. “Who is okay with going to prison for murdering a child?”
Every one of us raised our hands.
“Fantastic,” Alec continued. “Now we just need to fairly pick who gets the pleasure of sending this little asshole on to be with Jesus.”
Dominic sighed. “Bronagh would know it was one of us, and she would kick my ass.”
Alec considered this, and said, “We’ll just have to accept you as a casualty. Every war has them.”
I laughed and shook my head. “How does she have a boyfriend? I don’t understand. She’s fifteen.”
“We had sex a hell of a lot of times by fifteen,” Dominic reminded me. “That’s why I’m so torn up. I don’t want her having sex. It makes me sick.”
“Me too,” Kane said. “It’s not right. She’s the only girl of all our kids. She has twenty-four males looking out for her ... This little fucker should have been terrified to look her way.”
“Maybe he thought being your kids’ cousin gave him a pass.”
“Yeah,” Alec butted in. “This is all Aideen’s fault with her stupid family.”
I laughed again, and this time, the others joined me. I got a round of drinks in, and halfway through those pints, we still couldn’t wrap our heads around what was happening.
“Someone tell me something shitty about their kids so this doesn’t seem so awful, please.”
Kane groaned. “I’ve got a fucking kicker.”
“Jax mentioned that you’d have something to tell me earlier.”
“I fucking do,” Kane grunted. “Me and Ado got home from shopping earlier, and we heard a noise coming from one of the kids’ bedroom. Everyone was supposed to be out, so I assumed it was an intruder, but it turns out Jax was just getting it on with some girl.”
“Get the fuck outta here!” Ryder stated. “For real?”
“For real.” Kane shook his head. “We showed up before he could finish, thank God. Aideen was all kinds of upset, but we’ve talked about it, and he is aware of the dangers of sex past a pregnancy.”
“Man.” Alec whistled. “That’s rough.”
“Tell me about it.”
“I don’t have anything kid related, but I did save my wife from a man-eating spider that died, came back to life, then died again because I squashed the shit out of it.”
We all looked at Alec and laughed. He shrugged his shoulders and grinned.
“I’ve something kid related,” Ryder chimed in. “I came home together from the boys’ soccer game to kid Branna throwing water on Nixon and Jules in an attempt to stop them from beating the shit out of one another on the kitchen floor. They stopped when I shouted, and it turns out it was over a girl. Jules has a girlfriend who kissed Nixon because she thought he was Jules, and Jules overreacted before Nixon could explain. It all ended in apologies, but fuck, this is only the beginning. I know it.”
I shook my head. “That’s a doozy.”
Dominic looked at me. “Do you have a kid related story?”
“Yeah, but it’s nothing bad. I got to the bottom of why Kailen has been so out of character these past few months, and it turns out he’s bisexual and has a boyfriend who Leland absolutely hates.”
Alec focused on me. “Did he tell you that—”
“That you know? Yeah, he did.”
My brothers looked back and forth between us silently.
“Are you mad?” he asked.
“No,” I answered. “I get it. He felt comfortable talking to you about it ‘cause you’re bi too. I understand that you had to respect his decision on when to tell people. I’m just glad he could turn to you. I feel like crap that he felt scared to tell me.”
“He knew deep down you wouldn’t care. It’s just the initial fear that stopped him.”
“I know.” I nodded. “He told his brothers at dinner, so all of your kids will be next. He’s worried they won’t accept him.”
“What?” Kane blinked. “Our kids love each other. If anything, they’ll protect Kailen just because they’ll know other people can be assholes about non-straight people.”
“I know.” I smiled. “I’m not worried.”
“Funnily enough,” Dominic chimed in. “I’m not worried about Georgie either, I trust her.”