Page 13 of Kaden & Keegan
“I covered the tip already,” Kaden mumbled as they were walking toward the door.
“And I bumped it a little. Now she’ll be happy to see us next time we come in.”
Kaden smirked. “She’s happy to see us already.”
Yeah, but Keegan was still on the fence as to whether he was going to attempt to get her phone number or not. Never hurt to be extra nice.
You know, just in case.
*
Half an hour later, Kaden was hopping out of the truck while his brother carried on a conversation with the three kids strapped into their car seats in the back seat. Kaden couldn’t help it, he was laughing at some ridiculous joke Keegan told. Didn’t matter that it was juvenile and rather simple, he still laughed.
Kaden had to admit, he was a tad jealous of how easily Keegan got along with the little ones. His twin was the guy all the kids wanted to be around, the one they chased over and under the jungle gym, shot with water guns on Sunday afternoons, hunted Easter eggs with, opened presents with. In recent months, Keegan had even claimed Beau’s title belt as the favorite uncle, although technically they were cousins, not uncles.
Granted, that transition only happened because Beau was ear-deep in dirty diapers of his own with the rowdy triplets. Beau had promised Keegan he would be back to challenge him for the title, but he needed some time to settle in. Kaden had to wonder how true that was because the triple terrors were now one, and Beau was still on hiatus, his return to glory still iffy.
Didn’t seem to bother Keegan in the least. In fact, Kaden was pretty sure Keegan was mighty proud of the title.
Funny thing was, Keegan didn’t have to try too hard to be the favorite. He was merely good with kids. Kaden, on the other hand, loved the little munchkins, but he didn’t have the smooth way that Keegan did. His brother would talk them into damn near anything, including brushing their teeth and eating their vegetables. The guy was a miracle worker.
At one point, Kaden had figured they’d have a houseful of their own rugrats by now, a ranch to raise them on. Some sweet woman sleeping between them, waking them up with a smile, a woman they could love beyond reason, spoil because she deserved it. So far, it hadn’t happened, but he hadn’t lost faith.
Kaden even had one particular woman in mind, but he found himself trying to navigate a couple of obstacles.
One:Bristol Newton, the sassy daycare owner he’d set his eye on, was proving to be resistant to their charms. A problem Kaden figured could be remedied if he just put his heart into it.
Two:Keegan. His twin was adamantly opposed to happily ever after. According to him, it wasn’t possible, so why bother. He did, however, sayjust sexwas always on the table.
Kaden didn’t really see Bristol as thejust-sexkinda girl, which brought him around to those obstacles he was still attempting to hurdle.
“Man, y’all are lucky,” Keegan was saying when Kaden opened the truck door to help Avery out of her car seat.
“Why? Why are we lucky, Uncle Keeg?” four-year-old Kade asked, smiling widely as Keegan leaned in on the other side of the truck to assist him out.
“Because y’all get to come here,” Keegan explained, motioning toward the daycare.
And see Bristol.Kaden kept that thought to himself as he set Avery on her feet because, at three, the little girl was already too independent to be carried.
Kaden took her hand before shutting the rear door. When he reached the front of the truck, Keegan was joining him, one hand firmly held in Kade’s, the other arm filled with eighteen-month-old Maddox.
“There’s all kinds of cool stuff to play with here,” Keegan continued.
Kaden grinned. It was pretty much the same conversation they had anytime they brought one of the kids here. There were currently twenty-three little ones between Curtis and Lorrie’s seven sons, the last of the herd—Zane and V’s Dustin—born last December. For the first time in years, none of the women were pregnant. And due to being far outnumbered by the short-legged Walkers, Kaden and Keegan were often called in to help out in one capacity or another.
As for the daycare, they’d brought almost all of them here at some point. Keegan had mastered the art of hyping them up to want to go in. On occasion, one would make a mad dash for the door in an attempt to escape, but by the time Kaden was leaving, the kids were always excited. That was Keegan for you.
“There is,” Kade assured Keegan with a huge grin. “Allkindsof stuff.”
“That’s just not fair,” Keegan said as he opened the outer door, allowing Kade and Avery to step in before him, then Kaden. “I wanna play with the cool stuff.”
Once inside, they remained in the small vestibule, waiting for the interior doors to be unlocked. No one was allowed in who wasn’t on the approved list of visitors, had their fingerprints on file, and knew their specialized code. No exceptions.
Kaden stepped up to the keypad, typed in the six-digit code, pressed his finger to the scanner, and waited.
“Maybe Miss Bristol’ll let you play, too,” Kade told Keegan, his brow furrowed as he peered up, the spitting image of Travis only in miniature form. “I can ask her.”
Keegan’s response was a conspiratorial grin and a quick nod.
