Page 37 of Chasing Hope

“Wet dreams? Laundry loads?” Giving Kieran a look, he holds up his hands in surrender. “Fine, I’ll just ask…how is it going?”

Nodding slowly, I look over my shoulder to see Cindy and Evie walk into the house. “It’s…going.”

Kieran bursts out laughing. “You’re so far gone.”

Snapping my head his way, I glower at him. “No, I’m not.”

“Keep telling yourself that.” His eyes widen as Bella places a tray of muffins down on the table and just like that, he’s gone, yelling out, “Blueberry muffins!”

Bella rolls her eyes. “Kieran, please leave some for the rest of us.”

Ignoring her, he snatches three muffins, stuffing one in his mouth and then one in each hand. He lifts them in the air. “Layla! Look! Muffins!” he declares around the said muffin in his mouth.

Bella shakes her head, laughing as she walks up the back patio stairs to her best friend, Layla. She’s also laughing, but she can’t hide the love in her eyes.

“Layla, I swear to God, if he eats them all again…” Bella grumbles.

She just chuckles. “He can’t be stopped.”

I say my hellos to the girls, too, whispering, “How long did it take for him to sniff out the cereal?”

Bella gives me an exasperated look. “Twenty minutes. Grayson hid it in the garage.”

I shake my head as I watch Kieran go off to hand amuffin to Emmy. It’s then I spot Cindy and Evie in the window, lifting glasses of wine to their lips as they seem to study me.

May as well give them something to talk about. Winking, I soak up the flash in Evie’s eyes.

Turning back to the guys, Irving comes barreling around the corner, both his hands in the air as he calls, “What’s up, fuckers! The party has arrived!”

Grayson sighs deeply as he flips a burger. “Irving, we’ve talked about this. Keep the language to a minimum.”

Saluting our captain, Irving struts over. “Aye, aye, spider monkey.”

Ignoring him, Grayson claps me on the shoulder. “Valenti, good to see you. How’s Caleb and his frolicking?”

Eyeing the grill, I pick up the plate beside it, holding it out so he can start unloading the burgers and sausages. “Still has all his important limbs attached, last I heard.”

“Won’t be too long before we get the disaster call,” Kieran says as he joins us.

O’Connor snorts. “Remember last year?”

Groans ring out. Even Johnson runs a hand down his face. “Fuck, that was the worst one yet. Put Irving and his bullshit to shame.”

Mitchel rubs the nape of his neck, lifting his cap, revealing the new dreads. “Caleb’s shenanigans last year putCaboto shame.”

“What the fuck even happened in Cabo? Why will no one tell me?” Grayson asks as he flips another round of burger patties.

“Trust us, Cap.” O’Connor winces. “There’s some things a captain shouldn’t know.”

After a minute of silence, Irving continues to frown. “I don’t fuck up that much.”

Johnson deadpans, “Don’t make me buy you mirrors so you can see for yourself.”

Smirking, Irving wags his brows. “No need, Johnson. I’ve got plenty of mirrors and love what I see.”

Kieran quickly jumps in, changing the subject before the two start jabbing at each other. I swear, they can’t stand in a room formore than a minute before the goading begins. “Any news on the trade?”

That effectively stops their argument. Instead, Irving perks up. “Did Kai decide to take the deal? I heard that three teams were trying to snatch him up.”