Read Online Complete Harmony by Julia Kent - Free Book Online Page B

knuckles. Oh, gross.
    E h . Wouldn’t be the worst thing she’d eaten, he surmised. But after peeling her fingers back, he to o k the day-old (at least) biscuit out of her hand, murmuring condolences as she wailed.
    “I know, I know. The teething biscuit is better after a couple of days. It’s aged to a fine tone, isn’t it? Like wine.” He ran to the kitchen and zipped back in seconds with the box of new biscuits, handing her one.
    She threw it into the ball pit.
    “Wah!” she shouted, like a ninja throwing a star.
    “Jillian for the Olympic softball team in 2032!” Laura said, clapping. “That was quite a throw.”
    The baby heard Laura and stopped, mouth open, eyes wide and rimmed with the beginnings of tears. She scowled.
    “It’s Dylan’s twin!” Mike said, holding two cups of coffee, extending one to Dylan.
    Yesterday they’d been in the bedroom or skiing, Dylan on kidwatch, and this morning had been no different. It wa s not that he didn’t enjoy it, but looking at Laura’s v-neck sweater, so like the one she’d w o r n for their first date, he began to feel decidedly less Daddy and more Hey, hot mama, come to daddy…  
    The doorbell rang. Mike startled, spilling some coffe e on his hand and yelping in reaction.
    The sound made the baby giggle uncontrollably.
    “All you have to do is burn yourself to drag her out of a bad mood!” Dylan declared as Laura answered the door. He did a mental check. They’d all showered. Mike had given more control to Shelly (and about time…). Jillian could manage without breast milk for six hours or so.
    Time to put himself at the center of this relationship again. To put all three in the same circle, really.
    One side of his mouth crooked up in a smile. But he’d happily take all the credit.
    He was an Evil Fucking Genius.
    “Josie!” Laura cried out from the other room, the door shutting and the thump of rapid footsteps filling the hall. Mike batted at the coffee stains on his jeans and sucked the webbing of his thumb where the coffee had burned.
    “Hey!” Mike said, giving Josie a ginger hug as she approached the playroom. “To what do we owe the privilege?”
    “Zombies.”
    “Huh?”
    “It would take a zombie apocalypse for me to do what I’m about to do for y o u.”
    “For…me?”
    “All of you.” Josie winked at Dylan and he groaned. She lifted one eyebrow and stared at him.
    Mike and Laura turned and imitated her. Six eyes asked a lot of questions.
    Dylan fished in his pocket and pulled out a set of keys, dangling them.
    Jillian started to bounce on her ass and shouted, “Aga hbbbbb mama da!”
    “These are not for you,” he chided, wagging a finger toward her.
    She gave him a raspberry.
    “Oh, for God’s sake. He’s taking you to your sex cabin. I’m here to make sure your baby doesn’t get taken away by wolves or eat a spider or throw the Hope Diamond in your garbage disposal.”
    “She is capable of any and all of those things,” Mike deadpanned.
    “Sex cabin?” Laura whipped her head to stare at Dylan. “You planned this?”
    Josie bent down and rubbed Jillian’s head. The baby looked up and reached out with a grubby finger to snag the hem of her sweate r .
    “Six hours! I have to get home to…”
    “To what?”
    “To help Alex move in.”
    They all froze. Great , thought Dylan. Trumped by the damn best friend. Wanting the spotlight for a moment was asking too much, it seemed. Laura’s eager look a second ago faded fast as Josie dropped her bomb.
    “Alex is moving in?” Laura squealed.
    “Practically! He’s leaving a toothbrush and a spare set of clothes at my place.” Josie took a deep breath, one that seemed never to end, and let it out slowly. Dylan looked at her like she was crazy, which was accurate.
    She really was.
    “That’s not ‘moving in,’ Josie,” Mike said. Captain Obvious always knew exactly what to say.
    “It’s close!”
    “Have a child with him and tell me about—”
    “Shut your whore