A smile cracked Cutter’s face. “Not a lick.”
Luc laughed. “You work for Hunter and Logan, right?”
“I do.” Cutter sipped his beer.
“Poor bastard,” Alyssa jumped in with an affectionate grin. “And don’t feel bad about your lack of culinary expertise. Compared to Luc, I can barely boil water. But it’s all right; he likes to feed everyone. In fact, he made some of the desserts for tonight.”
“Everything I’ve seen you cook on TV is amazing, so I’ll look forward to that.”
“I know Callie is.” Thorpe grinned and turned him back toward the rest of the revelry. “That woman loves her sweets.”
“I’m looking forward to something else sweet, sugar,” Cutter heard Luc mutter softly to his wife.
A glance over his shoulder revealed Alyssa stepping up to kiss her husband with a passion he envied.
“You’ve met Kimber?” Thorpe asked as he plucked up a plump shrimp and dipped it in the cocktail sauce.
Cutter followed suit and nodded at his bosses’ younger sister. “A few times, yes. How are you?”
“Great. Good to see you again.” The lanky knockout with auburn hair smiled. As imposing as her brothers could be, Kimber was all easy-breezy welcome.
The same couldn’t be said about her husband.
“Deke.” The man held out his hand but his stare warned Cutter not to visually linger on his wife.
“Don’t be such a caveman.” Kimber rolled her eyes. “He’s not going to jump on me in the next two seconds.”
“He might, kitten.” Deke shrugged. “I want to.”
“You always want to.” She shook her head with a smirk.
Deke winked. “Damn straight.
She tried not to show that his possessiveness amused her. “The kids okay upstairs?”
“Cal, Seth, and Chase are all in the same room. I’m thinking we’ll be lucky if the house is still standing by the end of the night.” Deke winced.
“You think it’s bad now? Wait until puberty.” Kimber pointed out. “How’s Sierra?”
The smile that scrawled across Deke’s face was almost a little love-drunk. “Our girl is pretty as usual. She was getting sleepy and probably wanting kisses from mommy.”
“On it,” Kimber vowed. “Nice to see you, Cutter.” She waved as she turned to leave the kitchen.
Sean Mackenzie passed her as he sauntered into the room and made a beeline for Thorpe. “The sitters are putting all the infants to bed. Callie and I just tucked Ash into his crib, if you want to give him a goodnight kiss.”
“Wouldn’t miss the opportunity to tuck our little man into bed. Would you finish introducing Cutter to everyone?” Thorpe filled Sean in on the folks he’d already met. “Back soon.”
After the dungeon owner hustled out of the kitchen, Sean led Cutter over to a pair of urbane Hispanic guys who looked so much alike, they had to be brothers. Between them stood a luscious blonde beauty. They both held one of her hands and hovered protectively.
“How can you possibly think the Saints are going to be in the Super Bowl this year?” The elder brother chided a big blond hulk of a man with a brawny arm wrapped around a pretty brunette.
“Because they’re better than the fucking Rams.” The beefy guy scoffed back.
“And I think the Cowboys will beat them all,” Sean cut in.
“In your dreams.” The younger suave-suited brother rolled his eyes.
The women just looked at one another, obviously determined to get off the sports talk and onto something more interesting.
“You told me parenting wasn’t easy. I thought it would be so much simpler with three of us.” The blonde shook her head ruefully.
“Ha! I’ll see your infant girl and raise you three rambunctious boys under the age of four.” The brunette anchored a hand on her hip and grinned back. “Seth was already a handful. Chase upped the chaos times twenty. But when Blake was born a few months back? I gave up on anything that looked like peace and quiet forever. If I get twenty minutes a week in my spa tub, I call that a win.”
The attractive blonde winced. “Never mind coffee next week. How about a drink?”
Their men all erupted with laughter.
“This is Cutter Bryant,” Sean said to the group, then turned to him. “Meet the Santiagos. Javier and Xander own a defense contracting company. This is their lovely wife, London.”
“Great to put a face with a name.” Cutter eagerly shook their hands. “You lent Hunter and Logan your plane so they could reach Jolie in time to save her. I can’t thank you enough. If it hadn’t been for you guys . . .”
Sean smiled. “They’ve lent more than one of us lovesick saps their jet so we can bring back our woman in one piece. If not for them, I don’t know if I’d have found Callie again. And I’d be a lost man.”
His wife joined him then and pressed a kiss to his lips before bumping shoulders with the elder Santiago brother. “We’re all grateful, guys. But at the time Sean and Thorpe hunted me down, I was cursing your names.”
“Just repaying you for all the times you stuck your tongue out at everyone, brat,” Xander teased.
She repeated the gesture with a sassy smile.
They laughed, then Sean added, “The sitters are settling Dulce into her playpen if you want to join them.”
“Thanks,” London murmured. “Cutter, if you’re willing to talk about anything but football, I hope we can chat again after I tuck my daughter in.”
“We’ll come, too, belleza.” Xander followed with a hand at the small of her back.
“Merry Christmas.” Javier nodded his way.
“Same to you.” Cutter watched them leave, both men touching their curvaceous wife again. He marveled at them, just as he did Callie, Sean, and Thorpe. Making love work with two people was hard enough. He couldn’t imagine how difficult it would be to get three people on the same page.
Sean directed Cutter to the other couple nearby. “Tyler and Delaney Murphy. If you’re looking for trouble, he’s the guy you want.”
“Did Luc tell you to say that?” The blond hulk narrowed his eyes.
“No.” Sean’s face danced with mirth. “Lys did.”
That made Delaney laugh. “Guess she hasn’t forgiven you for all your ‘cockzilla’ antics.”
Cutter, who had just taken another sip of his designer beer, nearly spit it out. “Cockzilla?”
Tyler actually looked a little uncomfortable. “I might have, um . . . gotten around a little before Del and I married.” He wrapped his arm around his wife and brought her close. “Lucky for me, all it takes is the love of an amazing woman to change everything.”
Cutter had once thought the same thing. But it hadn’t worked that way for him.
Delaney looked almost smug. “I’d say you’re damn lucky.”
Tyler kissed her soundly. “You got that right.”
When he dove into his wife’s kiss for seconds, Sean elbowed them. “Hey, no conceiving baby number four on my kitchen floor.”
They broke apart, and Delaney blushed. “On that note, I’ll go kiss Blake.”
“I’ll try to calm Seth and Chase down,” Tyler offered. “Stop them from huffing and puffing and blowing the house down.”
“What are you going to sing them tonight, daddy?” She shot her husband a fond smile.
“I’m taking requests . . .”
As they left the room, Sean directed Cutter to a familiar foursome. He shook Joaquin Muñoz’s hand. The former NSA agent was on the quiet side, but more than fair and damn fine to work for. His ballerina bride, Bailey, flashed her blue eyes and a welcoming expression.
“Good to see you.” Cutter nodded their way.
“You, too, man. Nice to get in a few words out of the office.” Joaquin clapped him on the shoulder.
“Cutter,” the eldest Edgington greeted.
He turned to Caleb with a respectful nod. “Colonel. How are you and your lovely wife?”
“Carlotta and I jus
t came back from a South Pacific cruise. I’m liking this retirement gig.”
“We had a lovely time,” Joaquin’s mother added. “I have never seen water so blue. It was the honeymoon we could not have when Caleb was working.”
“That sounds fantastic.” Cutter would love to see the world with someone he adored someday but . . . Yeah, not going to happen, and he was sounding like a weeping pansy, lamenting his loneliness, blah, blah, blah.
She’s gone. Move on, dumbass.
“You enjoying working for our sons?” Caleb gave him a lopsided grin, clearly knowing he asked a loaded question.
Cutter glanced at Joaquin, then turned back to the colonel. “I am.”
Caleb barked out a laugh. “Good P.C. answer. How about the truth?”
“If I had to guess . . .” Joaquin drawled. “None of us are you, and he’d really been looking forward to learning from your experience. Is that about right?”
Cutter had to laugh. “Yep. No offense.”
“None taken,” Joaquin assured.
Sean led Cutter away. With relief, he glanced at the cluster of familiar faces sitting at the breakfast nook table. “I think I’ve got it from here. That’s a lot of people to meet in one night. My introverted soul might have to crawl in a corner for a decade before I recover.”
Sean laughed. “The shy thing won’t last long in this crowd. And that’s not even everyone we invited. Gia and Jason Denning are at a holiday party with her family across town tonight. Decker McConnell called for a rain check since his wife, Rachel, has the flu. Jesse McCall took his bride, Bristol, with him on his farewell tour. I think they’re in Mexico City tonight. Tough gig, huh?”
Now he was impressed. “Wow, McCall is a mega star.”
“He’s also Kimber’s former fiancé. Deke wouldn’t mind if someone tied a boulder around the guy’s neck and dropped him in the ocean, but everyone else says the singer has changed and his new wife is a doll.” Sean shrugged. “If there’s one thing we all believe in, it’s second chances.”
Meaning no one was going to hold against him the fact that he’d gotten his skull bashed in while peeing. But Cutter was all too aware that in their business, mistakes cost lives. If he had a do-over on that day, he’d gladly take it. But talking about that debacle was pointless, so he nodded.
“All right, then. I’ll leave you to it.” Sean gave him a nod.
“Thanks for the introductions. I’ll meander to the corner. I know all the folks over there.” He pointed to Jolie, Heath, and the folks clustered around the table.
“Need a fresh beer?”
Plenty left in this bottle, and he’d driven himself tonight. Cutter shook his head. “One is my limit.”
“Let us know if you need anything else. And welcome, man.”
“Thanks.” Cutter couldn’t help but feel as if Sean had welcomed him not just to the party, but to their close-knit cluster of friends. And weirdly, despite all the committed relationships and the love hanging heavy in the air, he didn’t feel out of place.
With another sip of brew, he headed for Jolie and Heath. They both leapt up from their seats to give him a warm welcome. They’d replaced their hastily purchased wedding bands with something more substantial. Diamonds winked from Jolie’s left hand. Ribbed titanium banded Heath’s finger. They looked incredibly happy.
“I was hoping we’d see you tonight.” She hugged him.
Stone Sutter pulled up a chair for him. Heath all but shoved him into it.
Karis gave him a soft smile. He wished now there could have been some spark between them. She would never have ripped him in two. But they’d talked about their lack of chemistry after Jolie and Heath’s rescue. Neither felt a vibe other than friendship.
“Hey,” she called softly.
“How’s my favorite brown-eyed girl today?” he asked softly. “And where’s Arthur?”
She shook her head. “It wasn’t going to last. He was a whim. I wanted to like him more than I actually did. He left Betti, took a job in Denver. How about you? I heard you’re engaged now.”
“Yeah.” Other than the clipped word, Cutter kept his face carefully blank. He didn’t want anyone knowing that the last few weeks had utterly gutted him. They had enough on their plates, and talking changed nothing. “Brea and I are planning a January wedding.”
“Where is she?”
“With her family.” He didn’t want to say more. Karis already looked suspicious enough, studying him with big eyes.
“You’re hurting. I’m sorry.”
He wished to hell she’d stop being so perceptive. “I’ll be fine. Hey, Brea is going skiing for the holidays with her parents. Maybe . . . Would you come to Hunter and Kata Edgington’s New Year’s party with me?”
“Neither of us would have to spend the holiday alone. Score,” she tried to joke.
But her expression looked nearly as sad as he felt. She wanted someone, wanted to be in love. At twenty-three, she had plenty of time to find someone for her heart to call home. He just hoped that when Karis found that someone, he didn’t rip the beating organ from her chest with a few awful words.
Cutter stopped his march down Maudlin Lane. “I’d appreciate it.”
She reached for his hand and squeezed. “That’s what friends are for.”
They fell silent, and he homed in on the conversation the rest of the women around the table were whispering.
“Exactly!” Mystery Dillon leaned against her big brick of a husband, Axel. They’d gotten hitched in a posh ceremony six weeks ago. “I get up some mornings and I feel great. Others . . . it’s like I can barely roll out of bed before the nausea hits.”
Lily Sutter wrinkled her nose. “Right? And when that nausea lasts all day?”
Both women groaned.
“It gets better after the first trimester, right?” Mystery put in. “Please tell me it does.”
Stone placed a bracing hand on his wife’s shoulder before Lily nodded. “It did for me the first time. I’m hoping that holds true again. One thing I am realizing?” She yawned, then laughed. “I was a lot less tired all the time when I did this pregnancy thing as a teenager. This baby is sucking out all my vitamins.” She cradled her still-flat belly. “I feel like a twenty-three-year-old grandma. I go to bed at eight thirty now.”
Everyone laughed.
Nice to see the ladies, formerly rivals for Axel’s affection, bonding like fast friends over their coming babies.
“I feel the same. Twenty-five going on seventy-five,” Mystery swore. “Some days are just wretched, and yet I’m so excited to experience everything about this pregnancy, even having my stomach announce my arrival before I actually make it into a room. What’s your due date?”
“August sixth. You?”
Mystery laughed. “August fourth. Looks like we’ll be doing this together.”
Lily reached for her hand. “Thank goodness.”
Stone and Axel exchanged a glance that silently asked when their brides had become best buddies. But neither objected. They just shrugged and clinked beer bottles.
“Well . . .” Jolie put in. “I won’t be living vicariously through you two.”
Cutter whipped his stare around to the incredibly busy owner