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“I do, but we’re going to let them have their fun.”
“Thank you for bringing your other family to ours. It’s doing Hope the world of good. You know she struggles to make friends.”
“I do, Bas, and I’m sorry I waited so long. I should have thought about it sooner.”
Bas shrugs, “Things happen when they’re supposed to, Alan. Hope’s okay, but now she’ll be happier.”
Leaving it there, we enter the shooting range, and the brothers are murmuring, impressed with the setup. Not sure what they expected. With Hope shooting professionally, Bas had not spared any expense in setting this up for her even if she didn’t participate in the sport anymore. If we went through the door on the far side, it would take you out onto a field that Hope had set aside for clay pigeon shooting. If I’d thought about it, I should have invited the O’Shea’s as well—they’d have loved this.
There was always next time, though. I had a feeling now that I’d broken the ice, my two families would be mixing on a regular basis.
“Right, you bunch, listen up. We think a little wager is in order,” Julia called out.
“Here we go,” I whispered to Bas, not bothering to hide the grin on my face.
“What have you got in mind, Jules?” Reaper asked. It wasn’t Julia that replied though, instead she motioned at Abby to answer, “Old Ladies against the brotherhood. Buy in is ten pounds and whichever team wins gets to give the money to the charity of their choice and you get bragging rights.”
Reaper looks sceptical, “Babe, are you sure about this?”
“Are you saying we’re not good enough?” Abby growls, hands on her hips. Reaper holds his hands up placatingly, “I’m not saying that at all, I was just making sure that you ladies are good with this decision.”
“It’s fine,” Molly pipes up, “you guys have Hawk and we have Hope, the rest of us are all fairly even and anyway it doesn’t really matter who wins because it goes to charity.”
“Jesus, Molly’s being reasonable.” Dragon mutters, pushing Draco towards the door. “Quick, brother, check outside to see if pigs are flying.”
“Ha, ha, very funny, I can be reasonable, thank you very much,” Molly grumbles as we chuckle.
“So, are we good, then?” Hope calls out. “Because if we are, then let’s get this show on the road. I’ve set up two lanes, us ladies have chosen our weapons, if you gents would like to come over here and choose yours so you can have a practice round.”
It doesn’t take the brothers long to converge on Hope and all the wares she had on display. The envy was thick in the air, but eventually everyone was armed and ready to start.
Looking over their heads for Gia, I found her in the back corner, leaning against a booth, hair pulled back in a plait, ear defenders around her neck, looking all sorts of hot as she waited for us to start. Unable to help myself, I sauntered over, pushing up against her, smirking as her eyes widened.
Lowering my head, I whispered in her ear, “You’ve been keeping secrets, sweets.”
“What, no I haven’t,” Gia cleared her throat nervously as her eyes darted towards where the rest of the ladies were standing.
Nipping her ear to get her attention focused back on me, “Yes you have, baby. But don’t worry, I’ll keep your secrets.” With those words, I pressed my lips to hers in a soft kiss, and walked back to where the brothers were gearing up to take their practice round.
“We need a ref to collate the points and make sure there’s no cheating,” Molly decided.
Draco snorted, “Firecracker, there’ll be no cheating on our side.”
Molly narrowed her eyes at him, hands on hips, nostrils slightly flared, “Are you saying that we’ll cheat, Draco?”
“That’s not what I said,” Draco grumbled. These two always had us in fits of laughter at how much they fought, but they were just as fierce at defending each other should someone get between them.
“Don’t worry,” Hope assured Molly, “I’ve asked Tristan and Derek to come and keep score. Tristan will do the guys and Derek can score for us girls.”
Derek and Tristan walked in, and Hope filled them in on what was happening. I was the only one who noticed when Tristan caught Gia’s eye and smirked at her, but like a good brother, he kept his mouth shut. Her lips tilted up slightly but that was it.
“Okay, listen up,” Hope called out. “We’ll each get three shots at the targets. You have to be within the circle to qualify for one point. Bullseye and you get ten points. Once we’ve completed this part, we’ll move outside to the clay pigeon shooting, same thing goes: three shots, if you clip the clay it’s a point, if you obliterate it it’s ten points. Then we’ll move on to the sharp shooting same as with the handguns: one point for within the circle and ten for the bullseye. Good luck, everyone. Gents, if you’d like to take your practice shots now so we can get started.”
“Don’t you need to do practice shots?” Dragon asked curiously.
“Nope,” Hope assured him. “We came by earlier to help Gia get comfortable and let her practice without anyone around to make her nervous.”
I had to hand it to the ladies, they really sold themselves as innocent when they wanted.