Page 38 of Alfie: Part One
She laughed and accepted the bottle. “This is perfect. Thank you very much. I’m gonna tell him what you said, of course. I love to mess with him.”
Okay, I liked her.
She wasn’t done. She set the wine on the kitchen island before she shifted her focus to my kids.
“Let me guess,” she said pensively. “You’re Trip, and you’re Ellie.”
So Kellan or Finn had talked.
“Yeah. Hi.” Ellie became shy, which would only last a second or two. “Are you also Daddy’s cousin?”
I chuckled and planted my hand on the top of her head. “She’s Finn’s wife, baby girl.”
“Oh. Okay. Are there any girls here?” Ellie asked, eyeing the boy Emilia was holding.
“We’re very outnumbered by boys in this family, but I’m working on it.” Emilia gestured toward the patio doors. “Our only daughter’s glued to her phone most days. She’s asking for more girls too. Nessa is here, of course. I think you’ll like her, even though she’s older.”
Shit. I didn’t know Nessa was gonna be here. She was Liam’s baby sister.
“Let’s go check out the pool and say hi to the others.” I nudged my two in the direction of the patio, and Emilia smiled and said she’d be back soon.
“The shit food is almost done, kiddos!” I heard Finn yell. “If you want a hot dog or a burger, line up! Cory, you can’t fuckin’ eat that! Step away from the rosebushes!”
What was wrong with hot dogs?
“I like hot dogs, Dad.” Trip looked up at me.
“Because they’re awesome. We’ll get you to that line.” I kept him and Ellie in front of me as we stepped out onto the massive patio that housed both a lounging area and a dining area. Christ, they had a lot of space.
Goddamn, I should’ve said pools, as in plural. They had an actual in-ground pool for kids. This round little thing at the end of the main pool.
“Oi! Look what the cat dragged in!” Kellan smirked at me and raised his beer. He was standing by the barbecue area with Finn.
The older guy at the table was Shannon O’Shea, Finn’s old man and Kellan’s husband. And there we go. Liam Murray was just leaving the pool with two kids. I counted at least half a dozen kids, all boys. One man I didn’t recognize. Two girls catching sun—probably Nessa and Autumn.
“Okay, we’re all here!” Finn announced. “Kids, come get your hot dogs and burgers. We have ketchup and a bunch of other shit, but you only care about ketchup anyway.”
“Nuh-uh! I like relish, Daddy!” one boy shouted across the pool. It had to be Ryan. If I remembered correctly, he was five or something like that.
A lot happened at once, enough to overwhelm even me, and I wasn’t easily overwhelmed. I noticed most of the adults looking my way, including Nessa and Liam, and every kid was shouting for food and what condiments they wanted. At the same time, an older lady appeared behind me and hurried toward the barbecue area, so I guessed that was the nanny Kellan didn’t like.
The woman had to be close to seventy, but she gathered all the kids like a pro, and they seemed to listen to her.
Making sure an impatient Ellie was fed was a priority, so I ushered her and Trip over there and was quickly handed a cold beer by Finn.
“Sweet nectar.” I grinned. “Cheers.”
“Good to see you, mate.” He slapped his hand to mine and shook it firmly before he directed his attention to Ellie. “How you doin’, shortcake? You ready to bust some balls around here?”
Ellie beamed. “Daddy calls me ballbuster all the time!”
I laughed. She wasn’t wrong.
“That’s good. Those are the girls who stick around, ’cause they can take our shit,” Finn chuckled. My boy was next on his radar. Finn was seemingly completely unbothered by the mayhem around the grill just a few feet away. Ryan wanted four hot dogs, while the nanny argued in a noticeably Irish accent that he better start with one, and Cory and…Reagan…? Well, they wanted Momma to make their burgers. “And how can we make you comfortable, Trip? Kellan tells me you like to play with matches. We have plenty of those.”
I smiled and scratched Trip’s head.
“I build things with them,” my son replied. “I would like to go in the pool first if that’s okay.”