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I placed , dark hair and kissed the top of her head "Da up atis good They’re all waiting to help you with the baby"

"I haven’t slept in three days," Liis said, her al her to my side as alked toward the truck "I know"

CHAPTER SIX

SHEPLEY

I HELD OUT MY HANDS in front of me "Stop! No! Don’t do it!"

My sons stared back at me with their mom’s no-bullshit, round, sapphire eyes, ice crea on our porch, their faces as filthy as their shirts Their mom would freak if they went inside like that, and they knew it I’d taken theive her some quiet time to clean the house the way she wanted without one of our littleit up behind her If I let theoo, A upthe hose Don’t Move Mom is in there Do you knohat she’ll do if you step foot inside the house?"

Eli looked at Erin

"I led as I took the three steps frorass toward the side yard to find the spigot

America and I were both only children, and we kneanted ether By the time we’d had Emerson, we’d decided ere in way over our heads Ezra was just a month older than Travis and Abby’s twins Eli came two years later Emerson two more after that Unlike Travis and Taylor’s sons, mine were all quick to throw a punch, taller than every kid in their perspective grades, and un I’d had sorabbed the nozzle and pulled it fro it as I walked toward the porch As soon as I rounded the corner, I dropped the hose and ran The door ide open, and the boys were gone

"Da toward the sound of A at warp speed E on the counter with his bare feet in the sink under running water while she was te a shirt over his head She was already threatening Ezra

"If you move, so helpuncharacteristically still next to the refrigerator

The boys weren’t great at listening to me, but none of theh She wasn’t afraid to let us knoe were close to crossing that line, either

"I’s from a drawer

America was in the zone, far away froies--or her acceptance of the that had to be done By the time iped the last of the melted white mess fro at turbo speed to their roo spent