Both boys nodded their agreement avidly, eyes aimed at his badge.

Chace flipped it closed and got their eyes aimed at his face.

“You’d be right. It is. Man has this, he doesn’t say girls are gross and he also doesn’t tell anyone to shut up. Even his brother. Even when his brother is teasin’ him. It’s cool because he’s cool. You don’t get one of these unless you can be cool. Now, can you two be cool?”

“I can be cool,” Jarot offered immediately and Chace reckoned he could but Robbie clearly had to think on this awhile.

“Robbie?” Chace prompted and Robbie looked at him.

Then Robbie proved he might be a cuss but he was an honest one.

“Maybe,” he answered.

“How about you be that way just for tonight?” Chace suggested. “No more callin’ your Aunt Faye gross.”

Robbie’s head tipped to the side again and he sought clarification, “Can I call her gross if she kisses me?”

“No,” Chace answered.

Robbie’s mouth moved around for a bit before he asked, “Can I fight with Jarot?”

“No,” Chace repeated.

Robbie’s mouth moved around some more as Chace buried his urge to laugh.

“Well, I’m bein’ cool,” Jarot put in at this point, back straight, voice haughty, looking down his nose at Robbie. “’Cause if I am, Dee-tetive Keaton’ll put a good word in for me when I become a cop. And the first person I’m arresting is,” he leaned toward his brother and finished, “you.”

“You aren’t arresting me!” Robbie shouted.

“I am!” Jarot shouted back.

“Jesus,” Boyd muttered.

“What’s with the shouting?” Silas shouted, walking into the room carrying his own beer. He stopped and looked down at his grandsons. “What? A man gets his shoutin’, fightin’ kids outta the house only to have his kids’ shoutin’, fightin’ kids come into it? Yeesh. Give an old man a break,” he said to the boys.

“But Jarot said he’s gonna arrest me,” Robbie defended himself.

“He probably will, you don’t clean up your act,” Silas returned. “A good time to start is now. Your grandmother’s settin’ the table. She could use some help.”

Faye made a move to get up at the same time Liza did but it was Faye who said quietly, “I’ll help, Dad.”

“You’ll sit your keister down, visit with your old man and the boys will help their grandma,” Silas returned then he looked down at Jarot and Robbie, his brows up, “Boys?”

Jarot shuffled out.

Robbie hesitated.

“Robert,” Boyd warned.

Robbie shot his Dad a rebellious look before he shuffled out too.

Chace returned his badge to his pocket and put his arm around Faye again.

Silas settled into another armchair.

“Just so you know, she might be quiet and she’s always been cute as a button but both of these hid the demon within,” Silas informed him, not leading into it even a little and Chace did his best not to stare. “There’s a temperament behind that hair, son. So, my advice, don’t catch it from Faye.”

“Totally,” Liza agreed.

“You guys,” Faye put in, shifting uncomfortably at his side.

“Don’t act all innocent,” Liza told her then looked at Chace, “She chased me around the house with scissors.”

“I did not!” Faye returned heatedly. “You did that to Jude.”

“You so chased me around with scissors. Jude chased you with the fire poker.”

He felt Faye turn to look up at him, he gave her his gaze and she confirmed, “This actually happened.”

“And she actually chased me with scissors,” Liza took their attention by repeating.

“Liza, I did not,” Faye retorted.

“You totally did,” Liza fired back.

Faye gave up and tried something new. “You were a hair puller.”

“So were you,” Liza returned.

“Of course I was, because you were. It called for retaliatory measures and that was my only choice,” Faye replied.

Liza gave up on Faye and looked to Chace. “She also mixed all my makeup together.”

Faye didn’t give up on Liza and leaned toward her. “That was because you told Danny I had a crush on him.”

Liza’s eyebrows shot up. “So?”

“I didn’t have a crush on Danny!” Faye shot back. “I had a crush on his brother Dillon! Danny thought I liked him so he kissed me in front of Dillon.” She flounced back in the couch, throwing out a hand, “And there went my shot at Dillon.”

“Like you’d take that shot,” Liza muttered the God’s honest truth.

“No, but if Dillon had, I would have taken that,” Faye returned on an out and out lie.

“Now I’m glad I got boys,” Boyd said to no one.

“Who’s Dillon?” Chace asked Faye and, for some reason, Liza found this hilarious and he knew this because she burst out laughing.

“Nobody,” Faye muttered, glaring across the room at her sister.

“Cutest boy in school,” Liza answered and Chace looked back to her. “Or was. Now he’s got a beer belly the size of Texas, is thirty-one years of age and is working on wife three, kid five and still thinks his stuff doesn’t stink because he was captain of the football team fourteen years ago.”

Jesus, Chace knew the guy.

“Dillon Baumgarner?” he asked.

“You know him?” Liza asked back.

He did, unfortunately. The guy was a dick who, Liza was right, had a huge gut and thought his shit didn’t stink. Regrettably, he was able, with a bewildering frequency, to convince women of this fact. He went through them like water, whether he was committed to one legally or not. This wasn’t the only reason he was a dick. He was just a dick.

Chace didn’t share this.

He just looked at Faye, fighting a grin and saying quietly, “Good you held out, honey.”

Liza burst out laughing again. Boyd chuckled. Silas smiled at the both of them.

At this point, Sondra walked two feet into the room and announced, “Soup’s on. Come and get it.”

Then she walked right back out.

Apparently, Sondra spoke, everyone listened because instantly they all made a move.

But as they started out of the room, Silas caught up with Chace, Chace’s arm around Faye, Faye returning the gesture and Silas shared, “The scissors, Faye’s right. Liza chased Jude with ‘em.”

“See?” Faye directed this at her sister’s back.

“Though,” Silas went on, “she got the idea from Faye.”

“Did not!” Faye snapped, her head twisting so she could aim her glare at her father.

“Sweetheart, you did it,” he returned then looked at Chace. “Got in trouble for it, sat in the corner for half an hour because of it and then wrote a report for her second grade teacher about it which caused the woman to call her Mom and me into school.”

They walked through the kitchen into the dining room at the other side of the house and Silas kept sharing.

“She didn’t know what to do with herself. Said the report was work well beyond any seven year old she knew. Also said she was alarmed that it was about parental cruelty. We convinced her our Faye had a vivid imagination. Since she’d noted this already, luckily she wasn’t hard to convince.”

“The scissor story,” Sondra muttered, obviously overhearing.

“Chace is getting the lowdown,” Boyd shared then looked at Chace. “Settle in, man. Happened to me ten years ago. Took ‘em around two dozen visits to burn the stories out. I didn’t know whether to think I got hold of a hot one or move to a different state.”

“Faye’s stories will be better because she’s got that shy and retiring gig going on,” Liza put in as she fussed over Robbie’s napkin in his lap while he shoved at her hands and glared at the side of her head. “No one would ever expect her temper matches her hair.”

“Learned that myself thirty-four years ago but my teacher was her mother,” Silas added, seating himself at the head. “Knew, my baby girl came out with that red fuzz on her head, I was in for trouble. And I was not wrong. Though, half the time she’s rantin’, it’s about fathers with chunks cut outta their brains or Darth Vader and I don’t know what the heck she’s on about.”

“Uh… does anyone mind if we stop acting like I’m fifteen and Chace is my high school boyfriend you’re all trying to scare to death and maybe remember to act our ages?” Faye suggested, glaring at her father at the same time motioning to a chair which Chace took as her telling him to plant his ass in it.

“No,” Liza denied immediately.

“Nope,” Silas took a second longer and did it while shaking his napkin out at his side and grinning at his daughter.

“I didn’t do this to you,” Faye retorted to Liza as she situated herself by the chair next to his therefore Chace moved to pull out.

She tossed a small, distracted grin at him before taking her seat.

“No, you didn’t. But you side with Boyd on all our arguments so this is payback for that,” Liza returned.

“How about this,” Sondra, seated at the foot of the table, started, “I just spent an hour cooking, an hour before that baking a cake and half a day cleaning my house. I’d like to enjoy the meal and my family. I wasn’t all fired up about this banter when you two were teenagers. Now, I like it less. So how about we eat and act like adults. Does that work for anyone but me?”

“It works for me,” Faye stated instantly.

“It would,” Liza muttered.

“Liza,” Sondra said in a tone much like Boyd had used with his boys except feminine. Clearly it was just as impossible to be denied because Liza’s face immediately assumed a thirty-two year old woman’s pout that made her look nearly as cute as her sister, just more sophisticated, and Chace finally got an idea of why Boyd liked it in there.

This was more evidence that Sondra spoke, people listened. The banter ended.

Chace missed it.

It wasn’t ugly or hurtful. It was reminiscing, nostalgic, teasing and although heated, there was a different kind of warmth under that heat. It was a warmth that Chace had never felt before. An affectionate kind that said these were shared memories and, regardless of their alarming nature, there was no love lost. They’d just morphed into amusing anecdotes that provided opportunities for teasing but fond banter that would leave no one with hard feelings.

It wasn’t the first home of his girlfriends’ parents that he’d visited. It wasn’t his first such dinner.

But it was the most interesting one and he’d never felt as comfortable.