“Such is the life of a corporate lawyer,” Claire spoke up. Her voice was tighter than a drum. “Just think, Chris, you wouldn’t get to experience such luxuries if you’d taken that job at the public defender’s office.”

Dylan also picked up on a note of displeasure in her voice—directed at him. And just when he thought he’d imagined it, Claire actually scowled at him.

WTF? What did he have to do with Chris turning down a public service job and choosing to suck on the corporate teat?

“As you can see, my fiancée isn’t very happy with me at the moment,” Chris said wryly. Sighing, he wrapped his arm around Claire’s shoulders and offered that puppy-dog grin Dylan had seen him flash to get out of trouble during their entire childhood. “Don’t be mad at me, dear.”

Dear? Had they moved into an old folks’ home without telling him?

“You know what a great opportunity this is,” Chris went on. “And it’s not like you’ll be alone. You can spend some time with Dylan, get to know your future brother-in-law.”

Both Dylan and Claire cringed, but Chris didn’t seem to notice.

“I have that carnival thing tonight, remember?” Dylan said, not bothering to hide the relief on his face. No way would Claire want to spend her evening at such a lowbrow event.

“Hey, that’s great. You love carnivals,” Chris said to the redhead. He glanced back at Dylan. “She’s always trying to get me to go to that carnival near the pier, the one you used to drag me to when we were kids? But you know how I feel about those places. So tacky and boring—” Something buzzed and Chris removed a BlackBerry from the pocket of his navy-blue blazer. “Shoot, gotta take this. You two hammer out the details.”

As Chris waltzed off, Dylan sized up his future sister-in-law the way he assessed a mission’s potential threat level.

“You don’t have to come,” he said graciously.

“You don’t want me to come,” she corrected.

Their eyes met in a Wild West standoff.

She drew first blood. “I don’t like you, but Chris wants us to get along, so you know what? Fine. Let’s just go to this stupid carnival, win him a big stuffed panda, and come home raving about what a super-awesome-fantastical time we had, okay?”

“I don’t like you either.”

“You just had to get that in there, didn’t you?”

“Thought it was only fair that you knew the feeling was completely mutual, honey.”

“Don’t call me honey.”

“Would you rather I called you dear?” He snorted. “What are you, an eighty-two-year-old woman?”

Her cheeks were flushed with anger, almost matching the color of her hair. “You know what? Maybe I’ll stay here and we can just pretend I went to the carnival.”

“Scared that you might fall in love with me?” he asked sweetly.

“Worried I might strangle you,” she shot back.

“Then we’re in the same boat, honey.”

“Don’t call me that.”

“Right, I forgot. Sorry, cupcake.”

She looked ready to murder him. Fortunately, Chris slid back into the living room before any dead bodies hit the floor.

Immediately, Dylan and Claire pasted on some smiles.

“Everything okay here?” Chris looked from one to the other.

“We’re great,” he said cheerfully.

“Super,” she agreed. Her happy mask shifted for a second to reveal a flicker of extreme reluctance. “We’re going to a carnival tonight. It’s going to be so much fun.”

“So much fun,” Dylan echoed. “We’re excited to get to know each other better. Isn’t that right, honey?”

Her jaw clenched for a second before relaxing. “Uh-huh. I can’t wait.”

Seth accepted the piece of cotton candy Jason held up to him and popped it in his mouth. The sugary sweetness melted on his tongue and brought forth an image of the dentist’s chair he and the twins would be sitting on in the near future.

He wished Miranda were here. She was much better at saying no to her children. He, on the other hand, let those imps walk all over him. He’d already bought them cotton candy, popcorn and snow cones, but he was determined to say no to the next sweet treat they begged for, because at that point, he’d be worrying less about cavities and more about vomit.

“Can we ride the ferry wheel again?” Sophie tugged on his hand to get his attention.

“Ferris wheel,” he corrected. “And the answer to that is heck yes.”

She giggled.

“Jase, you want to ride the Ferris wheel?”

The boy shook his head. “I wanna win a goldfish.”

“All right.” He searched the crowd for Dylan, finally spotting the blond SEAL near the railing of a nearby ride. “Wade! You two mind taking Jason over to games while Soph and I go up on the wheel one more time?”

“No prob. Get over here, squirt.”

Jason dashed off toward Dylan, who’d come in Miranda’s place and ended up bringing a smoking-hot redhead along. Seth had been ready to high-five his buddy for a job well done—until Dylan introduced the chick as his brother’s fiancée. The two of them had been bickering like cats and dogs since the moment they’d showed up, making him long for Miranda even more.

“I wish Mom was here,” Sophie said as he scooped her into the ride car and slung an arm around her.