“I need to catch up on all the stuff I didn’t do this weekend,” Maggie added. “And if none of those excuses work?”

“The kittens,” Dean and Cody responded together.

“‘Go, team,’ on three,” she said, putting her hand out. The guys added their hands. “One. Two. Three.”

“Go, team!”

Maggie tried to ignore the stumble her heart took when Silas met them at the gate.

“Hey, guys. Mags,” he said softly. That achingly familiar naughty smile played on his lips.

She was crushing on the guy she was sleeping with. The guy who was determined to make her stay. Things were going to get ugly.

As if he read her mind, he pulled her in for a soft kiss. Kevin gave a joyful bark.

“Mom! Sy’s got his tongue down a girl’s throat,” Maggie heard Nirina say from the backyard.

“Ooooh!” came the family chorus.

Silas pulled back, grinning. “Ignore them. They’re all jerks.”

He shook Dean’s hand and then gave Cody a slap on the shoulder. “Glad you could make it. My mom heard that you’re a fan of potato salad, so she made a quadruple batch.”

“Really?” Cody looked embarrassed and thrilled at the same time. It made Maggie’s heart hurt for him. Groceries. She would fill that empty kitchen to the ceiling with them. She’d already hit Buy It Now on a big-ass TV and bracket for the room across from her office. She’d ask Nirina where she could get a couch.

“Really. Come on back.” Silas led the way, his fingers casually linking through hers. Affection in front of family seemed like they were careening toward a finish line she didn’t want to cross.

Big shade trees lined the back of the property. A large deck with a double set of sliding doors held a spiffy grill and a long farm table. It stepped down onto a brick patio lined by raised flower beds with structured plantings. The grass was cut on a precise diagonal.

Everything was orderly and soothingly symmetrical.

The whole family—minus East Coast Taylor—was accounted for in Blaire and Morris’s backyard.

In mirrored sunglasses and a flowing orange-and-white dress, Niri sat on the patio just off the deck, feet propped on a wicker ottoman. Her husband, Jeremiah, waved from the grill, where he was watching a woman who looked an awful lot like Silas flip chicken breasts.

Sy’s dad, Emmett, and Mama B were distributing wineglasses. Michael walked out of the house with a huge bowl of salad. When he spotted the newcomers, he nearly tripped over his designer flip-flops.

“Starstruck,” Maggie whispered in Dean’s direction.

“You’re drunk on orgasms and don’t know what you’re saying,” he hissed back.

The only person she was surprised to see was Wallace, who was in deep discussion at the table with Morris.