I watched Rex look at his brother. Joel gave him a small grin then they both finally moved to jump off their stools and race down the steps.

“Hey, Grandpa!” I heard Joel shout.

“Hey, Gramps!” Rex shouted after him.

“Joey, Rex, come give your Granddad a hug,” Cob ordered.

Olivia glared at proceedings I couldn’t see. Brock scowled at his boots.

“Tess baked us a cake!” I heard Rex say excitedly. “Carrot. My favorite and Dad’s!”

“And mine, boy,” Cob added. “Is it someone’s birthday?”

“Naw,” Joel answered. “She does it all the time. We had cupcakes last time we visited Dad. She bakes cakes for a living.”

“She bakes cakes for a living,” Olivia whispered disdainfully.

I felt my back go straight but watched Brock’s head snap up and neck twist, whereupon he aimed a look so vicious at his ex-wife that it made me, not even the recipient of the look, quake a little.

“You should see her decorate it, Gramps,” Rex said. “She goes so fast, you can’t see her hands move. It’s like those people on TV.”

That made me feel better, and when I say that I mean that made me feel downright smug. But I aimed my smug grin at my feet.

“This I gotta see,” Cob muttered.

“You gotta hurry. She’s almost done,” Rex told him.

“All right then, how about me and my grandsons watch Tess decorate this cake and you two go on out to the parking lot and finish your talk,” Cob suggested. “Does that sound like a plan?”

I looked from my feet to the living room to see Olivia glare at Cob. She transferred her glare to Brock then moved her eyes to shoot daggers at me.

Her eyes traveled the length of me and back and she asked me, “Why am I not surprised you bake cakes?”

“Maybe ’cause she’s got a real woman’s body that a real man enjoys”—pause, then a pointedly emphasized kill shot of—“a lot, rather than a body full of points and ridges that, newsflash, Olivia, really doesn’t feel all that fuckin’ good?”

Brock asked this as her gaze snapped to him and it was clear by his look, the mood that hadn’t shifted out of the room, and the fact he didn’t shut up that he wasn’t done.

“You should watch Tess decorate her cake too. Probably would be fascinating, seeing as having talent of any kind is foreign to you.”

He’d already delivered ouch, but with that he twisted the knife deep. But he still wasn’t done.