Nick kissed Solana’s forehead as they parted ways in the condo, he heading to the boys’ side, she to the girls. But when she opened the door to her room, she didn’t find what she was expecting. Namely, her daughter.

“Uh, Nick?”

“Yep.” He peeked around the corner, trying not to trip over the pile of sandals that had bled out into the hallway.

“Where’s my daughter?”

“Uh…not in your room, I take it?”

“Nope…” She met him in the hallway and peeked around him as he slowly opened the door to his room. “Ah…look at that.”

“Three bugs in a bed. You have extra pillows? I’ll just hit the couch.”

“You’re my guest. No sleeping on the couch. We’ll move her and Jack said he’d sleep on the floor.”

“I bet I know who’s behind this.”

“All three of ‘em…brats. They suck at subtlety.”

Solana tip toed in and woke Ben, quickly directing him to be quiet. He sat up moved aside, seeing that she wanted Rosalie. “Oh, sorry…we got to reading and fell asleep.”

“Uh-huh. Either you or Jack move so Nick can sleep on the bed. Thanks for taking care of her.”

“Okay…” He kicked Jack who only opened his eyes enough to grab the comforter and pillow and slide to the floor. “That was easy.”

“Goodnight, Ben.” She carried Rosalie out, motioning for Nick to follow.

“I didn’t strip my bed back…can you get it for me?”

“Yeah, sure…”

Solana sat on a rocking chair in the corner of the room, letting Rosalie snooze on her shoulder while Nick pulled back the comforter and got rid of the extra pillows. “Which side do you want?”

“We can put her by the window…”

After pulling the blankets back, he scooped the sleeping lump out of Solana’s arms before she could protest. Rosalie squirmed and fussed a bit but snuggled into Nick’s neck when she heard his voice. “Shh…go back to sleep, sweetie.” With the care of a mama bear, he put her in bed, pulled the blankets around her neck and kissed her cheek. “There you go…” Kissing Solana’s forehead one more time, he made his way out. “Sweet dreams, Lani.”

If he only knew.

Sweet dreams were plentiful and Rosalie woke up chipper and early, just like every day. The girls started breakfast, trying to keep it quiet so the boys could sleep in a bit more. Rosalie was rarely successful at quiet.

Before long, Jack stumbled out of the room, wondering how he ended up sleeping on the floor. “I got eaten up by spiders or something. I’m all bumpy!”

“Oh dear…lemme look, sweetie.” Turning the heat off the burner, she met him at the kitchen table, squatting down to look at his legs. “Oooh…yep, you had a hungry one last night. There’s some cream in your bathroom that’ll help with the itchies.”

“Okay…who put me on the floor anyway?”

“Uh, me…Ben…you kinda just slid there.”

“I’ll kill him.” After getting the cream, Jack slammed the bedroom door open to properly start the day off right…by tormenting his brother.

“No! Jack…shhh…” Solana pulled him back out of the room and looked in, smiling at the two blondes peacefully snoozing in the femininely dressed bed. It was adorable. “Let sleeping beauties lie, huh? Come help with breakfast.”

“Aw, man…I love pissin’ him off in the morning.”

“Well, I don’t wanna see it, young man. Now go stir the eggs…I need to throw on some real clothes before big blondie wakes up.”

He greeted Rosalie with a kiss to her cheek as she happily sat up on the counter cutting up bananas with a plastic knife. “Your mom’s no fun.”

“Yes she is. She likes quiet.”

“Sounds like my mom…must be a mom thing.”

“Banana?” Rosalie held up a mushy piece to Jack’s lips and he sucked it in. “Mmm…you’re a good cook, Rosalie.”

“Yes…just like Mami.”

Popping one eye open as he heard the door close again, Nick looked to Ben, finding him in the same position. “Is he always that loud in the mornings?”

“Yep. And early…god, he pisses me off.”

Nick rolled over on his back, stretched and scratched his stomach. “I hate mornings.”

“Me too, although…” Ben sniffed the air as he sat up. “…this morning smells damned good.”

“Mmm…yes, it does.” Nick sat up and leaned over, knocking arms with Ben. “So, uh…cute trick sticking Rosalie in our room, dude.”

“I didn’t mean to! Honest. We were reading…”

“Where’s the book?”

“Uh…it’s, um…” he pretended to look around and then, knowing he’d been caught, finally conceded. “Okay, we suck. I give.”

“Yes, you do. And you lost, so you really suck.”

“Why couldn’t you just shack up with her, man…get ON with it already.”

“You can’t just force stuff like this.”

“I know, but…god, it’s so obvious you two are hot for each other. What are you waiting on?”

“Timing is everything.”

Sliding out of bed, the smaller blonde stretched and just like his larger counter part, scratched his stomach. “Well, personally, I just think you’re bein’ a chicken shit.”

“You do, huh?”

“Yep…you’re afraid you’ll fall so hard you won’t be able to keep playin’ around.”

“Nice, Ben…glad you hold me in such high regard.”

“No, it’s just…I think you’re afraid.”

“I’m afraid of a lot of things, but truthfully, Lani’s not one of them.”

“Mmm…” Pulling a shirt out of his bag, Ben shrugged and looked in the mirror, trying to force a stray hair from sticking up on end.

Nick sat on the edge of his bed, scratching a toe along the carpet. Damned spiders. “Okay, I’ll cut you a deal.”

“I don’t do deals.”

“Fine, I’ll just keep it to myself then.” Nick smugly got out of bed and dug out a shirt of his own, checking his hair in the mirror and cracking up at their identical spikes. “We’re a pair, I swear.”

“Mutt and Jeff…and I guess I’ll bite. What’s your deal?”

“If you can keep a secret, I’ll keep a promise.”

“I can keep a secret…”

“Even from Jack.”

“Oh…shit, um…” Ben looked around in the mess of haphazardly tossed clothes for shorts to slide over his boxers. Finding a pair that looked like his, he hopped into them and looked at Nick as he zipped. “I can do my best?”

“Good enough…here’s the secret. We talked about it last night.”

“Hooking up? You and Miss Romero!? Really?”

“Shhh…man, keep it down…yeah, but we…well, we can’t right now.”

“Why the hell not!?” Sitting on the bed as Nick slid on his shorts it dawned on him. “Oh. Because of me, right?”

“Well, yeah.” Seeing his face sink, Nick sat down next to him hoping to make him understand something he was having enough trouble making sense of himself. “Not you, Ben Casey, but you, Miss Romero’s client. If we were just hanging out…if there wasn’t that court order hanging over us, it might be different. But now, well…it’s just not right.”

“And you agree with this bullshit?”

“Yeah, I do. And she has Rosalie and…as much as I think I could deal with that, I’m not so sure I can.”

“Just cuz she has a kid?”

“Yeah, it’s…it changes the picture.”

“Well, that’s pretty shitty. What are single mom’s supposed to do then? Stay single forever because big sexy dudes like you don’t have time for their kids?”

“Hey now…what the hell, Ben? I think I’ve proven I have time for you guys. I’ve gone above and beyond anything the courts have ordered. Just because I want to…”

“Yeah, but you wouldn’t give up your heart for our mom…or her mom. We’re just your toys or something.”

“Ben, that is NOT it at all. I can’t believe you’d think that.”

“What else am I supposed to think?”

Nick didn’t have an answer. It did sound shitty, but it made sense too. “I don’t know, Ben, but I’d hope that I’ve shown you that you guys mean more to me than that.”

Why wouldn’t Nick let him hate him? He tried and tried and tried. It was so much easier to hate. But he wouldn’t. And again, Ben gave into it. It always felt so much better to let Nick care. Even if he’d rather deny it. “Yeah, I guess you have.”

“Because I do…you guys…you’ve wormed your way into me. Which is just what the courts hoped would happen. I’m not ready to screw that up…not even for someone as awesome as Lani.”

“Okay, I’ll buy that. So, what’s your promise?”

“Ah, yes…I’m also not a quitter. So, when the time’s right…to try again?”

“Yeah?”

“You’ll be the first to know. Absolute first.”

“Okay, deal. I keep the secret, you share the love.”

“You know, Lani, if you’re gonna order out, it’d be nice if you’d let me know. I’m hungry, dammit.”

Barry walked into Solana’s office, with a smile peeking through his glare, carrying a white Styrofoam carry out box. “Um, Barry, I didn’t order out.”

“Oh, well, someone did for you. This was just delivered. Paid in full.”

“I am hungry…pull up a chair. We’ll share.” She pushed her paperwork aside, amazed at how much crap piled up after taking off for only a few short days.

He didn’t need to be asked twice, and quickly slid a chair to her desk waiting to see what goodies were inside.

She pulled out a couple of plastic forks from her desk drawer and sniffed the box before opening it, moaning at the smell. “Whatever it is, it’s definitely edible.”

“Just open it, woman…you’re worse than my wife.”

So she did. And she slammed it closed again, laughing hysterically. And laughing. More. Finally, Barry was no longer in the mood to guess and he pulled the box over and peeked in.

Crab cakes on rice. So? He looked again and saw a toothpick in one with a piece of paper attached.

Sebastian R.I.P.

“What the hell…Lani?”

She was still laughing. Seeing that her companion wasn’t amused and about to stab into one of the cakes without her, she tried to stop, giggling between her words.

“Nick. These are from Nick.”

“Okay…” shoving a bite into his mouth, he too moaned. They were delicious. “Oh, damn. He didn’t cook them did he? This is excellent.”

“No, I doubt it…he’s dangerous in the kitchen.”

“I’m not surprised…so what the hell does this mean?”

“Well, um…he brought Ben and Jack out to the condo last week.”

“Oh yeah?” Barry wagged his eyebrows and stuffed anther morsel into his mouth. “A little extra-curricular, Miss Romero?”

“I wish, but no. We both know I can’t do that.”

“No, you can’t. It’s a shame. You’d make a nice pair.”

“Well, I’m not a quitter…if it’s meant to be, the timing will hit us right.”

“Good…so, who was Sebastian?”

“Our crab. Rosalie caught this damned crab and insisted on keeping it. He saved my ass by taking it home with him, promising her that Sebastian would be happier in his pool than in our small sink.”

“He killed Sebastian?” Barry viciously stabbed another piece, giving a lovely visual to the death.

“Nah, he tossed him back out to the ocean I’m sure. We just kept making up ways to kill him. We’ll tell Rosalie he died though.”

“You guys are cruel. Why not just explain that Sebastian likes to live…undah da sea?”

“Have you tried to reason with that girl?”

“Not recently, no.”

“Good, then don’t question me.” Taking another bite of the cake, she moaned again. “Too bad he didn’t cook these. Ethics be damned. He’d be mine.”

“You know…you could shun the ethics anyway. I won’t tell.”

“Nope. We’re all going to learn here. I’m going to learn to wait. He’s going to learn how to treat a lady. Waiting is good.”

“Okay…if you say so.”

“I say so. Waiting…sucks.” Taking her final bite and she smiled at the memory of their moments on the beach. “But, ultimately, it’s good.”