Chapter Four
Ivy
"What are your intentions with my grandniece?"
Austin chokes on his beer beside me.
"Uncle Zayne!" I groan, burying my face in my hands as my uncle sits down across from us, his arms crossed over his chest and a no-nonsense look on his face. I've seen that look before. I've spent my whole life watching him and every other man in my family wear that exact same look when they're in overprotective mode.
"It's a valid question, Ivy," he says. "Especially if he's going to keep groping you under that towel."
"He isn't groping me, Uncle Zayne," I mutter, cracking my eyes open to look at him. "Not like you've been doing to Aunt Emma all day."
Uncle Zayne stares at me for a long moment, his expression inscrutable before I see humor glint deep in his gaze. He leans back in his chair, chuckling. "Worry about your damn self, Ivy Carmichael. What's going on at my end of the deck is my business."
"And what's going on at this end is mine."
His lips twitch, his eyes crinkling at the corner. "Yeah? Is that what you're going to tell Ciarian and Zion when they catch him kissing all over you down here?"
"He wasn't kissing all over me." I roll my eyes. Jeez. The men in this family are ridiculous.
"Yeah? You always have beard burn on your throat, baby niece?"
I squeak, covering my throat, which makes my uncle cackle. I swear, the man is impossible. I don't know how Aunt Emma puts up with him. Actually, that's not true. He may be a crazy person, but he loves her beyond reason and everyone knows it.
"I didn't come to give you shit, kid," he mutters, glancing from me to Austin. "I just came tell you to make her happy." He jerks his head toward our family scattered across the backyard, everyone engrossed in their own conversations. "If you don't, you'll have to answer to all of us."
"Noted, sir," Austin murmurs, slipping his hand into mine.
Zayne grins at him before hauling himself to his feet, winking at me.
Austin and I watch in silence as he slips away, only to pause halfway back to his seat to fuck with Uncle Cormac and Aunt Bella. I swear, the man is never up to any good.
"How do you think it's going, princess?" Austin asks, nuzzling his face against my throat. "Think I'm passing?"
"I know you are," I whisper.
"Yeah?" He pulls back, grinning at me. "How so?"
I nod down the table at my grandfather and my dad. "Because they sent Zayne over here this time. If they really wanted to scare you off, they wouldn't have sent him."
"So he's the first wave, huh?"
"Something like that," I mutter. Honestly, I'm a little surprised that he's the only one who has approached so far. Everyone else is being suspiciously well-behaved. I have a feeling the women in the family have something to do with that. They've been stopping by to chat all afternoon. Some of my cousins have even come over and said hi and behaved themselves. There have been no threats of violence, no dick measuring contests, nothing.
It's going way better than I expected. But my dad and grandpa haven't made their way over yet. I barely even got to say hi to either of them when we got here! They are avoiding us like the plague. We can wait them out, though. Sooner or later, they're going to crack. They're both too damn nosy for their own good.
There's no way they're going to be able to spend the whole day avoiding us when I know darn well that they're just itching to terrorize Austin.
Bring it on, guys, I think, peering over at them. You aren't scaring him off.