Chapter 47
***Ada***
“Are they swimming a little too close? Should I tell them to keep some distance?” Joe sat up on his towel and rubbed his jaw. “What are the rules here? If Beck were a boy I’d have a better idea of what to do. Probably.”
I sat up and looked out at how close the two girls were. My eyes went wide and I smacked Joe’s arm. “The rules are the same. Tell them to leave space for Jesus!”
“Kendall! Ada said you need to leave space for Jesus!” Joe looked over at me and smirked. “That wasn’t so bad.”
Collin let out a whooping shout as he jumped to his feet and ran around Alex and Avery. “I win!”
Avery rolled his eyes. “Whatever. I want a rematch.”
I watched Kendall come stomping out of the water and cringed. With her red face and hard expression she looked like a warrior. “Incoming.”
“Dad! Ada! We’re not doing anything! We’re just swimming. Stop embarrassing me!” She grabbed a bottle of water and frowned at me. “If kissing my dad is making you more like him, you have to stop.”
“You kissed Uncle Joe?!” Alex fell back in the sand and sat right back up, hands clutching his hair. “Why did you do that? He’s old!”
“What the hell, Alex? I’m not old.” Joe grunted and turned a serious frown my way. “I’m not old. And you’re not stopping with the kissing.”
“Ew! Oh, my god. Dad!” Kendall let out a sound that was half shriek, half gag. “This family is so weird!”
“Wait. You kissed our dad, too! We saw!” Avery looked between his dad and uncle. “Are you kissing everyone?”
“You kissed Uncle Collin, too? Really?” Kendall put her hands on her hips. “I thought you liked my dad.”
“She kissed me, too.” Jud laughed when I glared up at him. He’d been walking a cranky Milo up and down the beach and had come back at the perfect time to jump on the crazy train. “What? It’s true.”
Beck had come out of the water and stood just behind Kendall. “What’s going on?”
“Ada kissed everyone!” Alex giggled. “Well, not us. We’re saving our first kiss for Leanne.”
Collin held up his hands. “Who the hell is Leanne?”
“What’s going on here? I just keep hearing the word kissing a lot.” Dad chose the perfect time to join us. “Did you guys overhear me and Mandy? I’m sorry, everyone.”
“No! No, Dad! No one overheard anything and that’s not what this is about!” I stood up and dusted sand off my legs. “Maybe we just can this conversation for now?”
“No, I want to know. Are you with my dad or with one of my uncles?”
I wished the ground would open up and swallow me whole. “Yes?”
“She’s with all of us, Kendall. Now hold on a second while I find out who Leanne is.” Collin zeroed in on his twins. “Who’s Leanne?”
“How can you be with all of them?” Beck voicing her questions didn’t help anything, but she was asking the question on Kendall’s mind.
“We’re trying it out. We like each other and we’re-” I hesitated and held up my hands. “I don’t know.”
“Leanne is Mom’s friend’s daughter. We met her at Christmas. When we’re ready to kiss, we all decided to do it together. It’s not a big deal.” Avery shrugged.
“You see, kids, sexuality and preferences are-”
I whistled high and long to cut Dad off and shut everyone else up.
“Yes, I am kissing all three of the Carrington brothers! It doesn’t change anything else, especially not how much I care about you kids.
I’m sorry if it freaks you out, Kenny. I wasn’t exactly planning on talking about this today, but here it is. I care about your dad and uncles.”
She crossed her arms over her chest and frowned deeper. “I’ve seen the stories about them. They never date. They just sleep with women and leave them.”
Joe let out a shocked grunt. “What the hell?”
“If you’re going to make Ada leave, I don’t think she should be with you.” Kendall looked back at me. “I don’t want you to leave.”
I practically pushed Joe out of the way to hug her. I stroked the back of her hair and then pulled back so I could see her face and she could see mine and understand how serious I was. “I’m not going anywhere, Kenny. I love you kids too much to let your grumpy dads run me off. Okay?”
“Promise?”
I linked my pinky with hers and nodded. “Promise.”
She hugged me again and sighed. “Love you, too.”
Before I could respond, she grabbed Beck’s hand and ran back into the water. I spun around to the guys and Dad. “Did you hear that? She loves me!”
Dad patted his stomach as he grinned at me. “Of course, she loves you, Ada. Everyone loves you. Now I have a hankering for some of David’s lasagna. I worked up quite the appetite.”
I made a face and shuddered. “Dad...”
“What?” He looked at the guys. “What’d I say?”
“You decided to both kiss Leanne?” Collin sighed. “I should’ve stayed at work.”
I hugged his arm into my chest and rested my forehead on his shoulder. “I don’t know what just happened.”
“If you and Uncle Joe and Uncle Jud can kiss Ada, why can’t we kiss Leanne?” Alex knocked over his sand castle and shrugged. “Seems unfair to me.”
“Yeah. If we want to kiss Leanne, we can. Not that we’re ready for that. Maybe we’ll do that when we leave for college.” Avery pushed Alex’s shoulder. “Come on. Let’s go play sharks and mess with Kendall.”
“Did he say college?” Collin held the back of my head and let out a heavy sigh. “I think I need to sit down.”
“This is exhausting. I’m going to be so embarrassed if I fall asleep tonight.” Jud grunted as Milo squealed straight into his ear and thrashed his little body around. “Oh, Milo, bud... You’re killing me.”
“Tonight? What’s tonight?” I laughed at the way all three of their heads snapped in my direction. Moving over to stand in front of him, I reached up and booped Milo on the nose. “Relax, little man. Enjoy this pretty day with your daddy. Do you want to swim?”
“You’re joking, right?” Joe gripped my hip in his big hand and squeezed. “Right?”
I flashed him a smile and scooped Milo into my arms. “Come on, kid. Let’s splash Daddy. Yeah? You think that’s funny? You want to splash Daddy?”
Jud scooped me off of my feet and carried me and Milo both into the water. “Daddy thinks the two of you are plotting to give me a headache.”
I met his gaze for a split second before he dropped me into the lake and the heat that passed between us made my heart race. I kept Milo out of the water and he laughed wildly when he got splashed.
“Daddy is naughty!” Milo splashed Jud and then stretched his arms out for Jud to hold him. “Love you, Daddy.”
Jud held his son close and blew out a shaky breath. When I glanced up, he had tears in his eyes. “I love you, too, Milo.”