Chapter 4
CHAPTER FOUR
“I just want to know how many accomplices you had. It’s not a hard question.” Jack is in full Ice Man mode as he glares at Savannah and Vivian.
“Who said we had any? It could have just been the two of us.” Vivian slaps her hand over her mouth before bursting into a fit of giggles, and Savannah smacks her on the arm.
“Viv! We didn’t need to admit that yet!” Savannah joins her in laughter, and even my stoic brother breaks his tough guy routine. Jack had been in London for the last week on business, and when he came back to town, he discovered none of the lights in his penthouse apartment worked.
Not a single one—not even the lights in his refrigerator. When he went to replace the first bulb, he discovered it wasn’t screwed all the way in, which proved to be the issue with every single bulb.
“Listen, we are all very proud of you and Lux and all the things, but sometimes, you have to be brought down a few notches … or turns.” Vivian howls at her own pun, throwing her head back in laughter.
We are all guilty of pranking each other on occasion, and it’s always harmless, usually annoying more than anything else.
“Did you call Sophia, or how did you get into my penthouse? I didn’t get an alert that your access code was used.” Sophia works with our brother Liam and is a tech savant. She’s one of his many contacts that are beyond impressive.
Jack lives on the top floor of the building he owns in town.
The first seven floors are for business use; most of the floors are taken up by the streaming company he co-founded, and the top two floors are for private residential use.
His best friends, Max Riley and Wells Sinclair, each have a loft on the eighth floor, and Jack’s penthouse takes up the top floor.
Although I prefer the rooftop oasis with its expansive terrace, inground pool, entertaining space, outdoor kitchen, and gym area.
It’s only accessible to the residents of the building, and our family, of course.
“No, I did,” Vivian’s fiancé, Walker, chimes in as he strides into the kitchen.
His grin is in part pride of his admission, but I know it’s also largely directed at seeing my sister laugh and rub her ever-growing belly.
They know they are having identical twin babies, and shortly after their upcoming wedding, they will find out if our family will be adding two little nephews or nieces to the cousin crew.
Jack’s jaw drop is priceless—as is his stunned silence.
Walker shrugs as he walks over and wraps Vivian in a hug, kissing the side of her head, before helping her off the chair to sit, then pulling her back onto his lap.
“What can I say? It felt like I should earn my spot in the fam before the big day.”
With how busy all of us can be professionally in our various careers, these Sunday evening dinners ground me in a way that keeps me going when life is chaotic. Whoever is in town comes, and it’s never a big production—other than the fact that it can be a lot of people if everyone can make it.
“Next time, I want in on the shenanigans,” Theo calls out from the kitchen as he helps Finn prep whatever meat they are grilling tonight.
Theo Smith-Harrington is an attorney at the firm that represented Savannah through her divorce earlier this year.
Theo’s sister, Pippa, represented Savannah and quickly became friends with both of my sisters.
Theo and Savannah didn’t start dating until over the summer, well after Savannah and Shane's divorce was finalized.
Jack somehow knew that Theo was going to be important though and invited him to join our weekly poker nights four months before Theo and Savannah even went on a date.
My brother's gut is eerie like that.
But so is Walker's.
I've witnessed both of them be right enough times that if they have a feeling, I just trust it—which goes against my spreadsheet-data-loving ways, but you can't deny something you've seen over and over again.
Our dad sits at the kitchen counter with one of his signature grins.
After Mama passed, I remember wondering if we would ever see Murphy Callahan's signature grins again.
These weekly meals started long before the cancer stole her from us, but I know Dad looks forward to them just as much as everyone else.
Our childhood home is one of the few places I can still feel Mama. This massive kitchen was always filled with our friends and family growing up, and I know she’d love that some things never change, even if it’s usually Savannah bossing the rest of us around now instead of Mama.
“Did the registration open for that special class the dojo is running for the under twelve-year-olds this fall? I know it’s a short registration window,” Savannah asks as she glances around the table.
My brothers and I all practice some form of martial arts, and thankfully, the local dojo not only offers multiple types of classes, but they also focus on having a spot for everyone that wants to learn.
Jack has trained at an advanced level in Muay Thai for several years and has a second-degree black belt in Krav Maga.
I’ve achieved my sixth-degree black belt in karate, while my younger brother Finn loves to practice Brazilian jiu-jitsu and recently earned his black belt in it.
Liam probably knows more martial arts than any of us combined but even getting him to admit that to us is challenging.
I do know he has multiple degrees of black belts, and whenever we grapple, the asshole always wins.
Always.
“Yeah, I talked to Leslie at the front desk about it when I was there for training on Wednesday. You wanted to enroll Olivia, Emily, and Lucy in it, right?” I ask Savannah.
“Yeah, and I was going to see if Gigi could join them, too. She’s a beginner, but they are so good at working with those girls at every skill level.” Savannah looks to Theo who nods in agreement. Gigi is Theo’s eight-year-old daughter that was a bonus to all of us when Sav and Theo got together.
“Eloise wants to do that class, too!” Viv adds.
I nod in response. “Okay, that’s what I thought, and they were filling up pretty fast, so I went ahead and took care of it—Gigi, too.”
Savannah turns to look at me, eyebrows raised. “What do you mean?”
I shrug. “I signed the girls up. I know you wanted them to take it, and you know I’m a fan of them all advancing their skills.
” Not only for physical strength, but mental strength, and especially for those little girls to all grow up knowing how strong and powerful they are—and if God forbid anyone ever tries to test that theory, that they know exactly how to shut that asshole down no matter what.
If I see something that needs to be handled, I just take care of it. It’s how I’m wired. Plus, I will always do what I can to set my nieces up for success.
“That’s so sweet of you, Ry. Let me know what I owe you for the registration.” Viv walks by and squeezes my arm.
I wave my hand away dismissively. “Don’t worry about it. I covered it.”
“You didn’t have to do that, man,” Theo says.
The dude is probably not used to people paying for him.
His family comes from crazy money, but it’s not about the money.
I’m just taking care of my family. Paying the two-hundred-dollar special class fee for each of the girls is more of an investment in my eyes than anything else.
I shrug. “It’s not a big deal. I hope they have fun. Leslie said she was going to send out info in the next week or so with the details.”
“Thanks, Ryan. I appreciate that, and for including Gigi, too.” Savannah has told me a little about Gigi’s completely absent mother, and while Theo is close with his own siblings, they are guarded outside of that group.
It’s nice to see how well he and Gigi fit in with us, and I really love how well Theo treats my sister.
It’s a massive upgrade from her ex-husband—proven by the fact that Theo is here, willingly, and reciprocates having a relationship with all of us, and not just Savannah.
Like I said, massive upgrade.
My dad steps up next to me. “You’re a good man, Ryan Murphy Callahan.
” He speaks quietly enough that it was just for me, but his praise means everything.
My dad is not perfect, he has never pretended to be, but he’s the measure and standard of so many things in my life, so those few words speak louder than any public proclamation.
I nod as he claps me on the back. “Thanks, Dad.”
“She’d be proud of you, too. She was proud of all of you.” He doesn’t have to define who he’s talking about, and I don’t have to respond to that statement, which is good because my eyes are feeling like something got in them.
“Okay, people, let’s eat!” Finn interrupts the serious moment as he carries a large tray of grilled meats, and everyone grabs a dish from the kitchen to head to the large dining table.
“After we eat, I want to run through everyone’s roles one more time.
It’s officially September, y’all, and we don’t have that much time left before the big day,” Savannah announces as I suppress my groan.
Vivian and Walker are getting married at his family’s expansive ranch in Texas in less than two weeks, but Savannah is taking her maid of honor duties as seriously as possible.
I don’t point out that she wasn’t this strict when she was the maid of honor for Vivian’s first marriage because, well, I don’t want her to throw a shoe at me.
Savannah, not Vivian.
Viv would never, but Savannah would not hesitate.
I look over to Theo to make sure he knows what he’s getting into, but the dude has a goofy grin on his face and is looking at Savannah like she hung the moon and isn’t on the verge of morphing into a maid of honor monster.
If I were a betting man—and I am—I don’t think it will be too long before Vivian will be able to reciprocate the maid of honor duties for her, and after everything both of my sisters went through in their first marriages, I couldn’t be happier for them.
And I also am smart enough to have a healthy amount of fear when it comes to my sister Savannah.
There’s a reason she’s known as a force, but my sisters were raised to believe in themselves and accept who they are, without worrying about everyone else’s expectations of who they should or should not be.
They were raised by the woman that taught all of us to not fear a woman’s power, but to respect and support it. Intelligence, capability, and drive are not something to smother, but are rather admired in our family.
And when it comes to Savannah, a healthy dose of fear is more than fair. It only takes getting nailed in the head from her chucking a shoe at you once for you to never question her aim.
Theo has seen this side of her, but it doesn’t seem to deter him, and I love that for my sister.
I also need to pick a seat further away from her the next time we have to attend a mandatory wedding prep meeting.