“Jonathan wants to play midfield this season,” she told him, mentioning the little league team he managed.
“Not happening. You’re the strongest player we have. If he wants another position, he’ll have to work for it.”
Katy nodded. She took the game very seriously. As she should.
“Daddy?” Josie put one of her tiny palms on each of his cheeks. “What do you got in the garden?”
He couldn’t help beaming at her. His girls were perfect, and he’d hit anyone who told him otherwise. But perfect or not, they still couldn’t keep a secret. “I’m not telling you.”
She pouted, followed closely by her twin. They reminded him of his younger twin cousins, a very scary comparison.
“Have Aunty Claire and Aunty Megan been giving you two tips again?” He made a mental note to talk to his cousins. Again.
Identical twin heads shook in unison. Katy had styled their hair with pink glitter and bows for the game. They were innocence personified, but he had years of experience with his eldest daughter. He knew they could be just as much of a terrorist as Katy had been.
“Flynn,” Abby called. “Get in here.”
“Oh, you in trouble,” Vicky said.
“You gonna have to sit on the naughty step,” Josie added.
“Not again.” Flynn moaned. He looked at his eldest. “You told them to say that, didn’t you?”
She nodded with a bright grin. “You never sat on it for me. They might have better luck.”
“Flynn. Don’t make me come get you.” Okay. Abby had reached her limit.
“I need to go deal with your mother.” He lifted Josie off his knee and placed her on the couch. “Be good and shout loudly if Arsenal scores again.”
He found his very pregnant wife staring out of the living room window. Her mother, Victoria, sat on the sofa with her husband Lawrence at her side. She looked amused, which wasn’t a good sign for Flynn.
“What is it, Abby love?” Flynn wrapped his arms around her, rubbing her belly while he did it.
They’d had three scans this time. It was definitely a boy and definitely wasn’t twins. One shock like that in a lifetime was enough for both of them.
“Don’t you ‘Abby love’ me.” She frowned. It was cute. “Why are there alpacas in our garden?”
“Because I couldn’t get a hold of an elephant?”
Lawrence barked a laugh, only to cut it short at Abby and her mum’s looks of censure. Flynn gave the man a sympathetic smile. When mother and daughter teamed up, they were a force to be reckoned with.
“I thought we agreed you wouldn’t bring home any more animals?” Abby said.
“Technically, I didn’t bring them home. They were delivered.”
“You can’t keep taking in people’s strays. We’re getting overrun here.”
He nuzzled behind her ear, delighted when she gasped. “I promise no more animals after today.” It wasn’t a lie. The animals on the other side of the house had been delivered already.
She narrowed her eyes. “What have you done?”
“I don’t know what you mean.” He tried to pull off an innocent look. The one the girls got away with all the time but never seemed to work for him.
“Flynn Boyle, what else did you bring home from the surgery? I know that look. Where did you hide it?” She turned in his arms, her full belly pressing into him and making him feel the same surge of protectiveness he usually felt when she was near.
“Have I told you how beautiful you look today?” He kissed her delicious lips.
She smacked him on the chest. “Stop dodging the question. Everyone in the Highlands knows you’re a soft touch for abandoned and injured animals. It’s only gotten worse since you started training to become a vet. We’re running out of space to put all the rejects you keep bringing home.”
“It was your idea to study veterinary medicine, Abby. If you hadn’t pushed me, I wouldn’t have done it.”
“Is it also my fault our house is being overrun by everyone else’s unwanted animals?”
“I didn’t say that.” Flynn looked at Lawrence for help. The man held up his hands to tell Flynn he was on his own. Flynn gave him a look he hoped conveyed he was going to find himself a new lawyer. Lawrence just laughed.
“I’ll stop, I promise.” He’d try hard, anyway. She was right. He was a soft touch.
“Muma.” Josie ran into the room, followed closely by a grinning Katy. “There’s big birds in the garden. Can I ride them, can I?”
Josie wrapped her arms around Abby’s legs and begged with her eyes, while Vicky climbed up onto her namesake’s lap and snuggled in. Vicky and her grandmother were pretty much inseparable.
“Big birds?” Abby snapped at him.
“Tattletale,” he told Josie, making Katy laugh.
Abby shrugged out of his arms and stomped to the back of the house, closely followed by the whole family.
“Ostriches?” It was a screech. “There are ostriches in the garden.” She spun on Flynn. “Why are there ostriches in my garden? Why are there ostriches in Scotland?”
“Calm down, Abby love. Think of the baby.”
“Idiot,” Katy said. “Dumb thing to say.”
Abby kicked him hard on the shin, making sure to aim for his undamaged leg. Although he could walk and run fine now, it still ached now and then. Hence Abby’s consideration.
“It’s like this,” Flynn said. “Ostrich farms were fashionable a few years ago. Same with owning alpaca—having exotic animals was trendy. But there isn’t any market for them now, and people don’t want them anymore.”
“And you thought our house was the best place for these animals to retire?”
Flynn tried his charming smile, hoping it swayed her. “I can’t take them back now. I promise to try to find another home for them. This is only temporary.”
“You’ve been saying that since the goat.” She pointed to the animal who was currently eating the washing from the line.
“Aye.” Flynn pulled her into his arms. “I’ll admit the goat might have been a mistake.”
“What am I going to do with you?” Abby said.
“Love me forever?” Flynn said hopefully.
Abby smiled up at him, her anger gone.
“I think I’m going to puke,” Katy said.
Flynn ignored the terrorist and kissed his very pregnant wife.
“When I grow up, I’m going to rule the world.”
Abby and Flynn’s daughter, Katy, aged five
Thank you for reading my work.
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Invertary Books
Lingerie Wars, Invertary Book 1
Goody Two Shoes, Invertary Book 2
Magenta Mine, Invertary Book 3
Calamity Jena, Invertary Book 4
Bad Boy, Invertary Book 5
Caught, Invertary Book 6 (coming 2016)
Other Books
Mad Love, London Book 1
Laura’s Big Break, London Book 2
Action
about the author
I’m a Scot, living in New Zealand and married to a Dutch man. I write contemporary romance with a humorous bent – this is mainly due to the fact I have an odd sense of humour and can’t keep it out of anything I do! If I wasn’t a writer, I’d like to be Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or Indiana Jones. Unfortunately, both these roles have already been filled. Which may be a good thing as I have no fighting skills, wouldn’t know a precious relic if it hit me in the face and have an aversion to blood. When I’m not living in my head, I’m a mother to two kids, one pet sheep, one dog, two cats, three alpacas and an escape artist chicken. If you’d like to sign up for my newsletter, which happens sporadically – usually when books are being released – click on this link. In
the meantime, I hope you enjoy my books!
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COPYRIGHT
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locals or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2015 by Janet Kortlever
ISBN978-0-473-32456-8
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without permission of the publisher is unlawful privacy and theft of the author's intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior permission can be obtained by contacting the author through her website. Thank you for your support of the author's rights.
Author's website:
www.janetelizabethhenderson.com/
Bad Boy (Invertary Book 5) Page 29