Uncle Henry kept Blake busy for the rest of the week meeting with attorneys and setting up new contracts with all the teams they’d need to fix the problems they’d encountered. He’d also had to deal with the Florida licensing board as they filed a formal complaint. By the time he made it to Uncle Henry’s and Aunt Paula’s Friday night for the family barbeque, Blake’s brain was fried and he wanted nothing more than to jump in the pool with his kid and maybe have a beer with his cousins.

He’d forgotten about his family’s propensity for inviting others and stopped in shock when he walked into the backyard to find Linc in the pool playing volleyball with several of his cousins. Blake stopped to drool for a quick second, then forced himself to look away before his family decided to pick on him. Looking around for his daughter, he found Caroline sitting between Aunt Paula and Kale making— Blake glanced down at the tray in front of them with a puzzled frown— what appeared to be grapes on a stick. With googly eyes.

“Hey, Mouse.” She’d been so engrossed in her task that she didn’t even notice him walk up.

“Daddy!” She jumped up and ran around the table and threw herself against his legs. He scooped her up and gave her a kiss on the nose. God, she was cute. He’d let her pick her own outfit that morning and she’d chosen one covered in tiny watermelons. They hadn’t found her a cheese outfit yet, but his little foodie loved to have fruit on her clothes. Someone had put a big white bow in her hair to keep it out of her eyes and he laughed when she shoved it back from where it had begun drooping.

“What are you doing over here?” He carried her back around the table and they looked down at the tray.

“Making grape-a-pillars! Uncle Kale showed me. Look!”

“Those look delicious. You helped?”

“Yep!” She nodded her head frantically and the bow fell into her eyes again. She shoved it back with an annoyed huff before she continued. “Aunt Paula helped me put the grapes on all the sticks and then Uncle Kale showed me how to put on the eyes!”

“That’s awesome. You’re such a great helper.”

She beamed and began to wiggle in his arms. “I need to finish, Daddy. It’s almost time to eat and Uncle Henry says I have to be done when he is so he can gobble one up.”

“You need my help?”

Kale shook his head, as Caroline’s attention was focused on getting the eyes positioned just so on the grape serving as the head. He took a moment to fix her hair, pulling it back and into the rubber band attached to the bow in a practiced gesture. Aunt Paula grinned at him, obviously cooing at their cuteness. He stuck out his tongue at her and made her laugh.

The Florida weather was cooperating for once. Aunt Paula had a set of patio tables located around the pool and the relatives of his who weren’t already in the pool were sitting around them. Blake circled the patio, greeting everyone until he made his way over to his mother’s side.

He gave her a quick kiss on the head and she smiled up at him.

“I brought you a change of clothes. They’re in Kale’s old room in your gym bag. I thought you might want to get out of your work clothes.”

“Thanks, Mom. I’ll head that way now.”

Uncle Henry had already hollered that dinner was in ten minutes, so Blake hurried into the house. He found his bag exactly where his mom had promised and quickly stripped out of his work shirt and pants. When the door opened, he half expected one of his cousins to be coming in to change, but instead it was Linc.

He was still dripping from the pool and had a towel he was running over his head. Linc stopped when he saw Blake standing there in his boxers and began to grin.

“Waiting for me, were ya?”

Blake laughed. “Sadly, no. I’m not that suave.”

“You sure about that?” Linc dropped his towel and came closer, pulling Blake to him once he was close enough to grab.

Blake jumped and tried to twist away. “You’re wet.”

“Uh huh. I am.” He pulled Blake in again and bit at his lower lip.

It suddenly didn’t seem to matter. Blake let Linc reel him in even tighter, plastering their bodies together from lip to crotch. He forgot everything but the taste of Linc, the feel of his body, his responses to every fleeting touch Linc gave him.

When they finally broke for air, Blake groaned as he realized where they were.

“You make me forget everything. Someone could have walked in.”

Linc shrugged. “So they saw us kissing. If you think your aunts didn’t grill me about our date the moment I walked in, you don’t know your family as well as you think you do. Abe warned me that I better do right by you.”

Blake groaned as he reached over to grab his shorts out of the bag. “I’m sorry. We’ve only been on one date and they’re—”

“They’re looking out for you. It’s okay. I told them we’re just friends. For now.”

That drew another groan out of Blake. “Did you say it like that?”

Linc wiggled his eyebrows.

“Did you wink when you said ‘for now’?”

“Maybe,” Linc answered with a wink.

“You’re awful.”

“Nah. Hurry and get dressed. Food’s ready.” Without another word, Linc stripped off his wet bathing suit and began drying off.

Blake lost all ability to think and stared until Linc grabbed his boxers from another bag sitting on the bed and began to get dressed.

“Blake. Food. Hurry up.”

“Yeah. Yeah. I’m, uh…”

“You’re picking up your shirt and putting it on. Come on.”

Blake finally shook himself out of the naked Linc induced stupor he found himself in and managed to get dressed.

Linc laughed at him and kissed him one last time before they went out to join the others on the patio. His cousins were all sitting around in their wet bathing suits chowing down on the ribs his uncle had no doubt spent the afternoon grilling.

Aunt Paula gave him a knowing look as he walked over to the food table with Linc. “Gonna have to teach you how to be sneaky,” she whispered to him as Linc went over to the grill to get some ribs. “You’re terrible at it.”

“Aunt Paula!”

“What? You just made out in my son’s bedroom where he has boy band posters hanging all over the walls. If that wasn’t enough to keep you from getting some nookie, I don’t know what will help you.”

“I… didn’t notice,” Blake confessed. “In my defense, he took his clothes off.”

Aunt Paula laughed. “Honey, I saw him without his shirt on and dropped my drink. I guess I’ll give you a pass this time. Be sure you get an extra grape-a-pillar so Caroline doesn’t get her feelings hurt.”

“Yes ma’am. Did Dad fix her a plate?”

“Yep. She sure does love her grandpa. I still can’t figure why she calls him Jeep. I even asked her and she just told me it was his name.”

“I don’t know either. She must have heard it somewhere.”

“Go eat.”

Blake followed Linc to the only table with chairs left and sat down. Caroline began to scamper his way and Blake realized Linc didn’t have any grapes on his plate. Blake grabbed one of his own skewers and slid it over just in time for her to bounce into his lap.

“Daddy! I ate!”

“Good job, Mouse. Did you eat some carrots?”

“I did!”

She still had one clenched in her fist. Blake took it out of her hand with a laugh.

“You still hungry?”

She shrugged, which meant yes.

“What do you want?”

She shrugged, which meant she wanted something sweet.

“Want to share my grape-a-pillar? You did such a good job making them.”

“I know! Mr. Linc, do you like my grape-a-pillars?”

Linc sent a silent thank you to Blake for the save before lifting the skewer off of his plate. “I haven’t tried him yet! Want to try with me?”

Caroline nodded so Blake handed her his. She slid one of the grapes off the end and popped it into her mouth. Linc mirrored her movements and made his eyes widen once he’d chewed.

“That’s the best grape I’ve ever had!”

She giggled and hid her face in Blake’s chest.

Blake pressed a quick kiss to the top of her head and began to eat. She’d recovered completely from her cold and was his usual handful once again.

Linc grinned over at him before eating another grape.

“Hey, Mouse,” Blake said after a moment. “Did you ever say thank you to Mr. Linc for making your pretty princess wall? He built it just for you.”

Her eyes widened and she leaned into him. “He’s the one who made my wall?”

Blake nodded. “You should say thank you.”

“Thank you, Mr. Linc. It’s beautiful. I have towers and a castle and a gate, but the gate doesn’t really open. It’s pretend. And Daddy said I can’t climb the towers. But my room is pretty!”

“I’m glad you like it,” Linc said. “A princess room for a princess.”

Caroline giggled and hid her face again.

Blake couldn’t help that his heart leapt a little at how cute they were together. If this thing between them were going to go anywhere, Caroline would have to be okay with it. She wouldn’t really understand, he knew that, but she had to at least like Linc.

It looked like they had that much under control. Blake grinned and continued to eat while Caroline scooted closer and explained Elsa to an entranced Linc. He nodded at all the right spots, oohed and ahhed when necessary, and gave her his undivided attention.

Blake looked around at his family and saw more than a few of them smiling in their direction. He liked this feeling more than he cared to admit. He’d thought for a long time that perfection looked like some magazine spread. He and Michael had that life, and it had failed miserably. But when he looked around his aunt and uncle’s backyard, Blake could clearly see the mistake in his thinking.

Perfection was Uncle Henry sneaking a grope of Aunt Paula when he thought no one was looking. It was Uncle David kissing Aunt Steph on the cheek as she refilled his empty tea glass. It was his own parents, sitting side by side with their hands clasped together, even though his mom was talking to Aunt Heather and his dad was caught up in a discussion with Abe and Carter.

Perfection was his daughter’s laugh as she tried to explain Frozen to an unsuspecting Linc.

She sat with them for a few more minutes before going to sweet talk Micah into swimming with her again. She’d already discovered that Micah was the least likely of the bunch to tell her no, which was saying something since some days Blake thought he was the only one of them who remembered the word when she was around.

Micah, of course, immediately agreed and they began splashing around moments later.

“God, how do you survive her?” Linc asked. “The cute is just overwhelming.”

“I know. I’m only partially immune to her due to overexposure. It’s tough sometimes.”

Linc grinned and reached over to grab his hand. “So a little birdie told me someone has a birthday soon.”

Blake scowled and glared around the yard at his family. “Which birdie do I need to shoot?”

“I’d like to take you out to dinner tomorrow night to celebrate.”

“I’d like that.”

“Good. Seven work?”

“Yeah.”

“Linc! Linc! Come swim with me!”

“Okay!”

Blake laughed. “Linc, you don’t have to. You’ve already changed back into your clothes.”

“I don’t mind. I want to get to know her. Back soon.”

After explaining to Caroline that he was going to go change, Linc went back into the house. Kale came over and sat down in his abandoned seat.

“Man, you guys are kinda gross with the stupid grins and flirty smiles. I mean, really.”

“Aww, you jealous?”

“Maybe a little. It’s cute, though. You have my seal of approval.”

Not that he needed it. Blake knew that. But part of him really liked the feeling of his family joining him on this ride. He only hoped this time, it ended happily.