Free Cherish & Blessed by Tere Michaels Page B

caught everyone’s attention. Evan knew it was Miranda who stomped up the stairs afterward—he’d learned that very distinctive sound over the years.
    “Excuse—”
    “No, that’s okay. I’m going up,” Katie said. Her cards hit the table as she stood up, anger barely restrained in her expression. “My big sister and I need to have a little girl talk.”
    It was on the tip of Evan’s tongue to stop Katie, to handle it himself, but he reminded himself that Miranda was a young adult—and so was Katie.
    So Evan nodded.
    “Go get ’em,” Matt murmured.
    Katie shot him a grateful glance. “Save me pie,” she said, stalking out of the dining room with a determined set of her shoulders.
    “No promises!” Danny yelled before dropping his last card and winning the game.
    Evan distracted himself by taking the desserts out and laid them on the kitchen counter so as not to disrupt the game going on in the other room. It had reached a fever pitch, as only five points separated the top three players.
    “Lightning round!” Elizabeth squealed, and the faint sound of G-rated trash talk began.
    Matt set the coffee on the table and poured himself a large mug before surrendering the pot. “You think we should find the wayward members of our party?” he asked, leaning against the fridge.
    “No.”
    Matt laughed at his blunt honesty. “You going to tell me about what happened between you and Cornelia?”
    “Oh right. You missed that. Well, she hates guns, doesn’t seem to love cops all that much, and thinks I’m a bad parent raising a daughter with shitty values.” Evan rattled around in the silverware drawer, trying to remember if they had a cake-server thingy.
    “Wow.”
    “Yeah.”
    “She’s not getting any pie, that’s for sure.”
    A scream of victory went up in the other room. Elizabeth, clearly. A round of applause followed.
    “I won!” Elizabeth skipped into the kitchen, a bright smile on her face. She stopped next to Evan for a hug. “I won by twenty points!”
    “Impressive comeback.” Matt leaned over to give her a high five.
    “Shane is pretending to cry.” She snickered. “Helena said he was clearly broken and would need extra whipped cream on his pumpkin pie.”
    Matt snapped his fingers. “That’s what I forgot.”
    “No tea, no whipped cream, and he lost. What a terrible day.” Helena walked into the kitchen, a wry smile on her face.
    “You’ll have to make it up to him,” Matt said dryly over Elizabeth’s head—literally and figuratively.
    Helena fluttered her eyelashes at him.
    “Any sounds from upstairs?” Evan went into the fridge for the conciliatory cream.
    “No. But Kent came in a while ago. He seemed mostly okay.”
    Evan didn’t say anything with Elizabeth in the room, but he added the boy to his list of people to talk to before he and his family roared away from this mess. “Honey, go get everyone, okay?”
    “Sure.” Elizabeth ducked out of the room.
    “I have to tell you, this was so much more exciting than getting grilled about my marital status in Florida,” Helena said, taking the two cans of nondairy heaven out of Evan’s hands. “Sincerely.”
    “When I talk to your stepfather on Monday, I’m going to mention you were looking at baby clothes online.”
    Her face crumpled into a scowl. “Lies.”
    Matt’s “Ha!” bounced off the walls.
    “Shane’s cute and rich. You should bag that sperm ASAP.”
    “Your boyfriend is a terrible human being.” She pointed the nozzles at Matt in a threatening manner.
    The kitchen suddenly filled with humans, the kids barely restraining themselves not to rush the table, the adults falling back and sniffing out the coffee. Matt put himself in charge of that, filling cups and directing people to milk and sugar.
    They were a well-oiled team, serving guests and making chitchat. Kent hovered on the edge of the group, not protesting when Matt handed him a coffee cup and Blake presented him with a huge plate of apple