Free Running Wilde by Tonya Burrows

with death in Afghanistan and several of his friends were missing, presumed prisoners of war. And it suddenly hit me—how close we’d come to having an empty seat and untouched beer at our table instead of our youngest brother.” He still remembered the moment of sheer terror that came with the realization, and how he’d swallowed it down with his beer and reassessed his priorities right then and there. “So when Reece offered the money to start Wilde Security, I agreed not to re-up in the Navy at the end of the year and to try my hand at private investigation. Because my brothers needed me to stay in DC.” And he’d needed to stay for them. They were all shaken by Jude’s close call and were desperate for the solidarity of family right then.
    Problem was, his brothers didn’t need him anymore. Except for Greer, they were all married off now and living happily-ever-fucking-afters. Jude and his wife Libby had even recently announced they were expecting a baby this fall, which was just fucking weird. Not that he thought his youngest brother wouldn’t make an excellent father. If any of the Wildes were equipped for fatherhood, it was prankster Jude, who was still a kid at heart.
    But shit, Vaughn wasn’t exactly good uncle material. He’d probably scare the kid back into its mother’s womb the first time he met it.
    And now that the baby-making had started, he bet it wasn’t going to stop any time soon. Cam and Eva wanted kids, and it was only a matter of time until they decided to go for it. Reece and Shelby…who the hell knew with those two? They were completely unpredictable as a couple and crazy enough to try parenthood.
    Apparently, Vaughn and Greer were the only sane ones left in the family.
    “You’re lucky to have them,” Sage said softly, drawing his attention back to the conversation. “Your brothers, I mean. And your sisters-in-law. You’re lucky.”
    “Yeah, I am,” he admitted, because as much as his constantly growing family sometimes annoyed the hell out of him, he wouldn’t want it any other way. He looked toward her voice, but since there was no moon, he only saw a vague outline of her face and body. “Libby’s pregnant.”
    He wasn’t sure why he said it. Except that when Sage was living as Lark, she’d been one of Libby’s best friends, and he thought it was something she should know.
    “Oh,” Sage whispered, and if he wasn’t mistaken, there was a note of wistfulness in her voice. Maybe even a faraway hint of sorrow. “I’m so happy for them. At their wedding, she mentioned they wanted to start a family as soon as possible.”
    “The wedding.” He exhaled a short laugh. “Seems like years ago now. That blue dress Libby had you wear must’ve broken some decency laws. In all the best ways.”
    “We were in Key West,” she said, and a smile seeped into her voice. “I don’t think they have decency laws.”
    “You had every man in the place drooling all over themselves.”
    “Including you, if I remember correctly.”
    “I don’t drool.”
    “Tell that to my pillows.”
    Which brought to mind the bed in her apartment in DC, where he’d spent a week last November when a storm had dumped a record-breaking amount of snow on the city. He’d told Cam he was staying with Greer until the roads cleared, when in reality he was in her bed, and they had spent the week fucking like rabbits. He’d even made the colossal mistake of falling half in love with her—until he’d discovered everything he knew about her had been a lie.
    Hell, if he was honest with himself, he’d started falling for her the moment he’d first met her in the elevator the night of Jude and Libby’s wedding. She’d brushed him off, and it had rankled, put him in a bad mood, which only got worse when he later ran into Cam and Eva, drunk and all but eye-fucking each other as they waited in the lobby for the elevator.
    They’d looked sweet together, cute in the way only a pair in love could be, and