Free Always You: A Lilac Bay Novel (Friends with Benefits) by Lucy Riot, Rachel Schurig

called from somewhere in the house. “Answer the door!”
    “I don’t want to!” he cried back. “Make Jayden!”
    “Mason! You listen to me right now!”
    “But Mom —”
    “Oh my God,” I muttered. “This is off to a fantastic start.” I leaned in close to the door. “Mason, open this door or I’m going to let Andrew eat all the candy I brought you!”
    “Aunt Riley!” he called happily. A moment later the door swung open to reveal my oldest nephew, a Nintendo DS in his hand. “I didn’t know you were coming!”
    “Your mom just invited us for chili.”
    He made a face. “Gross. I hate chili.”
    “Me too!” Aiden echoed, appearing at his brother’s side. “It’s so gwoss!”
    “ Gross , dummy,” Mason said, pushing him. “Not gwoss .”
    Aiden immediately burst into tears. “I’m not dumb!”
    “Of course you’re not.” I bent to pick up the baby, plucking Mason’s DS from his hands as I pushed my way into the foyer. “You know you’re not supposed to call your brother names.”
    “Aw, come on, Aunt Riley.”
    “Go see if your mother needs help with anything,” I told him. “She sounds stressed out.” He made a face at me and I patted my purse. “Okay, I guess there’s just more candy for the rest of us.”
    Mason stomped off towards the kitchen and I set Aiden down on the couch. “Here you go,” I said, handing him the DS.
    “That’s a mean aunt move, right there,” Andrew said, shutting the front door behind him. “Taking the video game from one kid and giving it to the other?”
    “He shouldn’t have called him a name, then,” I said. “He’s been doing that to both of his brothers lately. It’s bratty.”
    “You would have loved me and my brother if you think that’s bratty.”
    “Oh, I’m quite familiar with how bratty you and your brother are,” I told him. “You haven’t grown out of it at all.”
    Rebecca stuck her head around the doorway to the kitchen. “Hey, guys!”
    “Hey,” Andrew said, stepping forward to kiss her cheek. “We were just about to come in and ask if you needed help.”
    “ He was,” I said, settling on the couch next to Aiden, now happily engrossed in the DS. “I thought I’d stay here, kick my feet up—”
    “You’re so funny,” she said, looking to Andrew. “How do you put up with her in that office all day?”
    He sighed. “It’s a struggle.”
    “Careful,” I told him. “I’m more than willing to withhold candy from you as well.”
    “Riley, will you go get Jayden?” Rebecca asked. “He’s moping in his room.” She patted Andrew’s chest. “Come on, why don’t you come in and open that wine for me, and we can complain about how annoying my sister is.”
    I found Jayden in the room that he shared with his older brother. Rebecca and Jake lived in a three-bedroom ranch, though three-bedroom was a bit of an exaggeration. Aiden’s room was barely larger than a closet, while the two older boys shared a room that hardly fit their bunk bed. I found Jayden sitting on the bottom bunk, a coloring book in his hands. He didn’t look up when I entered.
    “What’s up there, buddy?” I asked, taking a seat next to him on the bunk. “You coloring?”
    “I guess so,” he said, clutching the crayon in his hand a little tighter, but not bringing it to the paper.
    “Iron Man, huh?” I asked, seeking at the cover. “He’s pretty cool.”
    “Not as cool as Captain America,” he grumbled.
    “Oh, absolutely. Cap is the best Avenger.”
    Jayden sighed. “I told mom that. Mason is the one who likes Iron Man. But she bought the wrong one.”
    I made a mental note to bring Jayden a new coloring book the next time I came over.
    “Is that why you’re grumpy?”
    “I’m not grumpy,” he said, rubbing his eyes. They looked red and I wondered if he was the one I had heard crying.
    “It’s okay to be grumpy, Jay,” I told him, rubbing his back. “Everyone gets grumpy sometimes.”
    “Not my mommy.”
    I laughed.