America's Geekheart (Bro Code #2)(50)

“Like you can talk,” one of her brothers says.

“They all have good hearts,” Mrs. Ryder insists.

Beck kisses his mom’s hair. “Because we had you.”

“Awwwww,” everyone intones, like they’re making fun of him, but I don’t miss the smiles coming from all of them.

Like they agree, but they have to give Beck shit as a matter of routine.

Emma joins in by squealing and throwing a handful of couscous all over the table, and later I’ll contemplate why Beck has a high chair in his penthouse, but I’m already a wee bit too attached.

Especially with how weirdly normal this entire meal feels, despite all these people basically being strangers to me.

Until the great blow-out of this morning, anyway. I guess touching a man’s kid’s poop lends itself to fast friendships.

“Whoa, hey, where’s the tea?” Beck asks.

“They don’t make it by the gallon,” Charlie tells him. “You’re out of luck.”

He’s already eaten two plates full of food, and he’s piling sesame shortbread cookies and the honey-coated chebakia onto another, but he’s so crestfallen at the lack of tea that I take pity on him. “I have a teapot at home. And fresh mint. Just need some gunpowder tea.”

Beck beams at me, and it feels more genuine than it should. “All that and she has the Serenity you’ve been looking for, Levi.”

All eyes are suddenly on me, and another hush falls over the room, but this one’s reverent.

“You have the Serenity?” Levi breathes.

My face is getting hot, and I know I’m going blotchy. “It’s not for sale.”

“Of fu—udging course it’s not,” he mutters. “Can I touch it? Just…just once?”

“Don’t let him have it without getting something out of it for yourself,” Tripp says. “He’s such a spoiled brat.”

Beck’s grinning. “You want to touch it, you’re gonna have to do something stupid while you’re in town to get the paps off Sarah’s street.”

“Says the king of stupid distractions,” Levi fires back with a grin.

“You don’t get to negotiate with my ship,” I inform Beck. “It’s my ship. And he’ll have to get through my father first.”

“I know,” Beck says with an evil grin. “I’m gonna be the one hiding in the bushes taking video when that happens.”

“Cash says your dad’s cool,” June says cautiously.

“That’s because he’s not Cash’s dad,” I say.

“I’ll put your giraffe on my video screen in my next ten concerts,” Levi offers.

“Oh, fine, sure, bring out the big guns,” Beck says. “Dude. Any rock star can offer her that. And you should do it anyway to save the giraffes. For the rest of the whole year. Get that baby giraffe up there too.”

“I’ll hijack all the national news signals and broadcast anything you want about the giraffes if I can take a picture with the Serenity,” Davis says.

I laugh, but I stop when I realize I’m the only one. “Wait, you’re serious?”

“It’s the fucking Serenity.”

“I meant about hijacking—” I start, but James interrupts me.

“The fucking Serenity!” he cries.

Tripp gives Davis the you’re going to die in your sleep look, and this time, everyone cracks up.

They’re one big, happy, crazy family.

And I have this weird feeling that if I’d grown up with them, I might like people as much as Beck does too.





Twenty-Two





Beck



Sarah’s ass looks amazing in my sweatpants.

I think. The shirt’s covering the pants, but the shirt’s also hugging her curves right there, and yep, definitely amazing.

She sways side-to-side while she stares out the window at the wide expanse of Reynolds Park below. The zoo’s on the far side. I could take her over there. Get her a private viewing of Persephone.

Hell, she could probably get her own private viewing.

But if I offer, she’ll stop the swaying, and I’ll have to stop watching her ass.

I shift uncomfortably on the couch, where I’m pretending to check my email and text messages on my phone, because my pants are getting tight.

“I should really be at work,” she says.

Guilt creeps up next to me and shoves a cream pie in my face. And not the good kind with real whipped cream either. This one has fake banana flavoring in it, and I don’t like it. “Can you work remotely? Ellie does that sometimes when I make the news and people talk too much to her about it.”

“I can, but I don’t want to.” She turns away, and I manage to look away from her ass before she catches me watching.

Tripp left so the kids could nap. The Riverses all had to go back to work. So did Mom. And Levi and Davis took off for a public appearance for Levi that’ll end with both of them at a bar, where I can’t go, because I’m grounded. Charlie said so when she left to go work alone downstairs.

Leave this building and I’ll quit.

So it’s just me and Sarah.

“What do you want to do?” I ask. “We could sneak into the zoo. Or head out to my place in Shipwreck. Ellie beat my high score on Frogger a year ago, and I need to work on getting it back.”