LOL: Laugh Out Loud (After Oscar, #2)(79)

“So how long is this storm going to last?” I asked weakly.

“Looks like it’s going to be pretty serious accumulation,” Earl said, looking up from a weather app on his phone. “They’re anticipating quite a few inches in the next hour alone.”

“Aren’t we all?” Lolo called out, gliding into the room in a sheer peach nightgown barely covered by a purplish flowy robe.

“Ooh-la-la! What are you wearing?” Marigold asked with a gasp. “That robe is divine.”

Lolo beamed at the compliment. “Isn’t it? It’s the Adriana Degreas fig-print kimono but only because someone got cum…” His eyes skittered over to the girls, who had returned to chattering happily at the table. “Kumquat juice on my Rianna + Nina checkerboard one. I could have throttled that mother… lover.”

Larry shuffled in, sporting tattered gray sweats complete with a red-and-navy-blue-striped terry cloth headband. I wondered if he was going jogging back to the 1980s.

“Wasn’t my fault,” he muttered, scratching his stomach. “You did that thing with the—”

“Earmuffs!” Diana called across the room. The girls automatically dropped their crayons and put their hands over their ears as Larry said something that sounded an awful lot like Trump dildo.

I lifted an eyebrow at Diana, who shrugged. “Learned that trick from a Will Ferrell movie. Comes in handy more than you’d think. Earl, tell them they can uncover.”

“Twenty-four inches of snow expected,” Earl finished, pulling the girls arms down. “The airport is already closed, and they’re advising everyone to hunker down.”

“Shit,” Roman muttered, taking the word right out of my mouth.

“Oh what fun,” my mom said, clapping her hands together. She looked like a woman who’d just won the lottery. And from her point of view, she probably had. “We can build a fire and roast marshmallows,” she continued. “Won’t that be fun, girls?”

Roman grunted, making me realize I’d squeezed the hell out of his hand until my nails dug into his skin.

“Sorry,” I muttered under my breath, letting him go. “This is a disaster. I’m pretty sure Mom’s looking at this situation with dollar signs in her eyes. Think we can put her in the barn with Nugget?” Before my anxiety had a chance to ramp back up, Roman grabbed my elbow and pulled me around until my face was buried in his chest.

“Shh. Take a breath. We’re going to be fine,” he said softly. “We’re a team now, remember?”

“Yeah, that’s why I said we.” My voice was muffled in his shirtfront. When laughter rumbled through his chest, I closed my eyes and smiled. It felt so good having someone, being able to touch someone, finding comfort in someone.

Roman pulled back and cupped my face before kissing me full on the lips in front of everyone. My mother squealed and clapped, making my stomach clench with nerves. The girls giggled and tittered, and I swore I heard Collins mutter, “Duuuude. Hot.”

“Lawd, don’t stop,” Lolo drawled when Roman pulled away. “The show was just getting good. This is better than that scene in Death Pawn when he and Polly Macari—”

He stopped suddenly and stared at me, bringing his delicate, long-fingered hand to his chest. “Did you just growl at me like a little baby tiger cub?”

I felt my face heat and looked away, mumbling, “Of course not.”

I refused to think of the hot-as-fuck sex scene between Roman and Polly in that movie. It was so iconic, there were still gifs of it everywhere all the fucking time. It had been good spank bank material until the dude became my boyfriend and the entire world thought he was the father of Polly’s baby. Now it was… grrr.

Roman’s warm chuckle hit my ears again as he nuzzled against my neck. “You make an adorable tiger cub, for what it’s worth.”

“Shut up,” I growled.

The mudroom door banged open and Oscar’s mother trotted in. “Just dropping Rosie off to play with the girls before heading to the Hutch. Cheers!” Oscar’s mom called out before turning and disappearing again.

Oscar’s niece Rosie, the one who’d woken us up a few days before, trotted in happily to join the girls at the kitchen table. They’d met the previous day while out for a walk in the snow and apparently become fast friends.

I looked around. No one else even batted an eye that another person had joined our chaotic household. As if at this point it was just expected that random people would arrive out of nowhere. At least the impending storm meant our numbers wouldn’t be growing anytime soon.

“Can someone please tell me what the Hutch is?” I asked. “I need a map and a dictionary, as well as Oscar’s phone number.”

Marigold ignored my question and clapped instead. “So, mimosas for breakfast?”

“Yes, please.” Lolo floated farther into the room and gave Diana air-kisses on each cheek. “Good morning, doll. What’s for brunch, and how can I help?”

Roman and I looked over in shock at Lolo’s offer to do actual work.

Diana, however, took it in stride. “I have an egg-and-sausage casserole in the oven, but I’d love some help cutting up fruit.”

Before we knew it, she’d set him up with a cutting board, a huge knife, and a cantaloupe. He’d clearly never seen a real cantaloupe in the wild before and blinked at it a few times in confusion.