Annoyance twisted my features. “They’re four. They don’t know enough to care.” Both of my nieces had their hair in matching French braids; they looked like they could be the spokeschildren for Swiss Miss with their fair skin, pale eyes, and platinum hair. Chelsey’s husband was a burly, muscular dark-haired guy that I had affectionately nicknamed the Italian Stallion, or I.S. for short, since he reminded me of Rocky. The girls looked nothing like him. The Hancock genes were just too strong for Rock.

“Where’s I.S.?” I asked her, looking around for the mountain of a man. Was he still in the car? You’d think the bulging muscles would be easy to spot.

Chelsey gave me a sigh I was all too familiar with from people. It was a Why don’t you know this? sound that really got under my skin. “Dustin shipped out three weeks ago, Griffin. He’s on deployment for at least a year. I know I mentioned that a couple times recently.”

I nodded, like I’d known that all along. And now that she mentioned it, it did seem like I’d heard that somewhere before.

Chelsey smiled at me, then turned and barked, “Girls! To me, right now!” Dawn and Della instantly responded. Stopping in front of Chelsey, they stood tall and straight, at attention for their commander. Chelsey had a tendency to talk to her kids like she was a drill sergeant and they were new recruits, and they usually responded to it right away. I’d have to remember that with Gibson and Newbie, although I didn’t think Anna would be cool with me shouting at our kids.

Once Chelsey had the girls following her like ducklings, we headed toward the house. Out of the three of us siblings, I was the youngest. Liam was the oldest. Chelsey was pretty close in age to me, just a year older. She was also the coolest sibling, besides me, of course, and the most attractive. Also, aside from me. Good looks ran deep in my family, but they ran a little deeper in Chelsey. She just had that California girl thing working for her, which meant I’d spent a lot of time when we were younger kicking losers’ asses who’d thought they had a shot with her. Dreamers.

The pair of us had been pretty tight when we were younger, and we still got along really well. Chelsey was a dancer, the regular kind, not the exotic kind. Before she’d had kids, she’d belonged to a ballet troupe in L.A. I’d been forced to go to so many of her recitals as I kid that I’d refused to go as an adult. I felt kind of bad about that now, since her career was essentially over. With Dustin gone so often, she was practically a single mother.

Dawn and Della ambled inside after us, and I shut the heavy door behind them. Dad and Liam had come into the house with Mom, and I could hear them upstairs claiming rooms. I could also hear Gibson talking to Anna in the living room. Guess all the commotion really had woken her up.

Chelsey let out a low whistle as she looked around. “I’m sure I’ve said this before, but this really is a nice place you’ve got here, Griffin. You know, in case none of us have ever mentioned it before, we’re all very proud of you. Our little brother, the rock star…it’s pretty amazing what you’ve accomplished.”

The praise made me instantly uncomfortable. It wasn’t that I didn’t like praise. I loved that shit! But pride from a family member, that was just…weird. That was taking awesomeness and applying emotion to it, and I didn’t do emotion. I’d rather just skip over all that mumbo jumbo and stick to cold hard facts, like nobody could shred it like me. That I’d be totally cool with hearing.

“Uh, thanks,” I mumbled. “Want to go pick your room, before Dad and Liam nab all the best ones? I think the pink taco room is still open,” I added with a laugh.

Chelsey rolled her eyes again, but laughed. “You’re so gross, I don’t know how Anna puts up with you.”

Sometimes I didn’t either. Instead of admitting that, I told her, “Puts up with me? She’s just as bad as me, maybe worse.” Thinking about my crazy, sexy wife made me smile. Anna was perfect. Fucking perfect.

Chelsey laughed at the look on my face. “Never thought I’d see the day a girl made you look like that.”

Gibson came trouncing into the room then. She must have heard me and wriggled away from Anna and Grandma to get to me. She did that a lot. It really pissed Anna off. Releasing the bags about to pull my arms out of my sockets, I scooped her up. She kissed my nose and I laughed as I rubbed her back.

“Yeah,” I told Chelsey, “Now I have two girls who knock me to the floor. I’m not the man I used to be.” I said it with a forlorn sigh, meant to generate sympathy and compassion, but Chelsey nodded with enthusiasm.

“No, you’re not.” Just as I was about to get offended, she added, “You’re about a thousand times better than the man you used to be.”

Again, that uncomfortable feeling settled around me. When did Chelsey get all soft and girly? Aside from ballet, she’d been the toughest chick in the neighborhood growing up, doing all the tomboy stuff that the prim and proper girls hated—skateboarding with me and Matt, throwing out curses and insults that would get us whooped if our parents heard us, and snaring every rodent, reptile, or arachnid we could find. Aside from the budding boobs and pointe shoes, she’d practically been a guy. In fact, I think she still held the record for farthest loogey launched.

Guess marriage and kids had softened her some. Oh well, she was still my favorite sibling, and I hated the thought of stuff being hard for her while Dustin was gone being a hero. She didn’t have to be alone. “Hey, just to let you know, my place is plenty big enough for you and the girls. Stay as long as you like.” Anna was going to kill me for weaseling out of our negotiation, but surely she more meant my parents and my brother. Chelsey was different, and Anna would be cool with it once she got to know her.

With a soft smile, Chelsey nodded. “Thanks, Griffin. That means a lot to me.” After she said it, she walked over and knuckle punched me in the arm. It stung like a bitch, but I laughed as I flipped her off. Guess she hadn’t softened as much as I’d thought.

After a couple of hours, everyone was all settled in and Mom was making dinner. Anna was still smiling, so I had to believe she was pleased with having my family around. So far, at least. Dawn and Della were keeping Gibson entertained while Mom worked on her to-die-for spaghetti sauce. My stomach was already growling, and I knew it wouldn’t be done for another couple hours. Can’t rush perfection.

Anna was trying to help Mom, but Mom just made her sit down whenever she tried. Mom’s hair was still the perfect shade of blonde, and she kept it in a short, sensible style that required little fuss or muss. If we were at home, Mom would have a cigarette in her mouth while she worked, but she was being respectful of our house and keeping her vice to brief visits outside. Smoking was the one thing Mom had been an absolute hypocrite about growing up; she’d constantly forbid us to pick up the “nasty habit,” as she called it. When I was eleven, she’d caught me with one of hers. Instead of grounding me, or giving me a slap on the wrist or something, she’d made me smoke it, plus the rest of the pack, and then another pack after that. I’d never been so sick in all my life. Even now, cigarettes made me nauseous.

I was having a beer with Dad and Liam, and Liam was filling us in on a commercial audition that he was sure he’d nailed for a high-end watch company. He really wanted to get the job; he’d heard that he’d get to make out with a model in it.

In my distracted state of homelife bliss, I did something out of habit that I’d been purposely avoiding doing for a while: I answered the phone when it rang. “Griffin? You are alive. Where have you been? I’ve been trying to get a hold of you.”

Hearing Matt’s voice on the other end made me clench my jaw. I wasn’t ready to talk to him yet, but it was too late now. With a shrug he couldn’t see, I told him, “My family is in town. I’ve been busy with them.” It was only a partial lie. True, they’d just gotten here a few hours ago, but I was busy with them.