“No. Your brother.”
She was afraid of that. She grabbed Vince’s arm. “Don’t hit him.”
Vince pried her fingers from his jacket. “I won’t hit him first.”
Sam chuckled. “You wouldn’t get the chance to hit me second, frogman.” He walked past them to the end of the driveway and stopped beneath the deep inky shadow of an old oak.
Vince laughed, too, but it wasn’t funny. Vince had been trained to kil , but Autumn had seen Sam knock people out. People bigger than Vince.
“Promise?”
He headed across the driveway, his “No,” trailed after him.
“What’s a frogman?”
She glanced down at Conner’s shiny blond head. She should probably take him into the house, but she didn’t think either man would throw a punch in front of Conner. While they hated each other, they loved Conner more. At least she hoped so. “I think it’s a Navy SEAL.”
“Oh. Is Dad going to hit Uncle Vince?”
“Of course not.” At least she hoped not. “They were just joking around.”
“What are they talking about?”
She strained to hear what they were saying, even leaning forward a little, but only a low murmuring timbre reached her ears. “Man stuff.”
“What’s ‘man stuff’?”
Like she knew? “Cars.”
“Uncle Vince doesn’t have a car. He has a motorcycle and a truck. But his truck isn’t as big as Dad’s.”
From the little she could see, it looked like Sam’s hands were on his hips, and Vince stil had his arms crossed. Again she heard Sam chuckle, then he w
alked from the inky darkness and across the driveway toward her. “You got a Reese’s in that candy bag?”
he asked Conner.
“Maybe ten or twenty!”
“Good. You can give your old dad one.”
“I got lots of candy. Come in and see.”
Sam looked over at Autumn. “Do you mind?”
Like it mattered. She shook her head and watched Vince move from the shadow toward her. “Give your uncle a hug good-bye,” she told Conner.
“Okay.” Already hopped up on Hal oween candy, Conner ran to Vince and wrapped his arms around his waist. “Bye, Uncle Vince.”
“See ya, Nugget. Give me knuckles.”
Conner held up his clinched fist, then quickly pul ed it back. “Too slow, Joe.” He ran back to Sam, took his hand, and pul ed him up the steps. Autumn waited until they disappeared inside before she asked, “What was that al about?”
“We came to an understanding.”
“What understanding? What did he say?”
Vince swung a leg over the Harley and righted the bike. “Never mind.”