Tangled Up In You (A Savioe Family Novel) by Ginny Atkinson

you leave, I could give you some to take home. Marie told me that you don’t really get a chance to have a decent meal.”
    “I would love that. Thank you. Do you need a hand with the dishes?” I asked.
    “Pssht. Beau and Charles will take care of it tonight while Marie keeps the twins out of trouble.” She waved her hand dismissing my comment.
    Charles gasped in horror. “But it’s Luke’s turn tonight.”
    “And he has company over.” She explained.
    “Not like he has spent any time with her since she’s been here. Just been pouting up in his room like a kid that had to share his favorite toy.” Ch arles mumbled under his breath.
    Luke bristled at the snide comment practically exuding his hostility. He leaned forward in his chair and growled. “Say dat agin, frère.”
    “Boys! If you are going to fight, take it outside. You know it’s not fair to your mother when she has to clean up after your squabbles.” Nate ordered them.
    Charles grinned and stood up bouncing around like a boxer before a match. “Come on bro.” He went out the side door into the backyard. Beau and Marie yipped with glee and rushed out after him. Luke took a deep breath, pushed away from the table and headed after the trio.
    I looked over at Eva who had her head in her hands muttering, “Just one day. All I wanted was one day with my family with no fights. Is that too much to ask?”
    Remi and Dev looked at each other with excitement then at me. They scooted their chairs back and ran over to my side of the table. Remi grabbed my hand. “Come on you don’t want to miss this.”
    Dev giggled and grabbed my other hand. “It’s goin’ to be funny.”
    Funny? How can a fight be funny? As they pulled me into the backyard, I saw a homemade boxing ring set up on the other side of the pool. Cool, they have a pool. Charles was already in the ring bouncing back and forth from heel to heel trying to get limbered up. Beau helped him lace up a pair of old boxing gloves. Luke stepped in the other side with just his jeans and shoes on. His hair slowly escaped his usual ponytail as he jerked away from Marie and the gloves she tried to get on him.
    The boys hauled me over to a bench beside the ring. “Come sit down.” Remi pleaded jerking on my arm.
    I took a seat in between the two boys trying to keep my gaze away from Luke’s chiseled hotness. Dev scooted closer to me and whispered. “Daddy will only let them fight like this. It gives them esercise and keeps the induries to a miminal. Lea st that’s what Marie tells us.”
    Marie tried to get Luke to put the gloves on again and he shook his head no. Now, I’ve seen the schoolyard fights where people stood in front of each other and wildly threw punches. I’ve also seen a few of those MMA shows where they are in a cage kicking and punching each other with vicious accuracy. Neither of those prepared me for the sight of seeing two guys attack each other. While the twins were shouting encouragement I kept my head down to keep from seeing the violence. The sickening sound of flesh hitting the floor in a thu d made me squeeze my eyes shut.
    A hand squeezed my shoulder. “Honey, you don’t have to sit out here for this. The boys will be done in a few minutes. Why don’t you come inside with me to the kitchen so we can get the ice packs ready for them?”
    “Thanks, Eva.” I heard another thud and closed my eyes cringing. “I think I might just head on home though. I really appreciated the dinner it was extraordinary. Can you tell them I said bye? I don’t really want to interrupt… that.”
    “Oh, honey you don’t have to leave.” She protested as I stoo d up to walk back to the house.
    “I’m going to have to. It’s going to be getting dark here in a few and my parents don’t like me driving at night. I really did have a good time.” I said as we walked back into the house. She had already packed up a few small containers of food for me to take and placed them next to my