Only today I had time for actual lunch, a salad from the grocery store that my sister grabbed for me, and a lack of clients in the midafternoon. I took a minute to call my mom so I could talk to Dylan. Make sure he knew the plan that Zac would be picking him up and he was staying there for the weekend. The kid was excited as could be. I really thought Zac and I needed to get a more permanent schedule worked out because Dylan should do fine if we switched weeks now. After that, there was nothing for me to do for a bit. Which was why I was sitting in my salon chair looking at my phone, kind of hoping for a walk-in when Rhian and Laney showed up.
“No clients?” Laney asked.
I looked up quickly and smiled. “No, unless you need a trim or maybe color with highlights? Super curly spiral perm?”
Laney snorted and put her hands on her hips. “You know damn well I don’t need any of those things right now. You just did them like three weeks ago.”
“Minus the perm.”
“Yeah, I’m never doing that to my hair ever.”
“How about you?” I asked Rhian.
“I think I’m good. For now anyway. I do need a trim coming up.”
“Let me know.” I smiled again because if Rhian was going to trust me with her hair that meant I was firmly in the circle. “What brings you two in here?”
“We were nearby doing a little shopping,” Laney told me. “Thought we’d pop in and say hi. Would’ve been here sooner, but someone couldn’t find her keys.”
Rhian protested. “I swear I didn’t put them in the refrigerator. Why the fuck would I do that?”
“I don’t know, but that’s where you found them.”
“I found my keys in my trunk once,” I told her. “It happens.” I pointed to the empty chair next to me and said, “You can sit in that chair and Rhian can take mine.” But when I pushed myself out of my seat, the muscles in my legs let me know they didn’t like it.
“What’s with you?” Rhian asked.
“What do you mean?”
“You’re moving like you just did a hardbody workout and I happen to know that my brother never turned off the porchlight last night.”
“What’s that mean?”
Rhian rolled her eyes. “Last one in turns off the light. I was in bed pretty early.”
“Yet the light was on all night,” Laney finished with shitty little smile. “So you may as well tell us why your muscles hurt.”
I took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. If I was in the circle, I was in the circle. “It’s all Tegan’s fault,” I finally told them. “There are some muscles I haven’t used in years.”
Laney reached out and waited for me to give her a high-five. Which I did rather quickly, but Rhian sat there scowling.
Continuing, I said, “I mean I think I saw God. Lord knows I called for him enough times.” Rhian made a noise of disgust. “He answered.”
“Jesus,” Rhian muttered, then she leaned over and gagged, as if she was going to throw up there in the salon. She wasn’t. It was a sibling thing. She didn’t want to hear about her brother’s sex life or she could’ve been pretending to not want to hear. I didn’t have that with my sister. The three of us shared everything when we talked about sex and in complete detail.
“You can stop now,” she finally said. “I’m thoroughly scarred.”
Laney and I burst into a round of giggles. “I’m not sorry for scarring you.”
Laney cut in. “I’m glad you two are together.”
I shrugged her off. “We are together and obviously we’re not seeing anyone else.” I thought about what I’d just said. “I don’t think, but it’s not like we’ve had any big discussion about it. I have to do what’s right for my kid and he got used to seeing Ian around, and then all of a sudden the guy isn’t there anymore.”
“Thank god.”
“Well, yeah, but I’m not ready to involve someone else in my kid’s life.”
“You do you,” Rhian said. “But I’ll tell you right now if my brother is sleeping with you, he isn’t seeing anyone else. That’s not how he is. And he’d be a great dad to any kid.”
“I’m not looking for a dad for my kid,” I snapped, harsher than I should’ve. Then in a much softer tone, I added, “He has one of those.”
Rhian held her hands up in defense. “I didn’t mean it like that. I meant if it ever came to that. Zac’s his dad. We all know that. I should’ve said stepdad.”
“Sorry,” I muttered as Debbie came up beside me.
“Your three o’clock is here,” she told me quietly. I thanked her before she went back out front.
Laney slapped her hand on the leather of the seat. “That’s our cue to go. We’ll see you later.”
“Thanks for stopping in, though,” I told them.
As I walked them out, Laney pulled me back, letting Rhian get ahead of us. “You know I don’t think of myself as Dylan’s new mom or anything, right?”
“Of course I know that, Laney. But I also know that you’re in this thing for the long haul and Zac wouldn’t let you around our kid if you weren’t,” I told her. Zac and I had many conversations about this very thing after Dylan was born. “I’ve also known you a long time and know that you’d be in Dylan’s life, at this point, even if you and Zac didn’t work out.”
“That’s true,” she agreed.
After a quick hug from her, I greeted my next client then got on with the rest of my day.
Tegan had told me before he left this morning that he was on call for his doctor tonight which was why he asked about getting together tomorrow. The doctor just needed this one night covered.
However, when Saturday night came, our plans changed. Rhian wasn’t spending the night at Porter’s though I didn’t get the details. I’d get those from Rhian later. Since we wanted to be alone, he came to my apartment to have dinner. No movie, though. Instead, we chose to spend the night wrapped up in each other.
Chapter Twelve
The following Thursday night when Dylan was with my parents, Tegan invited me to his house for the movie we never watched because we were busy having a bunch of sex at my place. We were on the couch, his arm around my shoulder, and I tucked in as close to him as I could. We were only watching, no making out though, because Rhian and Porter were still there. They were going out, but Rhian was having a hard time finding everything she needed. Then she said she needed a snack because it’d taken so long to get things together.
When she and Porter came out of her room again she was in the middle of a rant about how she’s losing her damn mind. Porter was taking it like a champ too. He was a much better boyfriend than I’d ever expected.
“I’m going to grab a yogurt,” she finally told him.
Tegan hit the pause button on the movie since we couldn’t hear it anyway and sighed. The interruption was irritating him.
“Sounds like a fun day for you,” I told Porter.
“It’s super.” He folded his arms over his chest. “I get why she’s frustrated. She has been misplacing a lot of shit lately, but damn.”
“Don’t damn me,” Rhian said as she came out with her yogurt in hand then took a big bite and began to cough. “What the fuck?”
“What’s wrong?” Tegan asked her.
“I put some granola in the yogurt and sprinkled a little sugar on top—”
“The yogurt is sweet enough.”
She held up a middle finger and he chuckled. I pushed up a little because it was weird to be so comfortable while we were having a conversation with his sister. “Thanks, Dad. But it tastes like shit.”
“Give it to me.” She did as he asked and he took a bite. “Tastes fine to me.”
“What the fuck?” She stood next to Porter and said, “It’s gross. You can’t taste it?”
He shook his head.
“There’s got to be something wrong with my taste buds then? Is that a thing? Can taste buds wear out?”
“You can’t wear out your taste buds but it can be a symptom of somethi
ng else.” Then he furrowed his brows. “You’re not pregnant, are you?”
Her eyes grew wider than I knew a person’s eyes could grow. “I better not be.”
Porter’s mouth dropped open, then closed again like he wanted to say something, but there wasn’t anything he could say. The guy looked stricken. Not unlike Zac had looked when I told him I was pregnant.
“Shit,” I muttered.
Tegan moved to the edge of his seat. “You might want to get a test. Women sometimes have taste issues early in pregnancy. And you’ve been super forgetful lately. That’s another thing that happens to some women.”
Porter now dropped onto the couch beside me looking about as pale as could be. I’d never actually seen him look like that. A baby wasn’t the worst thing in the world and I knew he’d survive, but I felt bad for him. They were just newly together and I wasn’t so sure that Porter ever wanted kids.
“Is that true?” Rhian asked, but it took me a few seconds to realize she was talking to me.
Actually, because of the way Tegan squeezed my knee, I knew two things. That the question was directed at me and that this was how he was paying her back for our first date.
“Yes,” I finally answered. “I couldn’t eat a piece of chocolate cake for months.” I emphasized the word chocolate.
Rhian’s eyes narrowed on me and she cocked her head to the side. Then her eyes grew again and she said, “You’re fucking with me.” That was directed at Tegan. “This is payback for the date thing. I thought we were over that. You’ve been doing this to me for weeks.”
“You thought wrong,” Tegan countered. “I play the long game.”
For a split second, Rhian looked pissed, but then she nodded. “I can respect that.”
But when I looked to Porter, he seemed to have checked out of our conversation a long time ago.
“Porter.” I put my hand on his shoulder and shook him. “Tegan was just fucking with Rhian.”
“What?” He looked right at me, but it was as if he wasn’t seeing me. Rhian pulled him to his feet.
“Come on. Let’s go. Tegan was making me think I was pregnant because of the tiny practical joke I played on him with Maddie for their first date.”
Porter swung his dark blond curls our way. “Not cool, dude,” he said to Tegan, but he and I couldn’t help laughing.
She’d earned that payback. But they left Tegan and me to ourselves to enjoy the rest of the movie.
~~~
The second week of August came in with a wave of heat that everyone found oppressive. The whole group of us spent a lot of time at the pond to cool off, Dylan included. The first thing Tegan had done when he moved in with Rhian was to begin using the central air for probably the first time in the history of that house. Zac’s parents had never used it and frankly, I was shocked to find out the house even had it. But then the unit died and Tegan arranged with the landlord to replace it. Tegan paid for it and they got money knocked off the rent for six months as payback.
Zac and Laney finally started using theirs since with the two incomes, once Laney’s job started, and no rent, they could afford it. They still turned it on sparingly, mostly at night to make sleeping more comfortable.
Talk about moving up in the world.
I was walking out of work Tuesday night when my phone began ringing. Pulling it out of my purse, I answered as soon as I saw Laney’s name.
“Hey, Laney,” I answered.
“Are you done with work?”
“Yes.”
“Awesome. Zac picked Dylan up from your parents’ and he wanted to play in the little pool we have here for him since it’s so hot out. We’re going to cook out and you should come.”
“Who’s we?” I asked her.
“Us. You, me, Zac, Rhian, Porter, Tegan if you’re coming, and Dylan. Us.”
It felt so good to be part of the us again. Laney and I had had to do a lot of work to get back to where we were because she’d been in love with Zac for years, though she’d never said a word. We’d talked about how hot he and Porter were, but it had never gone beyond that. We had eyes. Of course, we’d thought the guys were hot, but they’d been our friends.
But when she’d found out that Zac and I had hooked up over our shared sadness at Laney moving away and I’d gotten pregnant, she’d been pissed as hell at me, even when she’d pretended not to be. We’d fought our way back and now she was including me in the us.
“I’ll be there,” I told her as I climbed into my car and started it. I needed the air going. “Wait. Why did you say Tegan if I’m coming? He isn’t for sure going to be there?”
She groaned. “He is, but with the condition that you’re going to be there. Rhian talked to him between patients and he said you two hadn’t spoken today to find out what your plans are.”
I chuckled into the phone. “I’ll be there and I’ll send him a message telling him.”
After a quick stop at home to change, I swung by the grocery store to pick up something. I wasn’t sure what, so I roamed the aisles until anything caught my attention. We were going to do a cookout, but Laney hadn’t said what we were cooking. I needed a side that would’ve gone with anything. Then the perfect idea popped in my head.
A fresh fruit tray and a salad. Rhian would be immensely happy, as would Tegan. They are the healthiest out of all of us. I was happy because they were premade, which meant very little work for me.
Then I went to Laney’s house. Well, Zac and Laney’s. I was still getting used to the fact that they lived together and it was their house.
Everyone else was already there when I arrived. Rhian and Tegan living next door made that kind of thing super easy for them. Porter was usually wherever Rhian was, so even though I only lived maybe ten or fifteen minutes from them, I was still the farthest away.
Their voices drew me to the backyard right away instead of going through the house.
Dylan was already in the pool, splashing about without a care in the world. Zac was messing with the grill while Tegan and Porter were animatedly talking about something. Since I missed the beginning, I couldn’t be sure what, but they were fully into the conversation. But I didn’t see Rhian or Laney, which meant they must’ve been in the kitchen prepping.
The bag in my hand was starting to get heavy and I probably shouldn’t watch them like a creeper.
“Hey, guys,” I said with a smile, bringing all of their attention to me. Tegan’s eyes found mine and held there for several moments until I glanced away. The heat was too much.
“Mommy!” Dylan hopped out of the pool and headed straight for me.
“Hey,” Zac called out. “You’re all wet, bud.”
Dylan slammed into my legs, wrapping his cool, wet arms around me.
“As if I care about that,” I told my son, but Zac as well. He knew better. I’d never turn down a hug from my kid. “Loving the pool today? It’s hot enough.”
Dylan nodded as he released me. “Dad said I could eat in the pool if I want to.”
I grimaced and looked to Zac. “Seriously?”
“What?” Zac looked up from the grill. “I change the water every time he uses it. It’s not like it matters and he really wanted to do it.”
Looked like I wasn’t the only one who picked their battles. “Maybe Dad will eat in the pool with you.”
Zac lifted his middle finger my way. Dylan had his back turned to his dad, so he didn’t see it, but the guys and I chuckled.
“Hey, I’m going to take this bag inside. I’ll be out in a minute.”
Dylan ran back into the small pool and began splashing as if he’d never been interrupted. Tegan gave me a nod of acknowledgment as I climbed the stairs. Unlike Ian, he didn’t insist on being within an arm’s reach of me every second of the day, nor did he interrupt my interactions with Dylan. He didn’t run over to kiss me the second I arrived even if I could see in his eyes that he really wanted to.
“I don’t know,” Laney said to Rhian when I entered the kitchen.
“I’m shocked he’s as good at all this as he is.”
“Uh-oh,” I said, cutting in. “What’d I walk into?”
Both of them glanced up from what they were doing. It looked like Laney was making corn dip, which made my mouth happy. Her mom’s corn dip was this amazing explosion of flavor and I’d never tasted anything like it. Rhian stirred a big pitcher of lemonade.
“Oh hey.” Laney only glanced up for a brief moment and was now back focused on chopping up a red bell pepper. “We were talking about Porter and what a dreamy boyfriend he is.”
“Ah. Right.” I set the bag on the counter. “But are you really shocked he’s good at being a boyfriend?”
“What do you mean?” Rhian asked.
I shrugged as I pulled the fruit tray out of the bag. “What I mean is, Laney and I used to talk about this very thing for both of the guys. Neither of us ever thought Porter would get out of his own way long enough to be a boyfriend of any kind, but that if he ever did, he’d for sure be loyal as fuck. It’s just how he’s always been.”
Laney snapped her fingers. “That’s true. We did say that, so I guess I’m not surprised at all.”
“Just took the right woman to make him want to do it. Porter can do anything he wants when he wants to.”
“He just has to want to.”
“Exactly,” I agreed. “But why were you talking about this? Did something happen?”
“No,” Rhian said as she shook her head. “Nothing happened. I was just telling Laney about my lovely brother and his idea of payback. And also how Porter reacted to the idea of me being pregnant. That was almost worth it.”
I laughed loudly because I never would’ve thought of getting her back the way Tegan had. It was kind of genius and a bit of a long game, given he’d spent many days moving her things so she wouldn’t be suspicious.
“By the way,” Laney said. “That was fucking genius.”
I gave her a wide smile and nodded.
Hard to Say Yes (The Fallout Series Book 3) Page 10
