by SM Olivier
The doctor recommended starting Clay’s prepared formula mixed with milk instead of water, since he was beginning to reject milk on its own.
“We do,” Jules confirmed. “Do you want it in a kiddie cup with a lid?”
“A regular cup would be fine,” Mr. Isaacs said as he pulled out a sippy cup and began preparing the formula.
“I’ll be right back with your drinks,” Jules informed us before she left.
Clay squealed before he started clenching and unclenching his fist, signing milk.
“Good job! Milk, yes,” I praised him kissing his curly head. “Lochlann is making it for you right now,” I reassured him.
“Woah, Mrs. Mom,” Madison teased me as she colored on a coloring sheet with Maisie. “I didn’t think you cared for any child under the age of five. You never helped me with the McDougall twins when I had to babysit them.”
“Time out,” I insisted with a laugh. “A. How can you not love this little face?” I rubbed my hands through Clay’s curls. “B. I was only subjected to the older kids in camp, so I had no clue if I would take to little ones, and C. The McDougall twins were terrors, and your version of babysitting them was watching as I tried to take care of them.”
“They scared me!” Madison gasped dramatically. “Their mom believed telling them no was detrimental to their ‘emotional and mental well-being.’ That’s why Mr. McDougall left her last week.”
“Oh no,” I said with a frown.
Mr. and Mrs. McDougall were business associates of Madison’s dad. They had tried for ten years to have the boys and finally had to turn to invitro. The boys were only three, so it couldn’t be easy on them.
“That was part of the reason.” Lucas snorted.
I was glad Lucas seemed to be done with his mini stare down with the guys. He seemed especially fixated on Crew and Golden, for some reason.
He then leaned over the table dramatically before he continued. “Mr. McDougall decided to play hide and go seek with his pickle. With his new secretary.”
I laughed at his clever way of hiding the details. I maintained that Lucas was worse than a girl when it came to gossiping. I mentally told myself I should introduce him to Freddy. I genuinely believe they were soul brothers− if there were such a thing. Maybe they would form a bromance. On second thought, that might not be a good idea. I could only imagine the influence they would have over each other.
“How do you play hide and go seek with a pickle?” Maisie asked in confusion.
Most of the guys began to guffaw with laughter as Maisie seemed to get more confused.
“Do you remember how we had an Easter Egg hunt last year, and you had to go find them?” Mr. Isaacs asked with a little smile. She nodded with brows knitted. “It’s just like that, but some people like hiding pickles instead.”
“Not really people,” Golden smirked. “Men typically like hiding the pickle. Peyton wanna play hide and go seek with my pickle later on?” he waggled his eyebrows suggestively.
I narrowed my eyes at him and shook my head, fighting the blush that threatened to take over. I was going to have to get him back for purposefully baiting me in front of my grandfather, Lucas, Madison, and Henry.
“I wanna play,” Maisie protested loudly.
“You’re not old enough,” Golden’s eyes widened for a second, realizing his blunder. “In fact, you can never play that game, ever!”
“Nope, never, moo,” Kyler insisted.
“You can only look for eggs if you want to play those hiding games,” Paxton added.
I found it both endearing and exasperating that the guys were so determined to protect her like fathers did with their little girls. If most of them had their way, the poor girl wouldn’t even be able to call a boy until after she’d graduated college.
“No, fair!” Maisie whined.
The waitress came back with our drinks and then took our orders. I still didn’t want to eat a lot, so I chose to eat just a bowl of cottage cheese with a side of fruit.
“Hey, Mai,” Madison cajoled. Maisie was still pouting. “I thought you were helping me color this Princess.”
I leaned over to smile at Madison, realizing her attempts at diverting Maisie’s attention.
“Fine,” Maisie grumbled as she picked up her crayon. “I still wanna play,” she muttered under her breath.
“It’s not really a fun game,” I reassured her. “Especially when you have to find Golden’s pickle. It’s so small you have to bring out a magnifying glass just to find it.”
The whole table erupted in laughter except for poor Maisie and Golden. She had no clue what was going on. I smiled smugly at Golden. He and I knew he really wasn’t packing a micro-penis.
When I had stroked him the other day, I knew he was well above average. At least that’s what Google had said. After seeing Zane, Crew, Kyler, and Golden, I had to look it up because they all seemed way above average to me.
Google informed me that the average penis size was 5.1 inches. How they figured that out was beyond me. Did they even ask men? We all knew most guys would lie. Did doctors measure them at men’s yearly physicals? That would be even more creepy. It would be like my OB measuring my boobs every year to help Google or whoever else gathered information like this. Notyep was beyond curious on the matter.
“Oh darlin’,” Golden finally tsked at me. “Hand to heart, you have no clue the war you’re starting.”
“Me−” I began before Lucas gasped from across the table.
“Transport Transformations!” he nearly yelled. “I thought you guys looked familiar!” He pointed to Golden and Crew.
I felt Crew stiffen beside me, and I looked over in confusion at Lucas. Mickey and Lucas had an obsession with watching shows that fixed up bikes or automobiles. I loved fixing vehicles and motorcycles, but I rarely watched the programs with them. I thought most of it was too scripted. I could do without the drama. Just show me the cars getting fixed.
“That show you DVR? The one Umma accidentally deleted all fifty episodes of?” I asked Lucas as I saw the guys all look at each other.
Madison and I seemed to be the only one out of the loop. What the heck was going on?
“That’s Da’s show!” Maisie said in excitement. “Did you watch the episode where I helped the guys pick out the paint for that girl’s car?”
Show? What show? Surely not Transportation Transformations.
Lucas looked over at her and smiled. “You picked a flamingo pink! That was such a cool color,” he humored her.
I looked around the table. “Umm, am I missing something?”
“Oh man…” Lucas frowned. “I’m sorry.” He looked embarrassed and sympathetic all at once. “I’m sorry for your loss. My dad and I watched the show religiously together. He was upset when he found out about your dad. He always said there were very few shows out there that were entertaining and wholesome. He respected your dad, and before my mother passed, she collected a lot of your mother’s prints.”
I frowned, trying to recall the prints he must be talking about. Then I remembered the nature shots littering nearly every space of their den. Lucas’ mother or Umma—Mom in Korean—had redecorated about a year before she died. She loved those prints.
I looked around the table once more as realization dawned on me. No wonder the Isaacs didn’t seem to be struggling financially. Da had one of the most popular shows on the Discovery Channel, and Ma was a renowned photographer.
I kind of felt blindsided. Why hadn’t anyone told me?
●
“We never tried to intentionally hide it from you,” Mr. Isaacs insisted quietly as I stretched.
“It’s fine,” I said concisely.
I was pissed at first, but my anger had turned to hurt. They knew so much about me. I had stripped myself bare to them, revealing my soul, and they hadn’t told me their parents were famous.
Mr. Isaacs sighed heavily. “There’s that word again, ‘fine.’”
I rolled my eyes. I real
ly wanted to forget all this. We were going on stage in less than thirty minutes, and I needed to stretch out before I saw Renee perform. Then we would have to get dressed into our costumes for our group number.
“Fine,” I said sarcastically as I lifted my leg and stretched it up next to my head. “You guys know a lot about me, and I mean a lot.” I sighed. “Yet sometimes, I feel like you guys are still hiding stuff from me. Why was it such a big secret that Da owned his own garage and was well known as a vehicle enthusiast and reality-tv star? How many times have I admired the prints in your hallway of the lightning storms? Not once did anyone inform me it was Mams. I’ve heard so many stories about them, but everyone failed to tell me any of this. Why did I have to find out from one of my best friends?” I felt angry tears threaten to fall.
This sucked! Like, really sucked.
I had been on such an emotional high, and now I felt so low. Again.
Mr. Isaacs stepped forward until my face was cradled in his palm. “I’m sorry, Peyton. It was never intentional. We shared so many stories with you, and that’s how we remembered them. Not their fame or the fortune it brought to them… to us. They kept us away from it for the most part, and I think that’s why we kept you from it. As much as Golden and Crew helped Da out in the shop, and later, Pax, Da very rarely allowed them to be in front of the cameras. He didn’t want their life to tarnish ours like it did theirs.”
I unconsciously leaned my cheek into his touch, craving it. I hated that my body still wanted him while my mind wanted to hold onto the anger.
“How did their fame tarnish their lives?” I asked, mystified, as his thumb gently rubbed my cheekbone.
Mr. Isaacs sighed. “If you Google them, you’ll find a lot of articles about them. Most of them on trashy websites, and all of it lies. No one could believe that two successful people like them could be as…wholesome and faithful to each other as they appeared. Da had a beautiful personal assistant, and they went out all the time. Someone captured pictures of them together. Some of them looked, well, damning. He was holding her and consoling her in one photo.
“They wanted everyone to believe Da was cheating on Mam. Little did the public know, Vanessa is a lesbian, and she had just broken up with her girlfriend of ten years. Instead of Dad outing her, he kept her secret and let the media believe it. Ma was pictured with a lot of younger attractive male models, but that was her job. They were faithful to each other. So, yeah, there’s a lot of trash and lies out there about them. Plus, you have to understand… we spent most of our lives fending off women who only wanted us in hopes of finding fortune or fame through our parents.”
I started to protest, but he held out his hand. “I didn’t mean you, Peyton. We would never think that of you. But I do know we didn’t keep it from you in order to hurt you. We’d never hurt you.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. I saw the truth in his eyes and sighed. It really wasn’t something I should hold onto, despite Notyep’s insistence that I hold onto my hurt and anger a little longer.
I nodded. “Okay,” I whispered. “I believe you.”
A relieved expression broke across his features, and I was reminded of how very handsome he was. Behind his wire-framed glasses, his electric blue eyes lit up.
“One day soon,” he promised near my ear, “…I’ll know what it’s like to taste your lips and hold you close all night.”
I sighed and smiled up at him as he cradled my cheek. He lowered his forehead, so that it was touching mine. “I can’t wait,” I admit softly to him.
He dropped a hand to my hip and pulled me in close. “And I want you to call me Lochlann or Loch. No more, Mr. Isaacs.”
I nodded, realizing he wanted the barriers down between us. No matter how much I cared for the other guys, no matter how happy they made me, there was always a part of me that was drawn to him.
“Okay, Lochlann,” I murmured.
“Repeat it,” he demanded, a forcefulness in his tone I wasn’t used to, and I admitted it thrilled me.
“Okay, Lochlann,” I said once more, and I couldn’t resist the urge to stand on my tiptoes and brush my lips against the corner of his mouth. I felt the softness of his well-kept beard against my lips.
He moaned low as his hand gripped my hip a little tighter. “Oh, love.” He sighed. “You are my greatest temptation.” His lips brushed the corner of my mouth, just barely. I longed to turn my head and find out what kind of kisser he was.
I heard a noise at the top of the stairs and looked up to see Bailey and Wendy grinning down at me. I didn’t like the look in their eyes. I felt Lochlann stiffen beside me as he hastily took a step back.
“Hello, Mr. Isaacs,” Bailey said with a simpering smile. “Does it feel weird teaching at the same school you graduated from?”
I cursed inwardly. It was foolish of us to have gotten so close in public, especially since he was currently under scrutiny. When I noticed her stroking her telephone, I nearly blanched.
Had they been spying on us for some time?
“No, not at all,” Lochlann replied, his face ashen. He must have come to the same conclusions I had.
I knew Bailey hated me. Not only did I take “her” spot, but I basically got her mother fired. I knew she had been too quiet and withdrawn today. I should have known she was plotting a way to make me pay. What better way to get back at me than to hurt one of the men I cared for?
●
“Are you okay?” Renee asked softly as I stood next to her in the wings.
I shook my head, trying to quell the queasiness in my stomach. I wanted to get sick, but I knew I didn’t have the luxury to get sick right now. Lochlann was beyond worried, despite the fact I swore I’d always maintain that we were friends and friends only, until we were free to be with each other.
He tried to put on a brave face, but I could tell he was conflicted. I knew he said he was looking for us to be with each other, but the plan wasn’t in place yet. If it got back to the school that he had a relationship with me, the repercussions could be severe. Not only could it ruin his career but any future career as well.
“Don’t worry about me,” I murmured finally. “You should be focusing on your solo.” I tried to smile at her as I squeezed her shoulder. I needed to focus on something other than my current predicament. Renee needed my reassurance, and it was me that should have been there for her right now.
“Umm, okay,” she mumbled. She almost looked hurt that I hadn’t confided in her.
I knew she was younger than me, but she really was a lot more mature than I gave her credit for. During lunch, she had talked freely, like she was finally comfortable with all of us. The more she talked about herself, the more I realized that losing her mother and having a father that worked so much had forced her to grow up a lot faster than other girls her age. We were kindred spirits, in that aspect.
“It’s just Bailey and Wendy,” I finally confessed quietly. “Lochlann was…hugging me in the hallway earlier, and I think they took a picture of us. With everything going on with Selena and the school board, we already knew they were on a witch hunt. Not—” I added hastily, “—that we’re doing anything. I can’t even stay over their house while my house gets completed, because Selena already accused us of being intimate. We aren’t,” I reassured her as she looked at me skeptically.
“He seems…interested in you,” she whispered quietly as she looked around the crowded backstage. “In fact, all of them seem…boyfriend-ish towards you.”
She wasn’t dumb. I knew we all had kind of dropped our barriers around her. Every time one of the guys picked me up, they weren’t shy showing me their affections.
I sighed and took a step closer to her. I knew I couldn’t lie to her, and somehow, I didn’t think she would judge me. She trusted me with the story about her dad and his record. I could trust her with this.
“Truthfully, we are exploring things between us. The guys all admitted to liking me, and for the first time in my life, Renee, I feel…safe. Lo
chlann and I have talked, and we admit to our attraction, but we haven’t done anything. Not even kiss. Well, not a kiss on the lips. He’s hugged me a few times, but we try to maintain a distance from each other because of his position at school.”
She looked momentarily stunned by my confession, and then she smiled. “Thanks for telling me. I always thought something was going on but, wow… just wow. Do you think they can get you guys in trouble over a little picture? It was just a hug.”
I sighed, rubbing my forehead. “I kissed his cheek, and he kissed mine, and at the angle we were standing…? It could be damning.”
She frowned for a second, gnawing on her bottom lip before resolve seemed to enter her eyes. “I’ll be right back.”
“Where are you going?” I stopped her. “You go on in ten minutes.”
“Bathroom,” she yelled over her shoulder.
My brow furrowed. Maybe she really did have to go. I hoped the poor girl’s nerves settled soon.
●
I watched with a feeling of pride and happiness as Renee glided onto the stage. Looking ethereal and beautiful, she got lost in the music and was like a different person on the stage. Watching her, no one would ever think she was almost painfully shy, someone who hid beneath baggy layers of clothes, or lowered her head in a room full of people.
“She really is talented.” Zane smiled as he took a spot behind me.
I nodded. “I just wished she had the confidence to go with it,” I agreed.
He slipped an arm around my waist, and I leaned back into his solid body. “Are you ready for your group number?” he inquired as he kissed the spot between my neck and shoulder.
“As I’ll ever be.” I smiled with a soft sigh.
“Are you really okay with Lucas and Madison following us back home?” he asked next. “Kyler and Crew already offered up the house for us all to crash in.”
Kyler had already told me as much as we were leaving the restaurant. From the sounds of it, we were going to have a packed house, since they all wanted to come and crash over at the house. They wouldn’t tell me what they had planned, but Paxton had already alluded to some kind of plan for my birthday tomorrow.
