by Linda Kage
This sucked.
I wanted Teagan back, even if it was for her to merely sit next to me, calling me a dumbass, because that’s exactly how I was behaving.
Moodily, I slapped out my hand toward the spot where she’d been sitting only a moment ago, trying to dispel her memory…or maybe I was trying to capture any leftover warmth she might’ve left behind. I don’t know. My head was in such a fucked-up place. Maybe if Sonya hadn’t screwed me over so bad and made me believe I was a lost cause, I wouldn’t be having these thoughts about a girl who was supposed to be like a sister to me. I wouldn’t be wanting her like—
My fingers encountered something foreign, something full of silk, and lace, and feminine slink. I cursed fluidly. These were definitely not Luke’s underwear.
But seriously, how in God’s name had Teagan not realized she’d left her panties behind? Seemed like something a person would notice missing.
Unless she already knew she would just be taking them off again in a few moments, once she reached Luke.
Fuck.
I clenched my fingers around silk and lace, and sat up, crawling toward the opening of the tent, where I fumbled in the dark for the zipper before I finally managed to tear it down. In a small, cornered part of my brain, I knew I was only following her because I didn’t want her to make it to Luke, because I wanted her to come back to me, but the rest of my brain convinced myself this was merely for propriety’s sake. Because I should not be in possession of any part of Teagan’s lingerie.
“Hey!” I hissed, poking my head into the cool night.
Shit, Teagan hadn’t lied. I think my own nips wanted to freeze off my chest. “Psst. Teagan Marie Tenning,” I growled a little louder, and started to shiver. “You left your panties behind. Teagan!”
“I’ll take those,” a male voice answered a split second before the bit of cloth was ripped from my clutches.
Nearly swallowing my tongue, I looked up slowly at the silhouette towering over me. He stood just outside my tent like a menacing shadow of doom. I couldn’t see his face in the dark, but I knew his voice as well as I did my own father’s.
Ah, hell. This was probably going to hurt. A lot.
A second later, he said, “Now, would you like to tell me why my daughter just crawled out of your tent, leaving her underwear behind?”
3
Teagan
I’d just reached my own tent and was about to crawl inside like the embarrassed, humiliated mess I was when I heard the shout.
“HAM!” my father’s distinctive bellow rang out through the quiet night. “Quinn fucking Hamilton, get your fucking ass out here right fucking now before I kill your fucking kid!”
Ah, shit.
Dad knew.
How the hell did Dad already know what had happened? I swear, that man had a nanny cam planted up my ass. It was freaky weird how fast he learned shit about anything I ever did.
Then again, Mr. Goody-two-shoes JB had probably run straight to him and confessed all as soon as I had left. I could picture it now. I just thought you should know, sir. I’m so sorry, but I just felt up your daughter’s ass and tits, sir. They were so nice and warm and round they gave me wood, so you probably need to cut my hands off now, sir. And maybe my dick too. Ugh. He was nauseatingly respectful and noble like that. Honestly the best person I knew.
And now I was going to have to stop my dad from killing the dumbass Boy Scout.
“Frigging idiot,” I muttered, shimmying backward out of the tent.
Once I was upright, I raced toward Luke’s red tent, only to skid to a confused halt when I found my dad yelling obscenities at…a tree.
Around me, everyone else was appearing, flashlights popping on as Quinn scrambled from his portable shelter, followed by his wife, Zoey, and my mom climbing from her and Dad’s tent, rubbing her eyes and yawning. Then Uncle Noel, Uncle Colton, aunts, cousins, Luke. They all came flooding to the scene, demanding to know what was going on.
“What the hell?” my cousin Beau asked, poking his head from the opening of his own cubby hole, right by where I had jarred myself to a halt. “Why is your dad screaming at a tree?” he asked me moodily. “Seriously. My pregnant wife is growing a human being in here; she needs her beauty sleep.”
I rolled my eyes. Bentley was like five minutes pregnant, and Beau had to go and mention that fact in every sentence he spoke. It would’ve been incredibly sweet if it weren’t so damn annoying.
“Shh,” I hissed, waving him quiet, just as my mom demanded, “Baby, what are you shouting about?” as she pushed tangled blonde hair out of her face and yawned. “Did you have another one of your weird dreams?”
“I did not have a goddamn dream,” Dad growled. “I woke up to Teagan’s voice only to glance out of my tent and find her slinking from this tent where his asshole son”—he jabbed his finger forcefully toward Quinn—“followed her out, waving her panties around like they were some kind of victory banner.”
Everyone glanced my way, and it felt suspiciously as if they were trying to determine whether I was wearing underwear or not, so I crossed my legs, then my arms over my chest for good measure, because I’d left my bra in that red tent too. Then I scowled back at everyone for looking at me.
Zoey shook her head. “But Luke’s standing right there,” she told my dad, sounding confused as she motioned toward him.
“Not that son.” Dad grabbed Quinn’s flashlight and aimed it up into the tree where JB was spotlighted, clinging to the branches. “This one.”
JB hissed out a breath and lifted his hand to shade his eyes from the direct beam.
How he’d gotten all the way up there, I’ll never know. Although it was tall enough, the tree seriously didn’t seem big enough around to hold him. It was long and skinny and looked as if a mild breeze could knock it over.
“Wow, Mom,” Luke told Zoey dryly. “Thanks for automatically assuming people are talking about me whenever they call your son an asshole.”
No one laughed. Utter silence followed as everyone gaped up at JB in stunned shock.
Then my mom let out a gasp and hopped repeatedly on her bare toes, clapping excitedly. “JB and Teagan? Together? Oh my God, I love it. We should have a Christmas wedding.”
“What?” I roared, gaping at my crazy mother just as JB cried, “No!”
“Yeah, JB’s always preferred the fall,” Zoey announced as if the date were the only problem she had with anything my mother had just suggested.
“We are not getting married,” I announced.
“Uh, maybe you should’ve thought of that before you two hooked up,” Fox snickered, making his pregnant sister hiss at him to shut up from inside her and Beau’s tent.
“We did not hook up,” JB growled. “Teagan, for the love of God, tell them we didn’t hook up.”
When everyone looked my way, I went strangely mute, remembering how close I’d come to kissing him, how nice it’d felt to sit on the hard ridge of his erection as it ground up between my legs. My body was still coming down from the buzz he’d left me with. I wasn’t sure if any guy had ever worked me up quite as much as JB had, and all he’d done was lift his hips a little and touch my butt.
My mind suddenly spun, wondering what he might’ve accomplished if he’d actually put some effort into it. And hell, arousal flushed through me all over again.
“That’s it,” my dad announced, scowling at my dazed expression before I could clear my brain enough to come up with something appropriate to say. “I’m killing him.”
“No,” Quinn said mildly as he grabbed the back of Dad’s shirt, stopping him when he tried to move toward the tree. “You’re not. Stay away from the tree.”
“Why are you in a tree, anyway?” my aunt Julianna asked, blinking up at JB.
“Oh, you know,” JB answered, conversationally, waving his hand and revealing the fact he was wearing nothing but boxer shorts. “It was such a nice night, I thought this would be the best place to avoid being murdered.”
“Well, you can come down,” Uncle Noel assured. “Ten’s not really going to kill you.”
“Yes, I am,” my dad insisted, struggling against JB’s dad.
“Maybe we should hear what Teagan and JB really have to say before we start assuming anything,” Aunt Felicity—who wasn’t really an aunt but might as well be—said.
“Didn’t sound like T had much to say,” Uncle Colton put in, stirring up some knowing chuckles among the group.
“Yes, I do,” I cried, setting my hands on my hips. “You guys didn’t even give me a chance to talk.”
“Then please start talking,” my mother suggested impatiently, “before your dad really does kill your future husband.”
“He’s not my—” I started, only to cut myself off and lift a hand. “Okay, here’s what happened. I crawled into the wrong tent, and by the time I realized JB was in there, I might’ve already removed some clothing, and I was so embarrassed and in a rush to leave, I might’ve accidentally left my underwear behind. That’s all.”
A moment of silence followed my explanation, before Luke huffed out a disappointed breath. “Well, that was boring. I’m going back to bed.” And he turned around, stalking off into the night.
My dad however didn’t seem bored in the least. He moved to me, squinting his eyes as he took in my face. Then he said, “Bullshit. You’re lying.”
“What?” I cried in outrage. “No, I’m not. I really did crawl into the wrong tent, and I really did leave my undies behind.”
He shook his head slowly. “That’s not the part you’re lying about.”
“Then what the hell do you think I’m lying about?” I demanded, scowling.
“I’m not sure yet,” he murmured, scratching his chin thoughtfully. “But there was definitely a lie somewhere in there.”
“Dammit,” I admitted, stamping my feet. “How do you always know that?”
“Oh, please,” JB reported dryly from the tree. “You give yourself away every time you lie because you have the most obvious tell on the planet. You always—”
“Don’t you dare tell her what she does to give herself away, you little fucker,” my dad warned, pointing threateningly. “How do you know what her tell is, anyway? You’re not supposed to know anything intimate about my daughter at all.”
He stormed to the tree and started to shake the trunk forcefully. “Now get your ass down here so I can kick the fuck out of it already.”
“Shit,” JB muttered as he lost his grip on the branches and was literally shaken from them. As he went tumbling out, spiraling toward the earth, I gasped and raced forward, right along with about a dozen other people.
It was Dad who actually caught him. Not intentionally, of course. He’d still been shaking the trunk when JB landed on him, and they both crumbled to the ground in a heap.
“Oh my God!” I cried. “Are you okay?”
“No.” I’d been asking JB, but it was my dad who answered on a pathetic groan. “I think he took out my fucking eye with his goddam elbow. Jesus!”
“Let me see,” Quinn instructed, pulling his son off my dad and then tugging Dad to his feet.
“God...damn, that hurt,” Dad whined, clutching his eye.
I moved to JB just as his mom reached him and started to look him over. “I’m fine,” he insisted, lifting his hands to ward us off, only to reveal bloody scratches marring his arms and torso.
“I think your eye will be okay,” Quinn announced, patting Dad on the side of the arm companionably as if my father hadn’t just been trying to murder his son. “You’ll probably end up with a bruise though.”
“Are you fucking serious?” Dad cried. “Unbelievable. I haven’t had a black eye in nearly twenty years.”
Uncle Noel chuckled. “Must mean JB really is your future son-in-law then if he’s the one who was able to give you a shiner.”
“Shut your fucking mouth,” Dad warned, glaring at my uncle before he transferred his scowl to JB. “I don’t care if he is my favorite non-nephew. This is just too…”
“What’s the main concern here?” Felicity’s husband, Knox, asked. “Even if they had done something together tonight, JB’s a good kid. And Teagan’s an adult now; she not going to become a nun, either. Wouldn’t you rather be secure in the fact she’s with someone you know and trust? One of us. Or would you rather she end up with some asshole stranger? You didn’t see me flying off the handle when my daughter ended up with Noel’s weird kid, now did you?”
“Dad,” Bentley scolded from her tent. “Beau is not weird.”
“Knox has a point,” my mom told Dad, hooking her arm through his and kissing his cheek. “If you turn into an ass about this, you’re going to act just like Noel did when you and I started dating.”
“You mean, when you ran off with my best friend and married him behind my back?” Uncle Noel asked his sister.
Dad scowled at Uncle Noel before turning to his wife and whining, “But she’s my baby girl.”
“And I’m not actually dating JB,” I put in. “Plus, we did not hook up…at all.”
When I glanced JB’s way to make sure I hadn’t given off any tells with that statement, he winced and shook his head.
Shit. Just what the hell did I do when I lied?
“Oh, Jesus,” Dad moaned, clutching his head and turning in a circle as if disoriented. “They really did do something in that tent. With all of us sleeping around them mere feet away, too. I think I’m going to be sick. What if she’s pregnant? I’m too young to be a grandpa.”
“Hey,” Uncle Noel muttered in insult. “There’s nothing wrong with becoming a grandparent at our age. Knox and I are about to be grandparents.”
“Oh, shit.” Dad turned to Mom in a panic. “I don’t look as old as those two geezers, do I?”
“But we didn’t—” JB started innocently, only for Quinn to shake his head and silently warn him to shut up.
“Maybe we should all just calm down and discuss this rationally,” Aunt Aspen suggested evenly.
“I mean, sure,” Mom agreed, nodding brightly. “I’m totally open to compromise and having a fall wedding.”
“Oh my God,” I moaned, closing my eyes and pressing my palm to my forehead, worried someone was going to plunk me into a white dress and shove me down an aisle before the night was over.
“Why don’t you two kids just sit tight?” Uncle Noel motioned toward a tree stump we’d used as a chair all evening as if he expected us to wait there like good, obedient little children until they decided our fate for us. “We adults will get this all sorted out in no time.”
“Get what sorted out?” I asked.
“You do realize we’re no longer kids, right?” JB asked, even as he dutifully moved toward the tree stump and plopped down, sitting with a petulant slouch.
“And if there’s anything to be sorted, we should be involved in the decision, anyway,” I added, folding my arms over my chest and refusing to budge. “Since it’s about us.”
Uncle Noel sent me a scowl, only to point at his son. “Beau, keep an eye on them until we get back.”
“What? I don’t want to play babysitter,” Beau said. “I’m crawling back into the warmth of my sleeping bag with Bentley. Who’s pregnant. With my baby. She needs me with her.” And his head disappeared into his tent.
“I’ll watch them,” Luke announced, eagerly popping forward and lifting his hand to volunteer.
JB glanced up in surprise. “I thought you’d gone back to bed.”
Luke shrugged, grinning jovially. “Sounded like things were getting exciting again.”
With a disgruntled huff, JB went back to resting his elbows on his knees while the beams from the adults’ flashlights bobbed away through the trees as they went off to sort things out.
I rolled my eyes with no idea what they possibly had to discuss away from us.
As they left, everyone else wandered off to bed as well, until only me, Luke, and JB remained in the clearing.
Great, t
his was going to be so uncomfortably awkward; I was stuck alone with the guy I’d nearly made out with and the guy I thought I was making out with.
4
Teagan
“So…” Luke said conversationally, setting his lantern on the picnic table before hopping up next to it and parking his ass. “What exactly did you two do in my tent tonight? You know, I don’t call it the love shack for nothing. I mean, did you see those stains on the ceiling? Impressive, right?”
“Eww,” I said as JB snarled at him with a deadly glower and muttered, “It’s none of your fucking business what we did.”
Luke’s eyebrows popped up, and his mouth formed an O before he turned my way, silently asking me what that was about.
I rolled my eyes and shook my head, refusing to get into it, then I glanced away guiltily. But my gaze ended up settling on JB, and God, he looked good stewing there in nothing but boxer shorts, his shoulders still as gorgeous as ever, even as sunburned and bowed in as they were while he huddled into himself trying to keep warm. Even his freaking bare feet were pretty as he curled his toes under them, something he often did when he was distressed.
Wow, why had I never realized how much the toe-curling thing charmed me before?
“Well, something happened,” Luke decided, smirking knowingly as he glanced between us. “Because T is definitely not wearing a bra either.”
As I gasped and crossed my arms back over my breasts where the cool night was making me nip like crazy, JB rose to his feet, snarling threateningly at his brother. “Stop staring at her chest.”
This time, my mouth dropped open right along with Luke’s, because JB hadn’t sounded merely moody there; he sounded like an overprotective, jealous boyfriend.
Oh Lord. What the hell was happening here?
Luke pulled back and lifted his hands, conceding his defeat. “Sure,” he replied before wincing at me, and not in an apologetic way, like, “sorry for looking at your tits,” but in a commiserating, “you see what a dick he’s being too, right?” kind of way.
