Crazy about Tara (Hastings Brothers Book 3)

by Mallory Funk

  Chapter Ten

  Tara

  We spend the next hour watching out the window to see what the guys are up to. Eventually, I see Luke, Noah, and Kyle run across the street to their house and come out a few minutes later with chips, pop, and controllers. Then I see Noah carrying a TV over to the brother’s house and I can’t help but laugh. The girls look out the window and laugh with me.

  “Looks like a gaming tournament to me. Good way to keep them occupied for hours. Let’s wait an hour or two and then we can get to work. Don’t want to risk getting caught,” Claire says, and we nod our head in agreement. We had just finished eating and I didn’t eat anything on the first plate Paige gave me. It all made me nauseous if I’m being honest.

  “I think that was the best performance,” Claire says looking at me with pride.

  “I think it was pretty good. Especially since I almost threw up putting that hot dog so close to my face,” I say with disgust in my voice.

  The girls all burst out laughing.

  “Those guys looked ready to shit their pants when you started yelling,” Courtney says through her laughter.

  “Now we can have a girls’ day too since they are clearly going to be occupied for hours. We may not even see them until morning because I think I saw Luke carrying energy drinks,” Paige says, and I just nod my head.

  “Yeah, they seem pretty scared to come near this house. Let’s do our nails and hair since we have the time. It’s been a long time since any of us have had our hair or nails done, and if we do it here then the smells won’t be so bad for me to handle, and I feel like I need my hair and nails done badly,” I say.

  We get everything set up in the living room to have a pamper day while we wait until it’s time to prank the guys.

  Derek

  Twelve hours.

  That’s how long it has been since I left this basement. Since any of us have left. There is a washroom downstairs, and Cole and Liam only left to get the pizza when we had ordered it during a break. Other than that, it has been non-stop gaming.

  I take one last look at the basement before I head upstairs. There are wrappers and cans everywhere. A couple of the guys are passed out on the floor, but Cole and Noah are still going strong. I’m exhausted and I honestly need to see my girl even if she is still mad at me. I know I won’t be able to sleep without her by my side, so I’m not going to bother to try. It’s almost two in the morning by the time Trevor and I make it across the street.

  Once we are inside, we lock the door back up and set the alarm before heading upstairs to our women. I just nod at my brother before heading to my room.

  I really hope that Tara is asleep and will let me sleep in the bed with her.

  When I open the door, I breathe a sigh of relief when I see Tara curled up in bed sleeping. I slip off my clothes and strip down to my boxers before I climb into bed.

  When I put my arm around her and rest my hand on her stomach, she moves a bit, but only to place her hand on mine, and threads our fingers together. I kiss her on the head before I drift off to sleep.

  When I wake up the next morning, I wake up to Tara poking me in the face. When she traces a finger down my lips, I nip at it with my teeth before opening my eyes.

  “Morning, baby,” I say, and she smiles at me.

  “Morning, handsome. When did you come home?” she asks me while still tracing my face with her finger. It’s something she loves to do. It relaxes her, and I don’t mind letting her do it.

  “About two. We played games all day, but I knew I couldn’t sleep without you in my arms, so I came home,” I tell her honestly.

  “I had seen the Johnson brothers walking across the street with a TV and munchies. Did you have fun?” She asks and I’m glad she isn’t one of those girls who gets mad at me for playing games. I don’t do it often, but it’s nice to not worry about whether or not my woman will get mad at me for taking a whole day with the guys to just game out.

  “Of course, I did although I was worried about you since you had yelled at all of us yesterday,” I tell her honestly.

  “I know, but I’m fine. Sometimes it just gets annoying when you watch everything I eat, and yesterday was the last straw,” she tells me, and I kiss her lightly on the lips.

  “I know, baby, but I only want what’s best for you and the baby. You both are so important to me and it’s the only way that I know how to take care of you right now,” I tell her, and I watch her eyes soften with every word I speak.

  “Okay. Just try not to be so much of an asshole about it, okay?” she says smiling widely at me.

  “Okay I will try. What are you craving today, baby? I will get you whatever you want, and we can spend the day relaxing before I go back to work tomorrow,” I tell her rubbing my hand over the bump on her belly. I feel the baby start to move and I can’t help the smile that comes to my face.

  “How about we have tacos today? We need shells and salsa for them though,” she says to me looking worried. Doesn’t she know by now that I will do anything for her? Getting taco supplies today isn’t as bad as waking up at three in the morning to cook burgers.

  “Okay, I will go get that. Hard or soft?” I ask her, climbing out of the bed and grabbing some clothes so I can shower before I leave.

  “Hard… no soft…ugh maybe hard… I don’t know,” she says as she throws her hands in the air.

  I can’t help but chuckle at her. “Okay, baby, I will get both. You don’t need to choose; you can have each kind.” She smiles at me like I had just said the best thing in the world.

  “Awesome. Don’t forget the salsa!” she yells as I’m leaving the room.

  Trevor is in the hallway as I leave the room and he smirks at me. “Good day?”

  “As long as we get shit for tacos, it will be a good day,” I tell him honestly, and he nods his head.

  I text the rest of the guys and ask if anyone else will be coming over for tacos. Noah and Liam are heading out with a couple of women they met last weekend. Sam and Cole are up for coming over just as long as Tara wasn’t going to freak out again. I had to reassure them that if we were getting tacos for the pregnant one, all would be fine.

  I knew that Cole wouldn’t be out looking for women because he hasn’t been with anyone since he met Courtney. As much as he would like to deny or hide it, we all know when he stopped having sex. He got the same look in his eyes that we did when we met our ‘ones’. The thing with Courtney is that he took the wrong approach and now they have this hate thing going on, but I know that neither one of them truly hate each other.

  There are the small looks they send each other when they think no one is looking. I wish he would just tell her how he feels, but Tara told me that wouldn’t work. There had to be more to it than that. We all have a past, and it will take a lot for Cole to break down that wall Courtney has apparently built around her heart. I had to take Tara’s word for it because she knows better than I do, so I just agreed.

  Kyle and Luke were going to head out for the night to another town and check out the bar scene, so they plan on leaving early and getting a hotel room.

  Once Trevor and I are ready, we head out the door. We decide to get coffee on the way since it seemed important to Tara that she have tacos today. The girls were all sitting in the back yard laughing when we go to say goodbye.

  I see Sam and Cole in their driveway and they tell us they are headed to get some other stuff from the store since we drank and ate every piece of junk food we have in our house and the Johnson house.

  We walk to my car in the driveway before Trevor quickly walks to his.

  “I just need to get my sunglasses, hold up,” he says, and I just nod my head and unlock my car.

  I open the door without thinking of anything, and my mouth drops open.

  “What the fu-“ I hear grumbled from Trevor. I look over at him and he’s having the same problem as I am.

  “Are you kidding me?” Noah yells from his driveway.

  When I look aro
und at everyone, I see we are all having the same problem. A bunch of balls are falling out of our cars and at our feet, and now they are spilling all over the driveway.

  When I look into my car, I see a picture of Claire taped to my driver seat smiling wide. All I can do is shake my head.

  I look at all the balls we now have to pick up, and I know it will be awhile before I get to the store. If there is one rule of pranks, it is that the pranked have to clean it up. We certainly didn’t help the women with popping balloons, so I know that they won’t help us with picking up balls.

  When I look up at the house, I see all of the girls in the window laughing hysterically at all of our faces. There are balls all over the place. Everyone is grumbling, but the girls don’t seem to care nor are they even the slightest bit scared.

  When I take a second to think about it, I realize that all of us going into the man cave and not coming out for twelve hours was the perfect excuse for the women to do this. To stock everyone’s car with balls and not get caught took some planning, which makes me think about how they seemed really proud of Tara last night when she freaked out at us. Then I remember how last week the smell of hot dogs made Tara gag. I look up at the window again with narrowed eyes and, when my eyes meet Tara’s, she raises her glass of orange juice in her hand with a smirk on her face because she knows that I just figured out that we got played.

  “They fucking played us last night, didn’t they!” Cole yells loudly so that we all can hear.

  After a nod of agreement by each of us, we head into the houses to grab trash bags since they will be big enough to put lots of balls in.

  My woman is lucky she is pregnant, or she wouldn’t be getting tacos tonight.

  Chapter Eleven

  Derek

  It has been a few days since the whole ball incident. I have been working my ass off to think of a way to propose to Tara. I know her dad is waiting for me to do it because he calls and asks me every day to see if I have asked his daughter yet. I’m so fixated on wanting it to be perfect for Tara that I think I need help.

  I call all the guys over to the gym during the day so that the women won’t know that we are up to something. I don’t want to risk the women finding out and telling Tara because the minute she is suspicious, I know she will figure it out. She will at least think we are up to something, and I don’t want her to know just yet. I’m hoping to surprise her.

  Once everyone shows up, I get up and make sure that I have the ring in my pocket so that I can finally tell the guys what I’m wanting to do and have been wanting to do for a long time.

  I close the door and there is nothing but silence; it doesn’t take long for Cole to break it though.

  “What the hell did you call all of us here for?” he asks crossing his arms over his chest and leaning against the wall.

  I blow out a breath. “Well, I’m planning on asking Tara to marry me,” I say quickly, and I’m left with nothing but stunned silence.

  “You’re what?” Liam says loudly.

  “I’m proposing,” I say again now showing them the ring.

  No one moves for a moment and then Trevor comes and gives me a hug before checking out the ring.

  “Holy shit!” Cole says finally breaking out of his shock, and everyone quickly joins him and comes to give me a hug and look at the ring.

  “Congrats, man. So how are you going to do it?” Noah says smiling widely.

  I run a hand through my hair. “I don’t fucking know! I need your help, everyone. I got Hank’s permission when they were in town and that was over three months ago. I still haven’t figured out how I’m supposed to ask her because I want it to be perfect.”

  “Wait, wait, wait a minute… are you telling me that you have known for over three months that you wanted to ask Tara to marry you, and even got permission to marry her from her father, but didn’t even bother to tell your brothers?” Sam asks with shock in his voice.

  I swallow hard and look at all of my brothers. “Yes. I wanted it to be a surprise, but I’m having trouble thinking of something that would be perfect for the woman I love. I know it will have something to do with all of you being there already because she loves the family she has found and that we all created with each other. I just want it to be special.”

  “I understand. I’ve been waiting for the perfect time to ask Paige and I haven’t found it. These women have been through a lot, and we want to do something that they will remember for the rest of our lives and eventually tell our children,” Trevor says. Everyone looks at him in shock, but I can’t say I’m surprised since we started dating the women at the same time.

  “Okay Sam, tell us right the fuck now if you want to ask Claire because I can’t handle any more emotional bullshit,” Liam says trying to wipe his eyes without anyone looking, but I caught it and so did everyone else.

  “Not yet. She’s still getting used to being around everyone and having a family. As much as I want to, I don’t want to scare or overwhelm her, but the time will come. I can feel it,” Sam says, and I nod my head in agreement. I can see Claire thinking it will be too fast for them to get engaged because it was hard for her, and still is, to have us all in her life every day.

  “Well shit. Now let’s think of how you guys can make honest women out of Paige and Tara,” Kyle says with a smirk.

  “This is going to take awhile,” Luke says as he takes a seat on the ground.

  Yeah, it will definitely take awhile.

  Chapter Twelve

  Tara

  Derek and the other guys have been really weird over the last few days.

  Whenever I come into a room, there is always a conversation that stops and hushed whispers when they think I’m not paying attention. I had asked the other girls about it, and they said that the same thing was happening to them. I would think it was another prank, but they don’t have that mischievous look in their eyes when they are planning one like they usually do.

  I have no idea what is going on and it’s starting to freak me out.

  I know that it can’t be about my family because they won’t be down until next weekend. Everyone made sure to not make any plans on Saturday and Sunday to help unload the truck and unpack.

  When I asked Derek if anything was wrong, he said that everything was fine and that there was just a lot going on at work. He avoided eye contact with me, so I could tell he was lying but I didn’t want to call him out on it just yet.

  We just had to figure out what they were up to.

  I kept thinking about the weird behavior of all the guys and was still thinking about it on Saturday morning when I was sitting out back drinking coffee with Paige and Trevor.

  Courtney had suggested earlier that we go out for some shopping this afternoon for baby stuff, and I couldn’t agree more. I needed to get my mind off everything. I think I’m just making myself worried or paranoid.

  We weren’t going to move into a place right away. I knew Derek was waiting for a house to open along this block, and that was fine by me because I would be scared to be on my own and not have the support of everyone around me, at least for the first while. I’m also used to having everyone so close that I couldn’t imagine moving across town.

  We had gotten a lot of things over the weeks, and the girls were planning on having a baby shower when my mother and sister moved into town. There was just some stuff I wanted to get on my own.

  Paige’s house was big, and Courtney had moved out of the room beside mine and Derek’s to the one upstairs in order for me to have a room close to the baby. I had liked that Paige had a couple spare rooms so that I wasn’t feeling that I was kicking anyone out of their room.

  Derek had spent the last couple weeks painting the room with the help of his brothers. We went for a light green deciding on a jungle theme for the room.

  I couldn’t be more excited. Today I was going to pick out a crib, rocking chair, changing table, and bedding for my little one. We already had a good pile of clothes going because ev
ery time someone went shopping they had to get the baby something. I honestly think that baby shower will be more about the games and spending time with the girls instead of getting gifts.

  After we were done our coffee, we got ready to head out. Derek is in our room watching TV and he barely glances at me when I walk in the door. I raise an eye brow at him. “Having a lazy day today, darling?”

  He nods his head and swallows hard. I have no idea why, but it was starting to bug me. I think I need to talk to the girls again during lunch.

  “Okay,” I say on a drawl. “I’m going shopping and having lunch with the girls. We should be gone for a few hours. You know how we get,” I tell him in the most cheerful voice I can manage.

  “Yeah, so we will see you close to dinner time?” he says with an amused expression because he was probably dead on that we really could spend all day shopping.

  “Yeah, I will make sure we are back for dinner. I need to get some more maternity dresses since that seems to be the only thing that is comfortable. I will probably buy some nursing clothes too so that I have some ready for when the baby is born.” He smiles softly at me and glances down at my stomach.

  “Okay baby. Get whatever you need. Make sure to use my card. If I don’t see one expense on there, then we are going to have a talk,” he tells me in a serious tone.

  I can’t help but roll my eyes at him, but I know that he is serious because we have had this argument before.

  “Alright darling. I’ll see you later,” I tell him as I lean down to kiss him.

  “Have fun, baby.”

  I glance at him once last time and see that he’s looking at the TV screen like it’s the most interesting thing in the world. Usually he would be looking at my ass as I walk out the door. Maybe he’s not finding me as attractive since I’ve been putting on more baby weight?