“I am so appalled right now,” Lucas said, his hand on his chest. He acted as if his heart was breaking, but it soon went away and an evil grin replaced his hurt expression. “If she has you this hung up, she must have been amazing, and you need to hit that again.”
Oh, if only he knew he was talking about his beloved sister-in-law, Tate thought with a grin.
“I want to go slow. No matter how much I want to jump in bed with her, I want her to know I’m in this for the long haul.”
Lucas shook his head. “You’re too young for this. When I was your age—”
“You met Fallon and fell hard for her,” Tate supplied.
“Well yeah, but when we broke up, I slept with anything that had legs and tits,” Lucas said with the cockiness of a man who had been around the block a time or two.
“And I bet you regret your selfish antics,” Tate accused. Lucas’s expression showed that he didn’t like hearing that. It didn’t stop Tate from going on, though. “Lucas, I don’t want to be like the other guys, meeting girls, having sex with them, and moving on to the next. It wasn’t the way I was raised. My dad met my mom, fell in love, married, and had me by the time he was twenty-one. I am a little behind.”
“It isn’t like it was back then, Tate. Especially here in the United States. But it’s whatever, I feel weird trying to make you sleep with all kinds of females when I am married and will never touch another but mine for the rest of my life. You do you, I’ll stay out of it, but I’m here if you need me.”
Tate reached over, tapping Lucas on the shin with his stick. “I know.”
“Cool, now come on. It’s past time I scored on you,” Lucas said, before he skated over to his stick.
“Bring it, Brooks,” Tate said, dropping his helmet.
Even though Lucas didn’t understand his reasons for wanting to settle down, Tate still knew it was for the best and that Lucas supported him. He wanted that person—the person his father had in his mother. He wanted what Lucas had in Fallon minus the anger. He wanted a loving, willing woman who would love him for his dorky, gap-toothed, wounded self. He wanted his forever kind of girl.
And Tate had a feeling he had one within reach.
Audrey was having a horrible morning.
It was one of those mornings she wished she could go back to sleep and try again the next day. Saying good-bye to Aiden was harder than she thought it would be. She knew she could see him whenever she wanted, but it was nice having the little guy around. Her house was so big and lonely now. And then there had been the text messages from Levi, when she stayed in bed on Sunday, crying.
Come see me.
I promise, she doesn’t mean anything.
I just want to see you, I want to explain.
Stop being like this, we have fun, don’t we?
I need my Xbox back, come drop it off.
Now, tears filling her eyes, she sat in the parking lot of Luther Arena trying to figure out if she should go inside and see Fallon or go to work at Top Wines. Even though she’d rather sell all her shoes than go to that job she hated right now, hearing what Fallon would say was probably worse. With a frustrated yell, she pushed the car door open and headed toward the doors of the large arena. Fallon was usually at the office in the cellar, but since her sister had been away honeymooning, she would be in the wine room today to check on things.
“Hey you,” Audrey said, throwing her purse on the counter.
Fallon jumped in surprise before making eye contact and smiling. “You scared the crap out of me!”
“Good. I’m here like your text commanded.”
Fallon laughed, laying her pen down before pinning Audrey with a look. “You know why I asked you here, so spill it, what happened while I was gone?”
Audrey took in a deep, frustrated breath. If she didn’t tell Fallon, her sister was going to bother her until she did, so she said in a rush, “I slept with Levi again.”
“Ugh! Why on earth would you do that?!”
Audrey shrugged her shoulders again, looking down at the ground, “ ’Cause I’m dumb?”
“Ugh, yeah. So what happened? Are y’all back together?”