Page 91 of Until You

“We?”

“Yep. We.” She gives a resolute nod. “So we asked Pheebs if we could spend the night so maybe you could take Tenny on a date and finally make her your girlfriend or something.”

“Or something.”

“Exactly.” She glances over to where her sister has just walked out onto the verandah.

Addy eyes the two of us, and before she can run back in the house and avoid this conversation, I say, “Uh-uh. Get your butt out here.”

“It was Paige’s idea.”

Wow. She sure threw Paige under the bus fast. That’s unusual.

“It was our idea.”

“Girls.” I sigh and take a step toward them. “Thank you for thinking of me. For wanting to give me some adult time, but—”

“We saw you kiss,” Addy blurts out. “The other night. You were dancing, and you kissed her.”

“Um. Okay.” Well . . . shit. I fumble over what to say. For how to explain. For—

“So see? We’re going to Pheebs’s house so you can take her on a date or buy her flowers or something. She’s a girl. Girls like that kind of stuff,” Paige says so matter of fact that I’m left a little stunned.

So much for keeping things under wraps.

“We’re okay with it, Dad,” Addy says.

“Totally okay with it,” Paige repeats.

“Thanks for the approval,” I say and tip the bill of my ballcap at them in an attempt to try and cover up the shock over their comments and the simultaneous guilt over hiding it all from them and pseudo getting caught.

“Did someone forget to invite me to the meeting?” Tenny asks as she comes out the door looking from the girls to me and then back.

Both girls start giggling as they tell Tenny about their spontaneous plans for a sleepover. I watch the three of them together. The ease between them, the way they read each other, and I realize that even if the girls had never found out about Tenny and me, they’re still attached to her regardless.

There was no way I was or am going to avoid that. Hell, I should have realized that the night of my nightmare. How she handled the girls with such a natural ease and how they allowed her to comfort them.

It was ridiculous for me to think they wouldn’t attach themselves to her when I’m attached to her myself.

When I’m worried about how bad it’s going to sting too.

“She’s here,” Paige shouts excitedly and grabs her bag about the same time as a dust plume kicks up farther down our driveway as Phoebe’s mom arrives.

We spend the next few minutes chatting with Phoebe’s mom and getting the girls in the car. Tenny and I both stand at the foot of the steps, and as they pull away, she waves her hand in front of her face to swat the dust away.

“It’s horrible, isn’t it?” I ask. “The damn dust gets into the house regardless of how much I keep it closed up.” I glance back to the dust that’s still settling. “If I owned this place, if I lived here permanently, that would be the first thing I’d do.”

“What’s that?” Tenny asks me as she takes a seat on the top step and uses her hand to shield her eyes to look up at me.

“Asphalt the road.”

“That would definitely help cut down on the cleaning. Why do you think Ian hasn’t done it? Is it the cost?”

“My uncle’s not hurting for money,” I say, thinking of the text he sent me the other day. The one where he’s sitting on his forty-foot fishing boat that’s docked outside of his sizeable house in Palm Beach. He may be slowly losing his mental faculties, but he sure isn’t spending like it. “But in his defense, why go to the expense when he doesn’t plan on keeping the place.”

“Maybe whoever buys the place will.”

“Maybe,” I say and hate the feeling of knowing someone else might be living here. Might be spending time with her.