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Me: Tell Jace not to tell Jayden I’m coming. I want to surprise him!
Markus: 10-4, good buddy.
Markus: BTW how very girlie of you.
Me: Suck it.
Leaning back against the sofa, I watch as Angie and Jace open all her boxes, getting all her toys out while Lucy and Mom each enjoy a glass of wine. It’s been a good day, and the love in the room is strong. Especially when you look over at my brother and his fiancée. Claire cuddles deep into Jude’s arms, kissing his neck as he holds her tightly, while I just sit here alone.
Missing Baylor.
I wish she had come. Even if she brought her dad, it would have been enough just to be near her. I hate this stupid secret-keeping. It’s downright dumb, and I just want to be able to see my girlfriend when I want to. I want to be like Jude, with my girl in my lap and everyone knowing that I’m going to touch her. It’s a given because she’s mine. While I’m glad my brother is home—I’ve missed him—I am green with envy that he gets to hold his girl, that he doesn’t have to hide her. He actually gets to show her off.
“So I went dress shopping, Mom,” Claire says, and my mom looks back at her with a grin on her face. The relationship she and my mom have is very close. Mom has loved Claire since the moment she met her, and I can’t help but imagine Baylor with her. Would they be like that? Would Baylor call her Mom?
Hmm. Probably not.
“Aw, yay! How did it go?”
“I didn’t like anything,” she laughs, and Lucy smiles.
“Dress shopping is hard,” she says. “Remember, Mom, how long it took me? All that time we wasted,” she adds, and Mom smacks her leg, setting her with a look that is meant to shut her up. Even I know that no bride wants to hear about a failed marriage.
Looking back at Claire, she asks, “So you’re still shopping, then?”
Claire shakes her head, and Mom’s brows go up. Mine do too, actually, as I ask, “Then, are you going naked down the aisle?”
“I’ll be there for sure, then,” Jace comments from where he is putting some castle together until Jude kicks him square in the back. Glaring back at him, he says, “What the sh-crap dude!”
“Don’t say sh-crap like that about my fiancée!”
We all tend to forget that we can’t cuss around here, especially when Angie is in the room.
“Whatever,” he mutters before going back to putting the castle together, and Claire laughs.
“No, I’m gonna wear Reese’s dress,” she says, speaking of her aunt, and that has my mom grinning from ear to ear.
“That’s gonna be spectacular! I can’t wait!”
“Me either!” she gushes. “Not too long till Valentine’s day!”
“Valentine’s day? Y’all are ooey-gooey sweet,” I tease, and Jude flips me off as Claire just grins happily.
“Shut up, it’s going to be awesome,” she says breathlessly. “Jayden, you’re gonna walk with my aunt.”
“Cool, she’s hot,” I say with a playful smirk, and she rolls her eyes.
“Do I get Skylar?” Jace asks, and mentally I remind myself to warn Baylor that she’ll be at the wedding, if she even comes. I need to ask her about that.
“No, she isn’t in the wedding. So you get my niece, Ally,” she answers, and Jace makes a face. Probably because Ally is only like ten, if that. “And that reminds me. I heard that Skylar almost got into it with some girl at one of your parties,” she says to me, and I shrug, acting as if I don’t know what she is talking about.
But there is no way I could ever forget that night. Not only was it hot almost seeing Baylor come unglued, ready to fight some girl because she was talking to me, but because it was the first and only time I told her I loved her. There have been so many other times I’ve wanted to say it, like after I make love to her, but I just hate not hearing it back. I feel like I’m failing when she doesn’t say it, so to keep from feeling like that, I just haven’t said it again. But really, I don’t have to say it, I know she knows I love her. I also know she loves me, but she’s so fucking stubborn and a pain in my ass, she won’t admit to it.
Brat.
“I have no clue what you’re talking about. She must have been drunk,” I say unrevealingly.
“No man,” Jace says then, popping up and looking back at us. “That’s the night Baylor almost threw down because you and Skylar were flirting.”
