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That would just be plain old not nice.
"You know I love you, right?" I asked him quietly. Sometimes I told them I loved them, but usually I didn't. I'd grown up in a way where it hadn't been something you said aloud because it could easily be used against you. I had never told Vivian I loved her, and she had never said it to me either. I had heard her say it to several of her deadbeat boyfriends a time or two, but only when she wanted something from them. Unluckily for her, they had never been the types of men who wanted a woman to love them, they'd come around because they wanted her to pay attention to their dicks. It was just the sad truth.
Tyson pulled my hand away from his face. "Yeah," he said. "I know you love me even though you barely ever say it. I've been keeping my words in check, waiting so I didn't scare you. But now I'm not going to hold back when it comes to you anymore. Better get ready for it, get ready for me."
I grinned at him and almost told him to bring it on, but I had learned with these guys not to throw down a challenge, because they would throw down with me in a heartbeat.
"We're good, Ty. Seriously, don't worry about what happened between us. It happened. It's over, and it's in the past now. You didn't know the whole truth behind what was going down and you acted out because I hurt you. That's understandable and easily forgiven. You're my boyfriend and my best friend. Let's just get back to being that and to hell with the rest of it."
A surprised burst of laughter escaped him as he held me tighter in his arms. "You've got a serious potty mouth on you now," he informed me with amusement.
I frowned at him severely. I didn't think I had much of a potty mouth, I tried to keep most of my swear words inside my head so that other people wouldn't look down their noses at me or judge me for the messed up shit I thought.
"Shut up," I muttered. Tyson chuckled in amusement as I tugged on a lock of his long brown hair. I looked at him seriously and the smile wiped off his face. "Please don't tell the others about Annabell right now. I know they won't hold anything against me, but I can't talk about it anymore. I have a hard enough time even thinking about it, and that feels like it's slowly killing me. I can't talk about it with other people right now. I know I'm asking for a lot by asking you not to say anything to the others, and it's not like I'm actually trying to keep things from them in order to have secrets or whatever... I just... can't right now."
He pressed his fingers lightly to my lips. "Shh. I get you. Uncle Quint will get you too. You don't have to worry about either of us saying anything until you are ready and, Ariel? You don't ever have to be ready if that's what you need. The others will respect your wishes. Everyone will feel like they owe you that much after you brought Romero home with you and we had thought you'd abandoned us."
I flinched at hearing his last sentence and Tyson sighed heavily.
"It's going to take some time for all of us to get over our guilt with this, Ariel. But it won't matter. We're here with you and for you because we're a family, and it's always going to be that way. We all love you more than anything else in this whole world, and at the end of the day that's all that matters. I'm going to take your advice and let it go that I was a dick, but I want you to listen to your own damn words and try to actually take them in yourself. It's over and in the past, let your guilt go and move the fuck on."
I appreciated his words, truly I did, but only time would tell if I'd actually be able to get behind them and practiced what I preached.
Tyson stood up with me in his arms and I applied pressure to his shoulders. "Put me down, Ty. I can walk!"
He smiled at me, full on with blinding white teeth and everything. I blinked at him, surprised he had that in him to give to me right now. It was a beautiful sight to see.
"I'll let you walk down the stairs by yourself."
I sighed and rolled my eyes as Tyson carried me out of the bathroom and through Dash’s and my apartment.
* * *
To say things were awkward would be an understatement.
We gathered in the formal living room that no one ever used, likely because there was no television in here and the guys weren't really big on sitting around on pretty furniture and shooting the shit.
True to his word, Tyson had allowed me to walk down the stairs on my own. He walked beside me through the house with his hand at the small of my back while we followed the sound of murmured male voices. A sudden bout of nervousness had me slowing down my steps, but Tyson wasn't about to let me put the brakes on. His hand at my back applied pressure and he pushed me harder toward the formal living room.
I scowled at him and things went downhill from there.
Everyone was there, including Isobel and Baxter. They both stood slightly back behind Rain, huddled together closely but not touching. Isobel's eyes were zeroed in on Romero, but he wasn't looking at her at all.
Oh no, his eyes were focused on the door like he'd been sitting there for years, and was waiting for me to walk through the doorway and would gladly wait however many more years it took me to get there.
And I had no idea how to act around him. He was Dash's father and I had seen his dick.
Also, unfortunately for me, I'd seen a whole lot of dick lately that I hadn't wanted to see.
Romero also said some not so pretty things to me because he was crazy, honestly, and free with his words. Hopefully, with time, he'd be able to adapt to things in this new to him world and he'd pick up a filter. I blamed him for absolutely none of these things, though, and didn't hold a grudge against him. I couldn't imagine going through what had been forced upon him, and if I had, I certainly wouldn't have come out of it sane, that was for sure.
Not that I thought Romero was sane, because he clearly wasn't. I don't know how he was before, but his experiences had clearly turned him into an interesting sort of fellow.
Whose dick I had seen. Whose son I’d had sex with so many times I'd lost count.
Jesus, I needed to get cocks off my brain before I started blushing like a virgin and people pointed at me and laughed. I knew the people in this room and several of them weren't adverse to it.
"Come sit over here between me and my son, Ariel," Romero spoke, his voice sounding hoarse and overused to my ears as he patted the seat on the couch between him and Dash. Well, harsher than normal. His voice always sounded rough, and it made me wonder how much he'd been talking since we brought him here.
