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"The team won," I clarified. Ripley had the winning touchdown, so maybe he could take credit, but I could not.
"It was...wow, you know?" she asked.
Winston shook his head and said, "Good game, man."
I snickered. Then I said, "I'm starving. I need to get food."
Winston said, "I'm heading with the fam to get my carbo load on. Your big game was tonight. I have a competition in the morning." He then held his hands out and moved like he was operating a controller.
I laughed. She didn't get it. Yeah, I needed this man in my life as much as this woman. "Where? I'll take you. Maybe grab dinner there, too."
"Yeah?" He looked a bit skeptically from me to her then back and shrugged. "Saves the fee for a ride. They would not wait for me."
"They?" I asked as we piled into my car. Holly sat in the back and Winston up front. I snickered. I was liking him more by the minute. Still only wanted to have sex with her.
"The family." He shook his head. "It'll be fine. Maybe fun. Awkward as hell, but I'm usually the only one feeling that so this should be good."
Winston
It was only fair that I brought them to dinner with me. Apollo wanted me to babysit, and I was doing just that. Bringing my new children with me.
"Winston!" Rip, Ripley's son let go of Harper's hand and ran over to me. I gave him a hug and then he looked up at Storm and said, "Tor!"
Torden Storm. I didn't blame him for going by his last name. His parents did not set him up for success with that one. I had looked it up and found that it meant thunder. Yeah, it was accurate. He was most definitely a thunderstorm these days. My job was to keep him from turning into a tornado.
Storm made a big production of lifting the heavy dude up as he said, "Rip! My God, man. You are getting bigger all the time!"
Rip laughed and nodded as Storm set him on his feet. Then the kid looked at Holly and said, "Hi."
She smiled sweetly and said, "Hello. I'm Holly."
"You're very pretty." Rip was forward for a five-year-old.
"Thank you." She blushed so deeply. It was like no one ever told her that stuff. She was a knockout. She had to know it.
She looked up at Ripley as he indicated to Rip he should head into the private room where we would be having dinner. Ripley looked at me, Storm, and said, "This should be an interesting dinner. Right this way."
He indicated, because of course, he wanted us to walk into that room in a certain order. Me first, Storm, and then Holly. Apollo, sitting at the head of the table, went from happy, to okay, to unreadable. I was pretty sure Harpy did not know he had increased the pressure on Holly to comply with her new situation based on the fact that Harpy seemed really happy to see everyone here. This was evident when she said to Apollo, "I told you it would work out."
He looked at her and smiled as he said, "You sure did, Baby."
Well, all I could do was try and hope for the best. If this went to shit, I had enough money to run for a while, and I would absolutely take off until they had enough time to decide not to erase me. He asked me if I loved Holly. I told him I didn't even know Holly. I was sure as shit not about to take a blood oath making me responsible for Holly the way he was for Harpy. Hells no. I wasn't even fucking this girl. No.
As we took our seats and Ripley took his next to Rip. Rip was across from Harpy. She was between Apollo at the head of the table and Titus to her right. I sat next to Titus, and Storm pulled out the chair next to Ripley for Holly and then he took a seat at the head of this end of the table.
Rip said, “Try the bread sticks. They’re the best.” He was reaching for them, already over or oblivious to our adult mini-drama and tension.
The meal was only weird for us and that became less so as the food arrived, and we did more eating than talking. I was surprised by the two vacuum cleaners I brought to this event. Both Storm and Holly ate like this was their last meal which upped my tension to the point I couldn’t eat as much as I usually would. I had leftovers to take with me. I was sort of relieved when they asked for desserts in to-go containers. Were they both on suicide watch now?
Fuck my life, man.
In the car, since we were all going to the same place this evening, I asked, “Best pasta ever or what?”
Holly said, “I’m so full. Yes. I haven’t had spaghetti since middle school. It only lasted a minute. If I just do it anyway, it gets really strong and then, it goes away.”
I looked at Storm and realized he had no idea what the fuck that meant either, so I asked, “Um. What?”
She laughed and said, “Oh. Yeah. I didn’t tell you guys this. So, at my appointment, my psychiatrist told me my father—you know my father. He’s the famous psychiatrist running around the world on his second book tour about how to raise exceptional female children.”
