AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I wonder if he’d let me borrow that mannequin.
TWENTY-ONE
TATE
Grant and I leave the engagement party arm in arm around 8:30 PM. Most of the gang planned to stay and hang out at the restaurant bar, but Grant had somewhere he wanted to take me. The whole group seemed interested in the fact that we were leaving together.
“I don’t see why you guys have to go,” Nick said. “Party’s just begun! If you want to make out, just sneak off to the bathroom again…”
I reached out to playfully slap his arm. “NICK.”
“What? You guys were so obvious!” He continued with an impersonation in a high-pitched voice. “Oh hey, Tate, follow me out into the hallway for no reason at all. I definitely don’t look like I’m about to hump your leg as soon as I get you alone.”
“It wasn’t like that,” I insisted, looking at Grant for backup.
He gave an amused shrug. “It was a little like that.”
I tossed my hands up in defeat.
I guess the cat’s out of the bag there. At least they think our bathroom activities were PG compared to what really happened. I’d pass away from embarrassment if they found out the rest.
I won’t lie…I sort of thought Grant would whisk me straight back to his apartment as soon as we left the restaurant for some sweet, sweet lovemaking. Instead, we head back toward my place. Only, we don’t turn when we’re supposed to. He’s the one who called the Uber. I didn’t even think to confirm our final destination with him, so when we arrive outside my brother’s house, I’m speechless.
“Do…” I look between the house and Grant then back again. “Do you live close by here?”
Grant shakes his head, already unbuckling his seatbelt and preparing to get out. “That’s your brother’s place, right?”
“Yes…”
He thanks the Uber driver then gets out to open my door. My mouth is still hanging open in shock as we ascend the stairs and ring the doorbell.
Harper answers and immediately gets reprimanded for it.
“Harper Allen, you do not answer the door on your own! What if there’s a crazy person on the other side?” My brother sees me and decides to be funny. “Oh look, there is a crazy person.”
I would flip him off if not for Harper. I settle for a mocking “Ha ha.”
My brother grins, and then finally he puts the pieces together: I’m standing on his doorstep beside Grant Navarro, his teammate. We’re here alone, just the two of us.
“Is he expecting us?” I ask Grant out of the corner of my mouth. Before he can answer, I repeat the same question to my brother. “Were you expecting us?”
“Who’s there?!” Chloe calls from the kitchen.
“Aunt Tate and Grant Navarro!” Harper shouts back.
“What?! Really?” Chloe comes peeling around the corner. “Huh. I assumed you were kidding.”
“Nope. Look, it’s him. You’re taller up close,” Harper says to Grant, leaning her head back. “More handsome too.”
Luke’s already massaging his temples. “Harper.”
“What? I have eyes, you know. He looks like my Ken doll, the one with brown hair and a tan.”
“You’re eight!” Luke and I say at the same time, further solidifying that as much as we want to be different, we are, in fact, the same.
“All right, all right, can you two move aside so they can come in? I swear. Were you just going to leave them on the doorstep all night?” Chloe pushes Luke and Harper out of the way so Grant and I can walk into the foyer.
I ruffle Harper’s hair and wink down at her.
“That’s him, isn’t it?” she whispers (loudly) to me. “The boy.”
I nod and she squeals, drawing the attention of all the adults.
“I…thought I saw a mouse.” She comes up with the lie almost too fast and points to the corner. “Over there.”
By now Luke and Chloe know not to believe any of her nonsense. In fact, Luke doesn’t even look in the corner. His attention is on Grant.
“It’s good to see you, man,” Luke says with a stiff tone. Clearly, he’s confused by our appearance at his home, which tells me Grant didn’t give him a heads-up that we were on our way over. I wonder how he got the address. Dustin or Josh, probably.
“Yeah, sorry for the intrusion. I was hoping we could talk for a second.”
Uh-oh.
“All of us?” Luke asks, meeting my eyes.
I subtly shake my head to let him know I have no idea what this is about.
Although…I do have an inkling, a tiny fear-slash-hope of what this could be.
“Just you and me if that’s okay.”
Chloe immediately starts prodding us out of the room. “Oh! Yes. Harper, Tate, come to the kitchen. Let’s have a midnight snack. You girls want some popcorn?”
Harper says, point-blank, “I want candy.”
She’s too smart for her own good. She knows Chloe’s trying to get her out of the room and she’s using the opportunity to her advantage. If there were a CIA for children, Harper would have already been recruited.
