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Luke’s smile was easy, as were his words. He couldn’t be more different than the man beside him. But then again, he had a beautiful kid, a scary but hot as shit wife. He seemed like he had a lot of reasons to smile easy and tease people.
Lance had shadows behind his eyes, a naked ring finger—of course I checked—and never spoke a word about any kind of family.
I guessed there were a lot of reasons why he was the way he was.
I wanted to know those reasons. I had the strangest urge to be the reason he smiled with his eyes.
But that was insane.
What was also insane—in a slightly better way—was the fact that Rosie and Polly were driving all the way out here with drinks and food.
“We can make it a party!” Eliza decided while I was staring at Lance without even realizing it.
He was staring right back, blankly.
Luckily the toddler pulling my hair demanded my attention. I held his chubby hand.
“I’ll get Karen to bring our picnic table and grill over,” Eliza continued, starting to speak faster as she got more and more excited. She loved a party. “We’ll set up the back yard. We’ve got wine and chips. You can make guac.” She winked at me then looked to the men in front of us. “Seriously, Elena’s guac will make you want to propose marriage. Karen already tried, no matter the fact she’s married to me and Elena isn’t gay. But I wasn’t even mad, I was too busy eating the guac.”
Luke chuckled. Lance didn’t even crack a grin.
I didn’t argue with her. My guac was really good.
“Feel free to invite the whole team,” I offered, thinking about what they’d done for me. The least I could do was make them some frickin’ guac. “If it’s not too late notice and they feel like making the drive,” I added, thinking of the hour—in good traffic, which was rare—each way they’d have to travel.
“Well, I’ll tell you Heath will come ‘cause Polly’s comin’. That means Skye and Ziggy—their two kids are coming, if that’s good with you to have more little monsters around?”
I nodded enthusiastically. Because Nathan would love having kids around. I loved it too. I’d always wanted a big family, a house full of kids. Happiness. It had been the plan with Robert. But he’d started beating me when Nathan was born and I’d started secretly taking the pill so I didn’t bring another child into the mix.
Luke grinned and continued speaking. “Keltan will likely come when he hears about the guac, he likes to eat. That means that Lucy and their daughter, Amelia, will be comin’ too. That good?”
I thought about what I had in the pantry, which wasn’t much. “Sure,” I said, smiling brightly. “I’ll run to the store and get supplies.” I looked to Eliza. “If you guys don’t mind watching my spawn and this angel?” I squeezed the baby in my arms again.
I thought about taking Nathan with me, but I knew he wouldn’t want to be taken away from the men and the excitement of what they were doing. Plus, the sugar that he’d probably already overdosed on.
“I got it,” a voice clipped.
We all looked to Lance.
Eliza blinked rapidly at him, I was unsure if this was because of the unexpected bite to his voice, him speaking at all or because she was still drooling over him. Maybe a combination of the three.
Luke only grinned knowingly. Knowing what, I had no clue.
“Got it?” I repeated, focusing my eyes on Lance’s shades.
“Shit from the store,” he clipped, seemingly annoyed that I was asking him to expand on his three-word grunt. “I’ll get this shit done, then go to the store.”
My eyes widened. The offer itself was unexpected but hearing it come out like it was causing Lance pain was even more shocking. I tried to imagine him with a cart, walking down the aisles of a grocery store, grabbing party items, scowling at every shopper that gawked at him. Couldn’t see it. Surely he ordered his groceries online.
“It’s okay,” I said quickly. “You’ve done enough for me already, and that’s going too far out of your way.” Plus it felt like charity, as if his intense stare could see into my rapidly emptying bank account and empty pantry.
“It wasn’t a question,” Lance said, voice tighter than his ass, and that was a tight ass. “You got your kid.” He nodded his head to Eliza. “Friends. Plus the preparation for Rosie and Lucy. Got it covered.”
The last three words of his sentence were structured like a decision made. No argument. A dismissal.
He even started to turn away from me.
Something heated in my blood.
And not in a good way.
“Ah, it’s my house, my guests, so I’ll cover it,” I snapped at him.
Luke somehow grinned even wider at the prissiness in my voice.
