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When he steps backward, looking disheveled with flushed cheeks and swollen lips, it’s hard not to pull him right back to me and indulge in the magic of his mouth again.
“Tomorrow night?” he asks.
“Maybe. It depends on how Jack is feeling. I’ll text you.”
His lips are pressed together tightly as he backs up toward the door. “Oh, and Eden?”
I raise my chin in expectation.
“I don’t want to do it at the club again. I want you to come to my place.”
My smile fades, and I freeze in place. He takes a step back toward me. “Don’t start panicking. It’ll be fine. It’ll just be…us.”
Finally, I nod. “Okay.”
He smiles as he backs up again. “Tell Jack I said goodbye. And let me know if you need anything else.”
I nod again as he opens my bedroom door. I can barely move as I hear him cross my house and leave through my front door.
I’m not sure what just happened or what I just agreed to. But it seems that’s a common theme lately. Where he and Jade are concerned, I’m always blissfully and hopelessly lost.
Rule #27: Don’t bring up your forbidden boyfriend with your dad.
Jade
“Grab me a Coke from the cooler, Cupcake,” my dad calls from his seat behind the wheel of the boat.
I’m sitting in the passenger seat on the opposite side, my feet crossed on top of the cooler as I stare out at the harbor in the distance. The sun is starting to set as we make our way back to dry land.
Pulling my feet down and popping the lid, I grab two cold red cans and slam the cooler shut.
My dad and I have been boating together since I was in middle school. My mother wasn’t much of a fan, so more often than not, it was just him and me. I’d like to think that someday it won’t be just me. Maybe I’ll be able to bring along someone I love. Then one day, I can pass this tradition down to my kids.
“You have to stop calling me that,” I say, passing one to him. “I’m twenty-three, Dad.”
He pouts at me, looking offended. “You’ll always be my cupcake.”
Rolling my eyes and fighting a giggle, I cross my legs over the cooler again. It’s warm for early spring, but I’m still wearing a light hoodie to keep the cool ocean wind off my skin.
“Even when you’re old and married, I’m still going to call you Cupcake.”
“What about if I’m young and married?” I reply, cracking open my drink. The very mention of marriage makes me think of Clay. I’ve gotten to the point now in our relationship where I’m constantly looking for an opportunity to come clean with my dad. Sooner or later, we have to tell him.
And no, I’m not thinking about marriage with Clay yet. We’ve only been secretly seeing each other for a few months, but deep down, I’m committed to making it last. Iwantto love Clay forever. We just have some hurdles to overcome first.
Hurdles like…a sexy Dominatrix and exhilarating threesome encounters that have me fidgeting in my seat every time they cross my mind.
“Don’t get married young,” my dad replies with bitterness in his tone.
Inwardly, I wince. Okay, so maybe marriage is a bad topic with my dad, seeing as how my mother decided twenty-five years was long enough and decided to split two years ago. Just when they were ready to have their lives back without me around, she basically told him she didn’t want to be alone with him for the rest of her life.
It breaks my heart to think of what that did to him.
But my dad and I have always been comfortable talking about everything, far more than my mom and me. So even though I should, I don’t drop it.
“Not all young marriages are bad,” I reply, squinting up at him.
“I know that,” he replies grumpily from his captain’s seat. “But I don’t want to see you settle. Go see the world before you make that commitment.”
