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“Whatever is making you cranky.” I shrugged.

“You wouldn’t understand,” she warned, her eyes full of sadness.

“Try me.”

Huffing out a breath, she took another gulp of her drink and placed it down on the table.

“It just bugs me how you’ve been accepted into Ty’s family, no questions asked. When I couldn’t even…” She hung her head, stopping herself.

Frowning, I stayed silent, knowing that she needed to get her thoughts together. I had a feeling this was about Charlie, the looks they gave each other, and the way she talked to him, spoke volumes.

“I know he has a past but he wouldn’t even let me tell anyone about us. Ty still doesn’t know,” she whispered the last part.

“Know about what?”

“Me and Charlie.”

“Okay….”

“We were an item, well…” She chuckled. “As much of an item as you can be when he won’t even admit that he’s slept with you.”

“Wait,” I held up my hand, trying to get the full picture. “You and Charlie were an item and no one knows?”

“Got it in one.” She held her drink up, draining the last bit and refilling her cup. “Nine months, we went back and forth, and not once did he introduce me to his parents.”

Leaning back, I listened as she carried on telling me that they were exclusive and how it was fun at first, but when it came to going public, he ended things with no explanation as to why.

“And you come along,” she continued. “Getting accepted straight away while they still don’t know about me and Charlie.”

“Here’s what I think.” I raised my brows, making sure that I had her attention before I car

ried on. “If he won’t shout it from the rooftops that you’re together then he’s not the right one for you.”

“I suppose.” She shrugged.

“No suppose, Kitty. You’re fantastic and a real catch.”

“A real catch?” She snorted. “What are we, living in the sixties?”

“Hey!” I giggled. “I don’t know what the right word is.” Rolling my eyes, I couldn’t stop the smile from spreading on my face from seeing her laugh again.

It was a sound that we’d all missed and I wish I would have spoken to her sooner about what was going on.

Watching Kay walk around in that dress all day nearly killed me. All I wanted to do was lift it up and take her here and now. But that would have been really inappropriate in front of all the guys, including Eli and Monty. So instead, I had to watch her walk around all day, her ass swaying from side to side and not able to do a thing about it.

We’d spent all afternoon laughing and running around on all the equipment. We’d barbecued loads of food and sat talking about when we were kids. Which then brought up the tree-house, I promised Eli that we’d get a start on it next weekend.

Once the sun started to go down, Eli sat on Kay’s lap and rested his head on her shoulder and promptly fell asleep.

After squirming around for a good ten minutes, trying to get comfortable, she finally said, “I’m gonna head back home and put Eli to bed.”

She shuffled on the bench, trying to get up. “Here.” I pulled Eli out of her arms and settled his head onto my shoulder in the same way that he had been on Kay.

“I-” she started, but shook her head, thinking better of it. She was slowly getting used to accepting help.

“We’re off, guys,” I said and was met with a chorus of bye’s.

Kay called Monty over and we made our way back through the woods to the house with Monty leading the way.