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Chapter Thirteen

TAYLOR

On my phone screen, Violet reached behind herself to tie her hair up before settling into her spot on the stool, “Okay, I’m ready.”

I nodded, glancing up briefly when Nicole tiptoed out of my bedroom toward the kitchen. She wore nothing but a shirt and cheeky panties, and god, she was gorgeous.

We’d gone on an official date once a week on average since our first date over a month ago. We went on more walks, on a hike, to the movies, even to a paint-and-sip art class that we both agreed never to do again.

But our poorly painted trees were now proudly hanging in Nicole’s apartment.

We were more comfortable staying the night at each other’s houses.

Each night, whether we were saying goodbye and going to our own apartment or snuggling in bed together for a sleepover, we would check in with each other.

“I like you.”

“I like you, too.”

It was a brief conversation.

Easy.

Until it wasn’t, because last night, I realized I wanted to change it up just a smidge.

Because falling in love with Nicole Young was one of the easiest things I had ever done.

How to tell her, though?

Would she trust me when I finally said those words to her?

I didn’t want to rush her. Her trauma and how her last relationship ended would probably play a role for a while. It’s difficult for people to heal from being cheated on. The trauma could last years.

Knowing that, I still wanted to be there for her through it all.

I focused back on Violet, her picture filling the screen on my cellphone. I had forgotten that she and I scheduled this call this morning. When my phone started buzzing, I tried to slip out of Nicole’s arms without waking her.

That obviously didn’t work, because Nicole was tiptoeing around my call.

I cleared my throat and spoke to Violet, “The first question they’ll probably ask you is, what kind of behaviors does Gracie struggle with at home and in school?”

Violet gnawed on her lip, and even though Violet was attractive in her own way, I realized how that movement didn’t do anything to my insides, unlike when Nicole bit her bottom lip. I usually ended up wanting to bite it myself.

“Since we’ve moved, her mouthing has increased a lot.” Violet’s gaze drifted to the side as if seeing the behaviors she remembered. “She is quicker to bite her arm or her shirt when she’s stressed.”

Violet was starting the process of trying to see if Gracie qualified for one-on-one support in her kindergarten class.

She asked me for pro tips on what to expect when the district psychologist called to ask her about Gracie’s behaviors, because I had learned a lot about this through my line of work.

I nodded, watching Nicole return from the kitchen with a glass of water in her hand. “Does Gracie elope?”

Violet shrugged, “Yeah, eloping has increased too. But she’s also improved in so many other ways—” I lifted a hand to cut her off.

“That’s not what I asked you.”

Nicole raised an eyebrow at me as she took a sip from the glass, leaning against the wall and crossing one of her slender ankles over the other. Her toes were painted bright yellow.

“What?” Violet’s voice made me focus back on my video call.

“Don’t offer them more information than what they ask for.” I forced my eyes away from the beauty standing in my apartment and back on my blue-haired friend, “All I asked was if Gracie eloped. All you need to respond with is ‘Yes.’”

Violet nodded, “Yes. Gracie elopes.”

“At home? At the store?” I pressed.

“Both. And also—wait—” Violet’s brows pinched, “Do I go into detail here? Or will that also kill the deal, so to speak?”

“It doesn’t hurt to expand when you’re making it sound like Gracie’s eloping is a real problem you deal with often.”

Violet nodded, “I feel a little bit like I’m lying. I mean, Gracie does have all these behaviors, but focusing on those feels unfair to all the progress she’s made in other areas.”

“I know.” I shifted back, propping my feet up on the coffee table and holding my arm out toward Nicole. She raised both of her dark eyebrows at me this time, tentatively stepping toward me.

I made direct, unblinking eye contact with her until she fulfilled my silent request.

Sit with me. Be with me . You’re safe.

Nicole smiled and gently sat her cute little ass on the farthest cushion from me, keeping herself out of the frame of Violet’s call.

“What you need to realize, my sweet wholesome Violet—”

I was interrupted by a humorous snort from her end, “If only you knew how not sweet and wholesome my mind has been lately.”

I widened my eyes, “I’m coming back to that.

But my point is, that you’re not lying to the district about Gracie’s struggles.

You have good reason to want to increase her one-on-one support hours during the school day.

The issue you’re dealing with is that school districts like this will always, always want to cut corners when it comes to their special ed programs. So, if you list all of Gracie’s behaviors, but then try to put a band-aid over them by saying, ‘But she’s improved with her AAC in the last month,’ then the district will take that as an opportunity to hit you back with, ‘Well, see? Her communication skills are still improving, so we don’t need to pay for her to have more support. ’”

Violet frowned before scraping her fingernails through her scalp, “Fucking fuck.”

Nicole started making hand gestures from her spot on the couch, and I tilted my head at her in confusion, “What?”

“I didn’t say anything else,” Violet replied from my phone.

Nicole blushed and started waving her hands around again and mouthing words I couldn’t interpret.

“What are you saying?” I asked, still confused.

“Who are you talking to?” Violet asked.

“Nicole,” I replied.

Nicole slammed her mouth shut; a beautiful blush stained her cheeks as she widened her eyes at me in shock.

“Oh—hi Nicole!” Violet waved and leaned closer to her phone.

Nicole covered her face with her hands and slouched on the couch. I realized Nicole wasn’t wearing pants yet and refrained from panning my phone over to her.

“Wait, wait,” Violet narrowed her eyes at me, “Why is my CFO at your place at eight-thirty in the morning—” Violet’s jaw dropped suddenly before she transformed her face into a mischievous grin and started wiggling her eyebrows, “You two had a sleepover, didn’t you?”

“Yup,” I smirked when Nicole grabbed a throw blanket off the back of the couch and covered herself up completely in it, squirming, “Nicole is being timid about it, though.”

“Why?” Violet rolled her eyes before cupping her hands around her mouth and saying, “You’re allowed to have sleepovers, Nicole!”

“I know that .” Nicole’s voice was muffled under the blankets before she poked her head out, and because she was now sufficiently covered, I turned the phone toward her so she could speak to Violet directly.

“I just didn’t realize we were telling our mutual friends about our sleepovers. That’s all.”

You have nothing to worry about , I wanted to tell her, I love you too fucking much to lose you, mutual friends or not .

“I can’t believe my CFO and Gracie’s OT are doin’ it,” Violet giggled, “I’m so sex deprived. Please tell me everything. Have you been seeing each other for a while?”

“Why are you sex deprived?” Nicole asked, sitting up a bit more. She finally scooted closer to me so I could wrap an arm around her slender shoulders, pulling her snugly against my body.

She fit so perfectly there.

When she adjusted the throw to cover some of my legs as well, I even sighed with contentment.

“Ugh,” Violet groaned and threw herself back in her chair, clearly forgetting she was sitting at a kitchen island and not a bed or couch.

She almost fell backward, giggling at herself when she stabilized and focused back on the conversation, “This stays between the three of us, especially you, Nicole.”

Nicole snuggled closer to me, “Okay.”

On the screen, Violet made a show of checking her surroundings to make sure the room was empty before she leaned close to her phone. So close, we could only see her eyes and forehead, “I’m so, so horny for Brandon’s brother.”

“What!?” Nicole laughed, shaking the two of us, “What’s his name again? Grayson or something?”

“His name is Graham,” Violet whispered into the phone, “And I’ve never wanted a man to be inside of me more.”

I snorted at the same time Nicole laughed with a grimace, wrinkling her nose in disgust, “Violet. He’s our client. And Brandon’s brother. You can’t.”

Violet squeezed her eyes closed, still comically close to her phone camera, and pretended to sob, “I know, I know. But it’s been so long since I’ve wanted sex—parenting, you know?

Plus, my dad lives with us, and no way in hell am I bringing a guy home with my dad sharing a wall—but everything he does is so attractive.

For literally no reason. I’m constantly popping bean.

The number of times I’ve had to charge my vibrators this last month is chilling. ”

Nicole was still giggling against me, “They’ll have to do for now. I can’t recall the specifics of our contract with Moore Farms, but I’m pretty sure ‘don’t sleep with the CEO’s brother’ is implied.”

Violet thumped her head down on her kitchen island, giving us a nice view of her electric blue hair falling all over the marble.

“You don’t have to worry. I’m under the impression that the horny-ness isn’t exactly reciprocated.” Violet murmured against the island.

“His loss,” I shrugged. “He’s missing out on your massive mommy-milkers.”

“Damn straight,” Violet sat up and pulled the collar of her V-neck shirt down, pushing her breasts together as she smiled down at her own cleavage, “The universe blessed me with glorious tits after having Gracie, and only men who are completely obsessed with me get to motor-boat them.”