Page 87 of Tangled Hearts

I growl a little. “Iknow.Still hate it, though.”

“Yeah, I hate it too.” Nic sighs. “Let’s head in before they notice we’re here and come out to us.”

I unbuckle my seatbelt with a dramatic huff and climb out of the Jeep, doing my best to ignore Nic’s amused laughter. I don’t know what he thinks is so funny. We walk in the door side by side, but not touching. Hate, hate, hate.

“Hey!” Beck pops his head up from the box he’s looking in. “Perfect. Our backup is here.”

“Reporting for duty,” Nic says.

I almost roll my eyes. Suck up. But also, I get it. And honestly? Beck probably is the hardest parent to impress. You’d think it would be Roman, but no, he’s chill and easygoing. Beck is difficult to the core.

“What are we doing today?” I ask, glancing around. All the organizing Nic and I did a few weeks ago seems to be for nothing because, once again, the place is in disarray. “Why does it seem like someone came in and undid all my hard work?”

“Because someone did undo all your hard work,” Roman says, stepping into the main part of the office where we’re standing. “Someone called to verify that we got their donation. It wasn’t checked off on the list, so I had to tear pretty much everything apart looking for it.”

“What was it?” I ask, frowning a little at the idea of missing something.

Roman waves his hand like it’s no big deal. “A homemade custom quilt. We had it, but it didn’t get checked off.”

I try to think back on the day Nic and I organized the donations. I remember the quilt, so why didn’t I check it off? Fuck. That was when I was trauma dumping on Nic. How could I have forgotten to check it off? “That’s my fault. I was telling Nic about my past, and I just… forgot to mark it off, I guess.”

Nic gives my shoulder a squeeze, and I turn to face him, gazing into his warm hazel eyes. “It’s alright, d—Eli.” My stomach goes hot, my face flushing. He clears his throat. “I think that was when you got upset about your bio dad. I took your notebook. It was my fault. You must not have checked it off yet. I didn’t think to look.”

He’s taking the blame for me. Even though it was definitely my fault. I’m not sure how that makes me feel. Warm, I think. Inside. Warm and fuzzy.

We keep staring at each other, and his gaze softens, then his lips curve into a grin.

Beck clears his throat. I jolt, looking away from Nic. When I glance at Beck, he’s staring at Roman with a smirk. “Anyway,” he says, turning back to us. “It doesn’t matter. We obviously found it and got it checked off, but now we just have to reorganize everything.”

“Do we have food and stuff done?” I ask, trying to push down my guilt. “Vendors and everything?”

“I believe so,” Roman says. “But there’s a list on the table in the conference room. If you two wanna tackle the stuff in there, and then just check the list to double-check that everyone has confirmed?”

“Perfect. We can definitely do that.”

Nic opens the wooden door, gesturing for me to go in. What a gentleman. I flash him a bright smile and walk past him into the room.

When we’re safely tucked away inside, I sigh in relief. At least this offers us a small amount of privacy. It’s better than being directly under the all-knowing eyes of The Dads.

“I’ll work on the list,” I say, stepping up to the table.

“That’s fine. I’ll work on getting these boxes organized again.”

I sit down at the table, grabbing the pile of papers. “Oh fuck yes.”

Nic pauses mid-lift, turning to me with a raised eyebrow. “What?”

I wave the papers in the air. “There’s a taco place down the road that makes the best birria tacos I’ve ever had in my entire life. They’re catering.”

Nic laughs. “Priorities.”

I nod. “Food is very important.”

I go back to scanning the list. Mia and Emily are bringing desserts, along with… I gasp. “Holyfuck.”

“What now?”

“Mia and Emily are going to be setting up a boba station.”