Page 27

27

JAMIE

My dick’s still harder than a steel pipe when I open the door for the delivery guy and take the bag of Mexican food to the kitchen. It’s been half an hour since Blakely ran upstairs, and besides the creaking of the floors above me, I haven’t heard a peep.

After dropping the bag onto the counter opposite to the one I finger fucked my wife on top of, I sort out the food on three plates.

Nate’s yet to come downstairs again, but he seemed fine before disappearing. Tired and overwhelmed, sure. My family is a lot for anyone to handle, and even if there wasn’t a long reception, the ceremony was still busy. The media circus outside didn’t help, I’m sure.

The kid handled the cameras well. He stopped flinching at the flashes after the first few and even smiled a couple of times on the way to the SUV. Questions were thrown at all of us, and he did exactly as we were instructed by Sadie before the wedding and didn’t answer any of them.

I take two of the plates in my hands and head upstairs. Nate’s room is the first door at the top of the stairs, and with the door closed, I hesitate to knock .

Concerned with the lack of food he’s eaten today, I push forward and rap my knuckles against the door. There’s movement on the other side of it immediately before it’s pulled open.

“Hey,” Nate greets with a lazy smile.

“Hi, buddy. We didn’t eat much today, so I ordered some food. Hope you like tacos.”

He nods and takes the plate I extend to him. “I love them. Thanks.”

There are low voices coming from where his phone sits propped by a pillow on his bed, and I squint to try and make out the video on the screen.

“Is that Madden ?” I ask.

He glances back at his phone and nods. “I watch gameplays sometimes. Trying to build my knowledge for when I can buy my own Xbox to play.”

My heart tugs, and without being asked to come inside, I step past him and search the room for a TV. When I don’t find one anywhere, I’m spinning to face him, lips turned down.

“Let me get a TV in here for you, and we can move one of the Xboxes in here. You can take the one from my room if you want. It’s only a couple months old, and I haven’t had the time to download anything on it yet. For the record, you can play games downstairs or anywhere you want here. I have the last ten Madden games in the cabinet beneath the living room TV.”

“Wait, for real? I didn’t want to touch your stuff without asking first. I was going to soon, but . . .”

“There’s no need to ask now, Nate. You’re good to play whenever you want. At least, until your sister gives you shit for it.”

He laughs gently. “Okay. Thank you, Jamie.”

“No worries. You’re a good kid, and I know your sister appreciates you a whole lot. You deserve a break from time to time.”

“Did Lake ask you to come to practice with us this week? It’s no biggy if you can’t. Since the Pythons don’t play till Saturday, I was hoping you’d have the time,” he rambles nervously.

“She did. Of course I’ll come. Anytime you want me there and I can make it, you’ve got another fan in the stands. You’ve got my word.”

Pride swells inside of me when he grins wide enough to flash both rows of his slightly crooked teeth. He’s a better teenager than I was at his age, and everyone who knows him has Blakely to thank for that. I have no doubt that she’s kept him on the straight and narrow throughout every hardship they’ve faced.

I wander a bit further into his room. “Can I ask you something?”

“About Blakely?”

My laugh comes out clunky. “How did you know?”

“I’m fifteen, not blind. I know that you’re into her.”

“Woah, I didn’t say that.”

“Like I said, I’m not blind, Jamie. Why do you think I came up here as soon as we got home?”

I pause, nerves pricking at my skin. “We’re not really together. I know it might look like that to you right now, but that’s because we’re playing a part. Your sister wants to beat my ass more often than not.”

“And? You don’t look scared by that.”

“Fair enough,” I mutter, swiping a hand through my hair. All I do is remind myself of the way Blakely dragged her nails through it. “Your sister is incredible, kid. It’s just not smart to mix pleasure with work.”

Fucking idiot. I can still smell her pussy on my fingers through the soap I used to clean them. It doesn’t get more mixed than that.

Nathan is smarter than I originally gave him credit for. He’s not buying a word out of my mouth. I don’t blame him. I’ve done a terrible job of selling the bullshit I’m spewing.

I was already interested in his sister, and after tonight, I’m screwed. By the end of our agreement, I’m going to be trying to keep her. I don’t need a flash into the future to see that happening.

“We’ll see,” Nate says with a shrug, eyeing the second plate I brought. “Is that for her?”

“Yeah. Anything I should avoid giving her?”

“No, but I’d add some of those hot sauce pouches you have in the fridge. She loves spicy food.”

With a clap on his shoulder, I retreat through his room. “Thanks, Nate. If you need anything, just let me know.”

“Will do.”

“And seriously, use the Xbox and buy yourself some games. Everything’s hooked up to my card, so go crazy. This is your home too, and I’d like it if you took advantage of everything I have to offer.”

He stares deeply at me for a moment, rolling around something in his mind before speaking. “Why does it matter to you so much if we view this place as our home?”

“Because I like to think of us as a family. And for as long as you’re here, I want you to grow comfortable enough to view us the same way,” I admit.

His expression loosens, emotion filling his eyes. “I do. I mean, it makes sense. We’re a found family.”

As someone who’s been surrounded by both found and blood family my entire life, hearing him say that nearly takes me out at the knees. Both variations of family carry the same exact weight in my heart. They always will.

I have to leave before Nate’s subjected to my ugly crying face. But I don’t take another step toward the door without meeting his eyes and saying, “Damn right, we are.”

And that’s that. Nate takes his plate to his bed and hunkers down to finish watching his video while I leave, closing his door behind me.

Instead of going to Blakely’s room like I’d planned, I go back downstairs. The hot sauce packets Nate mentioned have been in the fridge for way too long to offer his sister. So, I pour some of the bottled stuff into a small bowl and add it to her plate.

Before heading up the stairs again, I pull my Notes app up on my phone and add loves spicy food to the list I’ve been keeping titled Things Blakely Likes. It’s the twin to my Things To Learn About Blakely one.

Her door is still shut when I make my way back upstairs. With two heavy plates of food in my hands, I use my foot to knock.

She isn’t as quick to answer the door as her brother, almost like she’s trying to punish me by making me wait. I quirk a smile at that.

When she finally peeks at me through the crack she’s opened in the doorway, her eyes are bare of makeup, and only half of her hair is down out of her braided updo.

“Hey,” she mutters.

I lift the plates into her line of vision. “Still hungry?”

“Is that hot sauce?”

“It sure is. If you let me in, you can have it.”

She narrows her eyes. “I would have let you in without the bribe.”

“Can’t be too sure,” I tease.

The air is fizzling with nerves, both hers and mine. There’s no telling how we’ll be around each other after what happened downstairs, but I really, really hope we don’t lose the progress we’ve made.

“What kind of tacos did you get?” she asks, opening the door for me to come in.

Before Blakely moved in, there were so many empty bedrooms in this house that I stopped caring to fill them with furniture. The only person who ever slept over was Jax, and that’s when we were both too drunk and fell asleep on the couch. The spare bed only collected dust.

It wasn’t until I ran into Blakely at the sports shop that I put in a massive furniture order online. I’m pretty sure I blacked out while imputing my credit card info because the next thing I knew, a moving truck was at the neighbourhood gate, waiting for instructions.

Blakely hasn’t added much of anything to the space. The hideous bag that she was keeping on the dresser with her clothes isn’t there anymore, as if she’s finally unpacked.

Hovering near the closet door, I drop my eyes to the food. “Beef, chicken, and a couple of shrimp ones, if you’re into fish. If not, I’ll eat them.”

“I could have made tacos. You didn’t need to waste money ordering them.”

“Don’t start with me tonight, Bandit. It’s impossible to waste money on you. Just sit down and eat with me.”

“Maybe I don’t want dinner company,” she grumbles, taking her plate.

“If you didn’t, you wouldn’t have let me in.”

Without another pointless argument, she sits near the headboard and rests her plate on her lap. I join her and unwrap my first taco, taking a massive bite to fill the silence. Unlike Nate’s room, there’s a flat-screen hung on the wall opposite her bed.

“How do you feel about hearing people chew? Because if you’re against it, we need to put something on in the background. A movie or something,” I suggest after swallowing.

She slides a nail under the sticker keeping her taco wrapped, fixing her attention on her plate and not me.

“The remote is on the nightstand.”

Narrowly avoiding pouncing on it like a weirdo desperate for the chance to weasel my way into having more time with her, I discard my taco on my plate and lean off the bed to grab the remote.

Once I’ve turned the TV on, I steal a look at her and ignore my growling stomach, knowing what I need to do before taking another bite.

“Do you want some help with your hair?” I ask, already setting my plate down where the remote was .

She finally looks up from her plate, meeting my gaze. “You want to take a thousand bobby pins out of my hair for me?”

“Why not? I’m sure we can make it count as our version of the groom taking the bride’s dress off on their wedding night.” I make a show of looking over her body and the baggy sweatpants and sweatshirt she’s changed into. “Since you’ve already done that for me.”

A crack of a smile. “Fine. But I’m eating while you do it. And I’m choosing the movie.”

“For the record, I love a good romcom.” Lowering a hand to her shoulder, I give a slight push forward. “Shift and make a bit of room for me, baby.”

“You shouldn’t call me that,” she mutters but moves forward, opening the spot behind her for me to slip into.

The headboard is stiff against my back, but once I’ve got my arms wrapped around her front and her sitting between my legs, it doesn’t matter. She’s stiff as I straighten my legs out along hers.

“It fits you,” I say, palming her knees.

“Stop talking.”

I choke on a laugh and kiss the back of her ear before pulling at the first pin in her hair. It’s clear we’re not going to be talking about what happened in the kitchen. At least not tonight.

Maybe that’s for the best.

It was only one time. There is still a long way to go in our marriage, and having things turn awkward now will only make it harder to do what we need to.

Is what we’re doing right now all that bad, anyway? Maybe it’s better to leave a good thing be. For now, it’s not hurting anyone.