“Please,” he scoffed. “Laurel’s what, sixteen, seventeen? I guarantee she said worse before first period today.”
Considering she’d been running around the house that morning wondering aloud where the fuck her shoes were, that was an accurate statement.
Laurel lifted a single shoulder in a shrug. “He’s not wrong.”
Mom raised her brows, splitting her gaze between Laurel and the not-at-all-surprised-by-that-information Sutton. “Oh. Well, then. I guess we do have a lot of fucking festivals here.”
Laurel barked out a surprised laugh before clapping a hand over her mouth, her eyes wide as she darted her gaze around the table.
“Mom,” Lincoln said in a scandalized tone. “Not around the child!”
Mom waved him off. “Hush, you.”
Grinning, Sutton picked up her glass of wine and lifted it toward my mom in a silent toast. “I like you, Holly.”
“Well, let’s just hope you keep liking this son of mine.” She tipped her head toward me with a smile. “He’s not exactly the most easygoing guy, is he?”
Sutton smirked. “That’s putting it mildly. I don’t know if you know this, but he’s a little bit of a grouch.”
The two of them laughed like they were in on some joke, and my traitor brothers joined in. Even Laurel, the little shit.
“I’m not that bad,” I grumbled.
Sutton glanced at me with raised brows. “You remember when I told you the kids call you Coach Asshole, right?”
“Oh my god, is that true?” Lincoln asked, splitting his gaze between Sutton and me. “Please tell me that’s true.”
“It’s true,” she confirmed with a nod.
“So you don’t have fanseverywhere, I guess,” Mom said. “Thank god, or the fan mail would be even worse. By the way, I brought home the most recent deliveries for you to go through tonight.”
Sutton snapped her gaze to me, her eyes bright. “I want to go through your fan mail.”
“No.”
Fuck no, actually. I didn’t want Sutton to see half the shit the jersey chasers sent me, let alone Laurel.
“Oh, come on,” she said. “It’ll be fun.”
“Foryou.”
“Exactly.” She rested her chin in her hand and shot me a soft smile. The same one she gave me after I made her come. Evil little temptress. “Don’t you want me to have fun?”
I stared at her, and she stared back, a glint in her eye that told me she knew exactly what she was doing. And she was going to win.
“Fine.” I shoved back from the table and gathered our plates. “But I’m not going to watch. You shouldn’t either, Laurel.”
“Yeah, I’m totally going to watch,” Laurel said with a shrug.
Without a word, I stalked into the kitchen and tried to ignore the murmured conversation in the other room. It was damn difficult, especially when my brothers listed off some of the more…interesting…pieces of mail I’d received loud enough for me to hear.
Too distracted by Sutton’s laughter, I didn’t realize my mom had joined me until she laid a hand on my forearm.
“Need any help?” she asked.
“I’m good.”
“You are, aren’t you?” She smiled as she studied my face. “It’s nice to finally see you happy.”
