“Give. Me. Your. Phone.” Each word comes out as a tight, seething syllable, and I have no choice but to comply.
Dammit!
My nose starts to tingle, my eyes burning as I slap my phone into his palm.
He tucks it into his back pocket and gruffly informs me, “You can have it back when you start acting like you’re old enough to own one. Now sit.” He points at the seat next to Olly.
I stand my ground, a last-ditch effort to hold on to my dignity, but he takes a step closer and makes it abundantly clear that I better do as I’m told.
“Sit down. Right. Now.”
With an aggravated huff, I plunk into my seat while Dad puts a protective arm around Mom’s waist. “You okay?”
She nods, still looking wounded and upset. Great, now I feel like total shit. But she shouldn’t have been hassling me! It’s my life! I should be able to live it the way I want to.
Dad kisses the side of her head and guides her to the farthest seat away from me.
Really?
Well, fine, then! I don’t want to sit next to either of them!
“You okay, Zo?” Olly asks me in a tiny voice.
“I’m fine,” I mutter, buckling my seat belt and checking his is secure before angling my body away from him.
Okay, so I hate that I hurt Mom. The words just popped out before I could even think about the fact that she had me in her senior year of high school.
It’s not like I meant to insult her.
But screw Dad for taking my phone away!
Who the hell does he think he is!
You know what? If he’s gonna confiscate my most precious possession, then he can just go this weekend without me. We might be in the same house, but I will not be speaking to that man!
CHAPTER 15
WILY
I can’t take my eyes off Satch as she organizes the kids through a series of games to keep them entertained and settled while we wait for everyone else to get here. Sienna and Zander should be arriving any minute. And we’re still waiting for another update from Tyrell and Dani. It’s such a bummer their flight got canceled. Man, I hope the weather plays fair and the flights run on time so they can make it by tomorrow night. It won’t be the same without them.
Resting my shoulder against the wall, my lips twitch as Sebastian tries to act out a movie title without saying anything. That kid is a ball of energy, and he keeps going to speak, then slapping a hand over his mouth, which makes Charlotte giggle… and then Kendall starts giggling, which sets off Nichelle and Harley. Dom, my man with an old soul, sits on the edge of the room, trying to pretend like he’s too old for this stuff while he fights a grin, checking his watch every two seconds.
He’s busting for Logan and Cole to arrive.
They first met about a month after Dom was born. Sienna flew over with Zoey and the twins to meet the little guy. Zander had been busy with training, and Elizabeth and Sienna spent a week together. The twins are only a year older than Dom, butthey were taken with him. They’ve seen each other a few times every year since then, and you’d think they were triplets the way they behave when they get together.
My eyes shift back to Satch because I can’t help myself. She’s looking sexy tonight in her baggy jeans and this pale pink shirt that floats around her body. Her boobs are bigger than normal thanks to breastfeeding, and her body is still carrying some of her pregnancy weight. I know she doesn’t love it, but I’m not complaining. It’s more of her to hold. I love her soft edges so much. She’s curvaceous and lush, and damn… I can’t wait to be with her again. We haven’t had a chance to have sex since Paris was born. It’s been ten weeks now, and I’ve been waiting for her to make the first move. I don’t want to put any pressure on her.
Paris’s birth was so fucking fast. It was the most stressful afternoon of my life. Poor Satch went into a state of shock, and I was standing there in a parking lot, holding this blood-covered baby while Satch shook in the back seat. She was as white as a ghost, and I was frantically calling an ambulance while little Paris screamed in my arms.
I still wasn’t back to full health myself and was fighting off waves of panic-induced nausea as I begged my wife to be okay and begged my little girl to stop crying. I was fucking traumatized by the whole thing.
Never again. Paris will be our last. No two-year-old birthday wishes will be changing my mind. Five is more than enough of a tribe, and I am so happy with our family, but now it’s time to stop having babies and move into the next phase of our lives.
And Satch agrees with me, which is why she got an IUD put in about two weeks ago. Which means she must be thinking about having sex with me again, right?
As if she can sense me thinking about her, she darts a look in my direction, her cheeks tinging pink, her lips curling into a smile.
