Olivia gives us a sly smile. “You mean you don’t want Brian to know that his Director of Sports Psychology and his star offensive lineman were doing…whatever it is you were doing up here during dinner?”
“We were just talking.” Maddy tries for casual, but I know she fools no one when Emma snorts out a laugh.
“Does just talking make your hair look like it was attacked by a swarm of birds and your cheeks bright red? Oh honey, please,” she says when Maddy lets out a groan and reaches up to try and fix her hair. “One day, ask me about the time your dad and I hooked up in an empty office at the arena.”
“And you can ask me about my early tryst with Brian in an office at the stadium. And in the bathroom at my brother’s house,” Olivia says with a grin.
“Ugh, no.” Maddy shakes her head vigorously, as if the motion will dislodge the images Emma and Olivia planted. “Iwon’t be asking either of you about either of those things, and now I have to go bleach my brain. Why can’t anyone in this family just be normal for once?”
Emma shrugs, unphased. “Because we’re not normal. Not one single one of us. That’s why we’re the best.” Taking a step forward, she lays a hand on Maddy’s cheek and one on mine, looking between us. “It’s obvious there’s something here. A big, complicated something you probably weren’t looking for and definitely didn’t expect. But I can tell you from experience that sometimes, those things are the best things.” She looks at Maddy and studies her before nodding, like she’s seen what she needs to see. “No one gets to decide what happens next except for you.” She says that quietly, her eyes never leaving her daughter.
“Brian will have your back, you know. And don’t bother to apologize again for asking me to keep a secret from him,” Olivia says when Maddy opens her mouth. “I love you, Mads. You’re my sister, and this is girl code stuff. When you’re ready, you can tell him yourself.”
“It’s…complicated,” Maddy says. “My job…”
“I know,” Emma says. “Just because it’s complicated doesn’t mean it’s not right.” She turns to me with a smile. “Welcome to chaos, Cam. We’re really glad to have you.” Emma reaches up and wraps her arms around me in a hug that screamsmom,and it has an unexpected swell of emotion tightening my chest because just like when I was at Olivia and Brian’s house, I think that here, too, is the big, chaotic family I thought I missed my chance at, the woman I’m crazy about right at its center.
“I’m glad you’re the one,” Emma whispers so only I can hear. “She’s been waiting for you.” She breaks away and looks between us with laughter in her eyes. “You might want to make yourselves a little more…presentable before you come back to dinner.”
“No shit,” Olivia says, raising her eyebrows at us. “You both look…well…that mirror is going to be your friend.” She gestures to the bathroom before she and Emma turn to leave, their laughs echoing all the way down the stairs.
“Well, that happened,” Maddy mutters.
I open my mouth to respond before realization barrels into me like a freight train, and I look down, biting back a groan as embarrassment courses through me. “Holy fucking shit,” I mumble.
“What?” Maddy asks, before following my gaze down. To the dark wet spot right on the front of my jeans. “Oh my god,” she says, choking back a laugh.
“Are you laughing at me?” I say slowly, narrowing my eyes are her.
“No,” she manages, a giggle escaping her lips before she slaps a hand over her mouth. “Definitely not. I’m definitely not laughing at the fact that you just had a whole conversation with my mom and my aunt with cum on the front of your pants.”
“Fuck.” I groan, collapsing against the wall, wondering if I press hard enough, whether I can fall through it and disappear forever. “I’m thirty-four years old. I have two kids. I’m a professional fucking football player. I’m not a damn teenager.”
“Oh, you’re definitely not,” she says, eyes heating as they rake over me. But when they drop to the front of my pants, she giggles again. “Except, I mean, cum. On your pants. Right there.”
Letting out a growl, I grab Maddy and press her against the wall, one hand on her hip and the other coming up to collar her throat. When my eyes drift down to her lips, her laughter dies, replaced by a sharp inhale and the hammer of her pulse against my hand. “That’s not just my cum, beautiful girl.” Leaning in, I kiss one cheek, the other, her forehead. “Don’t think I didn’t feel the way you soaked your leggings when you came for me. The way you made a mess of me. I can’t wait to feel it with nothing between us.” Dropping my head, I run my nose along her jaw before crashing my lips to hers in a wet, filthy kiss.
“Jesus.” She gasps when we break apart. “Only you could make cum on the front of your pants sexy.”
We look at each other for a beat, then two, and it’s Maddywho breaks first, tossing back her head and cackling. She sets me off, and two seconds later we’re both leaning against the wall, laughing hysterically while we hold onto each other to keep from collapsing to the floor.
We laugh until our sides ache and tears steam down our faces. When we finally recover, I kiss her breathless before we clean ourselves up and go back downstairs to finish dinner. And I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow or the next day or the one after that, but for now, for this night, everything feels just about perfect.
Me
I don’t like the way my bed feels without you in it.
Maddy
So weird considering I’ve never been in your bed.
Me
True, but I do know what it’s like to feel you wrapped around me, and I wish that’s where you were right now.
Maddy
That seems like it would be complicated with two kids sleeping down the hall.
