Still, she had to assert herself with them.“I’ve been dating,” she said defensively.
Fallon snorted.“Friends with benefits isn’t dating, Mom.”
Cara rushed on to add, “Not that there’s anything wrong with friends with benefits.”
Summer had to step in.“I don’t have any friends with benefits,” she lied.Really, she had no idea her girls were so insightful.Even though it was cringeworthy when they talked about FWBs.
“All we’re saying is that we want you to be happy.”Fallon smiled.
Cara shook her finger.“We just don’t want you to go all rigid and say you’ll never fall in love again, or that you’ll never get married again, or even that you’ll never have a boyfriend.”
“I’m not rigid,” Summer said rigidly.
“It’s just that he was so sweet, Mom.The VP.”
“He was so scared that you’d been hurt,” Fallon said with wide eyes.
“And the way he looked at you when we were getting our hot dogs and hamburgers,” Cara began.
And Fallon finished, “It was like an adoring puppy begging you to pet him.”
Summer couldn’t help laughing.Knox was anything but an adoring puppy.Although he begged when he wanted her to suck his cock.“Maybe hewasa little worried.”
Cara rolled her eyes and put her hands to her cheeks.“And that kiss was totally swoonworthy.”
Softly, Summer admitted, “Yeah, it kinda was.”
Fallon clapped her hands to her cheeks.“I saw little hearts and butterflies swirling around your heads.”
Summer laughed.“Now you’re getting ridiculous.”
“Here’s the thing, Mom,” Cara said, her gaze turning darkly serious.“You stood up to the bully in a way you never stood up to Dad.”
Summer suddenly felt ashamed that her girls had seen her that way.Maybe she should have stood up for herself.But she’d wanted peace in the household.She hadn’t wanted to split up the family when they were young.The girls adored their father.But maybe she’d subjugated herself too much.
But she had to defend her actions.“I thought I was doing the right thing by creating a harmonious environment while you were growing up.”
Cara touched her arm.“We’re not saying you did anything bad.”
“Don’t get us wrong.Dad’s great,” Fallon added.“It’s just that we could see you and Dad weren’t good for each other.And it didn’t matter whether or not you fought in front of us.”
Cara finished for her sister.“We’re not stupid, you know, and we read between the lines.”
Summer sat up, cupped her hand to Cara’s cheek.“I never thought you girls were stupid.”She rested a hand on Fallon’s knee.“You two are the most wonderful, sweetest, smartest, funniest women I know.”
Fallon eyeballed her.“And that’s why you should listen to us, Mom.”
“Don’t let this hunky hot VP get away,” Cara urged.
Fallon’s look was pleading.“Please give it a chance.”
She didn’t know how to explain to her daughters that it was just sex between her and Knox.It always had been.Neither of them wanted a relationship.
Then she remembered what he’d said just before he left on Friday morning.This isn’t just sex, it’s a relationship.
But he was arrogant and autocratic.If she truly fell for the man, he could very well turn out to be like Everett.
It was too much to think about now.
