And I shrug. ‘Told you the guy thought I was losing it.’
‘Losing it over you, sis,’ Sadie says, looking all loved-up for the two of us. ‘We need to go out and celebrate.’
‘Are you getting mawwied?’
The room stills as Lottie drops the nuclear question.
Taylor chokes on thin air. I go rigid. Theo and Sadie take a Lottie shoulder each and give us an apologetic grimace.
‘Not everyone gets married, sweetheart,’ Tay says, panicked eyes flicking to mine.
‘They do!’ Lottie nods fiercely. ‘When they wuv each other, they get mawwied.’
If the M-word was nuclear, the L-word cuts through the air like a Molotov cocktail nobody wants to catch.
‘Out of the mouths of babes,’ Theo says, and we all chuckle, awkward as fuck. ‘But Iam up for celebrating.’
‘Ooh, we can double date!’ Sadie coos.
‘Okay, love, slow down,’ Tay says.
‘You are joking, right? My sister gets herfirst boyfriend everand you expect me to be calm?’ She mock-gasps. ‘Do you even know me?’
Boyfriend. Love. Married.
It’s like a tsunami of loaded terms, and Tay’s eyes widen with every single one.
I get to my feet, needing to shut it down before Sadie and Lottie finish the job I couldn’t and send her running.
‘How about we head out for some lunch?’ I say. ‘All five of us?’
Theo nods. ‘Sounds great.’
I flee into the living room to hunt out my phone and jacket, eager to get out ASAP.
‘Though, buddy—?’ he calls after me.
‘Yeah,’ I turn, and?—
‘Gotcha.’ He grins, phone up, pic snapped. ‘Now you can go.’
‘You’re such a—’ I stop as Lottie’s eyes go wide. ‘Trouble.’
‘Jus’ wike me!’ she says proudly, taking hold of her daddy’s hand.
‘Yeah,’ I say, flicking the bows out to retore at least a shred of dignity. ‘Just like you, kid.’
‘It could be worse,’ Tay says, coming up to me and pressing her palm to my chest.
‘Oh yeah?’
‘We could’ve let you wear them out.’
Then she kisses me full on the mouth, right there in front of everyone. The lightest sweep of her tongue and it fires straight through me. Taylor and PDA? Fuck, yeah.
‘You wouldn’t have dared,’ I say against her mouth, hooking an arm around her waist and holding her flush against me.
‘You forget, I like pushing your buttons.’
