I’d been worried things might’ve changed, that me suddenly dating Morgan would somehow ruin the comfortable, happy, higgledy-piggledy family we’d built here, but I could see now that this was exactly the same as every other week.
Only I got to hold Morgan’s hand.
“Hey, congrats,” Kieran said, stepping forward to give Aiden a hug. “You deserve him. And I wouldn’t say that about just anyone.”
Carter laughed as Kieran hugged him, too.
“Time to start convincing you to work as a contractor for Dad,” Carter said. “I hear about you every damn time I talk to him.”
“You should bring him and his charming partner over some Sunday,” Mom said, setting a glistening dish of potatoes on the counter, fresh from the oven.
Yeah. Definitely the same as every other week.
“We’re gonna need a bigger table,” Kieran said, glancing at the tightly-packed, mismatched chairs circled around it.
Laughter broke out again as we all filtered over to help Mom move food over, Morgan taking the heaviest dish right out of her hands with a look that said he wasn’t going to let her argue.
She’d been treating him like another son for years, but I thought maybe there was a tiny bit more fondness in her smile this afternoon.
* * *
“Holy shit,youarekicking his ass,” Aiden said as Morgan’s cart sailed over the finish line, leaving mine in his virtual dust.
I stared, jaw hanging, at the screen.
Morgan was kicking my ass at Mario Kart without even breaking a sweat. It was like he didn’t even need totry.
When the hell did he get so good?
“Have you been letting me win theentire time?” I asked, finally putting two and two together. It wasn’t as though he’d had time to master this since last Sunday.
Morgan looked studiously down at his controller. If he’d been a cartoon character, he would have been whistling innocently.
“I knew he was better than he let on with you,” Aiden supplied, patting me on the shoulder. “But he destroyed you just now, man. You gotta learn to look out for those bananas.”
“The entire time?” I asked, amazed. I’d lost maybe two or three races in mylifeagainst Morgan, but he’d never stopped playing with me.
… because he liked me. Duh.
I was still getting used to that.
“Didn’t want you to stop playing with me.” Morgan shrugged, offering me a tiny, shy smile.
Any anger I might’ve felt melted away instantly. I was in real trouble if all Morgan ever had to do was smile at me to make me forget I was mad at him.
Not that he’d ever do anything I wouldn’t forgive him for. Morganlovedme. He’d never hurt someone he loved. He wouldn’t hurt a fly unless he absolutely had to.
“I didn’t want you to stop playing with me, either,” I said softly. “Lucky we didn’tboththink of throwing the race.”
“You wouldneverhave thought of that,” Kieran said, ruffling my hair as he walked behind us. “All the competitive instinct in this entire family is concentrated in that tiny body of yours.”
“Is today’s theme reminding me how short I am?” I asked. “Because I might have to bite someone’s kneecaps if you’re not careful.”
“You’re fun size,” Morgan said sagely, as though he was passing down thousand-year-old wisdom gleaned from a vision he’d had while meditating under an ancient waterfall.
“I can’tbelieveyou were letting me win,” I said, reminded of what we’d been talking about. “All this time?”
“You’re repeating yourself,” Aiden said. “He’s been letting you win the entire time because he wanted to get into your pants. Now that he’s gotten into your pants—”
