It’s simple. It’s small.
I see the way Tatum and Colton joke with each other, and I feel a twinge of jealousy. I love my family, of course. I wouldn’t trade any of my siblings for only one single sibling.
But sometimes it was hard to feel like I fit in. Madden and Dex were six and four years older than me, respectively. I was close to Archer before we split paths and he chose baseball. Everleigh and I are close now, but we weren’t always, with her being three years older than me. Liam was only three years younger than me, but it was a wide enough stretch that we were never particularly close growing up, and Ivy was a full nine years younger than me. My parents were too busy with work and charity events to bother with things that might bond their children together.
So here I am, twenty-nine and wishing for a family like Tatum’s. It’s just one more thing about her that seems ideal. Joining a family like hers would be a blessing.
“Come on in,” I say once greetings are over and we’ve moved onto catching up in the entryway.
“Yes, right this way,” Tatum says, and she links her arm around my waist. I toss mine around her shoulder, following her lead, and her family follows us into the family room. Her mom sets down her casserole dish, and Layla sets down a pumpkin pie and an apple pie.
“It smells fantastic in here,” her dad says as we all take seats around the room, and all that’s left once her family sits is the single recliner chair.
I nod to it to indicate that she should take it, and she shakes her head and gives me a look I can’t quite decode.
“We’ve been busy prepping all morning,” she says, and I take a seat. She plops on my lap, and oh, fuck, I wasn’t expecting that. Being this close to her isdoing thingsto me despite the fact that her family is here.
My hand sneaks up to her neck. I’ve always wanted to feel how soft her skin is there, and now I have my answer.
Soft enough to make my cock all the way hard.
I am so fucked.
“I’m just going to address the elephant in the room here,” her mom says before we jump into another conversation. “What’s going on between the two of you?” She circles a finger between her daughter and me.
Tatum glances back at me, and I chuckle.
“Oh, us?” I ask. I lift a shoulder as I try to casually act the way I think I’m supposed to act without looking like I’m acting.
“I guess I’ve always turned to Ford when things were tough, and I finally realized why. I’ve had feelings for him for a long time.” Her eyes are on mine as she says the words, and Jesus, how I wish those words were true.
Those words rip me open and leave me feeling vulnerable. Exposed. Ruined.
She ruined me long ago.
She turns back to her mother. “So when I turned to Ford this time after my split with Archer was final, I decided to finally act on how I think I always felt. And this feels more right than anything I’ve ever felt.” She leans forward and presses a soft kiss to my lips, one that’s so gentle and feminine that it nearly kills me.
There’s no way in hell she isn’t feeling my erection digging into her ass.
Her words may be stretching the truth, but mine are sincere. “And I felt the same. All those years I spent pining for Tatum were well worth it.”
Caroline clasps her hands together and holds them under her chin. “This is just so sweet! I always adored Ford,” she says, her eyes bright with tears as they land on me.
She did? Tatum’s mother alwaysadoredme?
“It’s true,” Larry says. “We’ve always been much more of a football family, right, big guy?” he says to Colton, slapping him on the back.
“That’s right. We all did our best with Archer. He’s a good dude, but I never saw it, you know? Not like what Layla and I have. I see that with you two.” He nods over at us.
Is this for fuckingrealright now?
Her entire family was rooting for me this entire time when I didn’t even know I was an option?
This is news to me, and it’s the kind of news I can get on board with.
CHAPTER 15: Tatum Barker
I Don’t Want to Fake
