Page 33 of Taken With You

And, honestly, I wasn’t even sure he cared about his old lady.

But that had to stay in the past. We needed to think about the present. And maybe the future.

As Meadow went quiet and introspective beside me, I knew she was thinking about her family as well.

We really weren’t very good at this. I needed to tell her. It wasn’t fair of me to keep these secrets.

I might lose her in the end by opening up, but lying to her wasn’t the answer.

I would tell her tomorrow. Telling her tonight while we were with friends would ruin the evening. Maybe that was the coward’s way out, but I figured that telling her tomorrow would work. It had to. I only hoped I didn’t ruin everything by doing it. I hoped I didn’t lose it all when I opened up. But this wasn’t about me. I needed to remember that. I had made my choices, my own decisions.

And I wasn’t going to turn away from that. Not now. Not when I was starting to feel what I did for her. It wasn’t fair. Not to either of us. But mostly, not to her.

“Okay, now that we have completely embarrassed the kid—good job, family—it’s time to get going,” Aiden said as he looked over at his woman. “Watch while Sienna and I kick all of your asses.”

“That’s my man,” she said before taking a sip of her beer.

“The competition gets a little weird with all of you guys together,” I said.

“That is true.” Violet looked over at Dillon.

“I thought you were bringing one of your roommates to play.”

Dillon shook his head. “No, and I can’t stay either. Homework.”

“Well, I’m glad you were here for a bit. And I’m happy you’re putting your studies first.” She leaned down and kissed the top of Dillon’s head since he had taken one of the seats near the pool table.

She had started becoming almost motherly to him lately, and I had a feeling Dillon liked it, even if there wasn’t a huge age gap between any of them.

“Okay, then, I guess it’s just four teams. Two pool tables, four teams, let’s see who wins.”

Sienna clapped her hands, and our mini pool tournament started.

An hour later, my gut hurt from laughing, my pride stung from the fact that we were in fourth place, and all I could do was look at Meadow, who grinned.

“I’m not always bad at pool,” Meadow said. “Actually, I’m usually pretty good.”

“It probably doesn’t help that you guys are pinching each other’s asses while you’re playing,” Aiden said dryly.

“It’s true,” Sienna said. “We try not to distract each other with sex when we’re playing.”

“Really?” I said, deadpan. “Aren’t you the two that practically humped back there in the storage room?”

Sienna blushed. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, Beckham. I am utterly sweet and innocent.”

Everyone laughed so hard, I was pretty sure that Sienna was going to hit us all with her pool cue. But she didn’t.

Meadow had just set up her shot when a voice from behind us made me freeze. My balls shrank, my back turned to stone, and I swallowed hard. I hoped to hell it wasn’t who I thought it was. But I knew it was. I knew exactly who the fuck it was.

“Hey, what do we have here?”

No one else seemed to notice the tension in the air. They didn’t know who was now in their midst. And why should they? They didn’t know who I was at my core, and they sure as hell didn’t know where Meadow had come from. They did not know these people. I’d hoped to hell they never would. Unfortunately, that didn’t seem to be the case.

I turned. There was no use hiding. There was no way I could run. They’d find me. They always did.

Cliff’s eyes widened for a fraction of a second, and that’s when I knew they weren’t here for me. No, they had simply come in, and they’d found me.

“Just a friendly pool game. We’re almost done if you want the tables,” I said, my voice casual. The Connollys must have figured out that there was something wrong because they all stood a little straighter and angled their bodies so they stood in front of their women. I knew that they didn’t know exactly what was going on. Then again, I didn’t really know.