“The kids wanted to go to the planetarium and the aquarium.”
“And you couldn’t go to the ones in Chicago?”
His sisters share a look.
“No,” Allie says.
Keely nods in agreement. “You’re not playing the Indies in Chicago tomorrow night.”
“And you know we don’t miss Indies games.”
“He used to date Gator Cranford’s little sister,” Keely explains to me.
“We’re here to booby trap the Indianapolis bus if Gator tries to knock him out again,” Allie agrees.
“The guy has a highly overdeveloped sense of revenge.”
“Unlucky for him, we now have Daisy.”
“Is your whole family here?” I ask.
They shake their heads in unison.
“Not yet,” Allie says.
“But they will be,” Keely adds.
“We really did come early to show the kids Copper Valley.”
“And we thought Uncle Tyler would want to come along.”
“Honest to god, we actually thought maybe you were a fake girlfriend that he planted to text and video call with us, because he never dates, and it wouldn’t be the first time he paid a service to pretend to be his girlfriend.”
I choke on air.
And for the first time since we were interrupted, I see something other than irritation flash over Tyler’s face.
This is sheer pride and amusement. It’s subtle—it’s all in the eye movement—but there’s no mistaking his mood is improving. “Best Christmas present I ever got all of you.”
“You got them a fake girlfriend for yourself for Christmas?”
He flashes me a grin. “Still have the website. We can get you a fake extra boyfriend and let him talk to your mother about his complicated feelings about being in a threesome.”
“You really want a threesome one day, don’t you?”
“Not anymore.”
Allie’s smile goes so wide it has to hurt. “Awww! He’s in loo—oof.”
“Don’t jinx it, idiot,” Keely hisses as my heart starts an Olympic-worthy vault routine in my chest. She points at us. “So, do you really want us to go away, or do you want to hang out with us at the aquarium this morning?”
“We want you to go away and we’ll get back to you when we feel like it.” Tyler shifts to stand between me and his sisters, and I wonder if I’m accidentally flashing some other body part.
“Aquarium this morning without you, and we’ll invade for dinner with all of the kids again at five.” Allie nods. “Got it.”
“Six,” Keely says. “You forgot about the time change. They won’t be hungry at five here.”
“Six! Right.”
“I have a team thing,” Tyler says. “You’re on your own.”
“We know. We’re inviting Muffy.”
“This is my apartment—”
“And we love cooking and cleaning here.” Keely beams. “We’ll leave you a ton of leftovers.”
He sighs.
I know that sigh.
It’s surrender with a side of they’re right, I love their leftovers.
Allie leans around Tyler to make eye contact with me. “And please tell me you’ll sit with us during the game tomorrow. We got a party suite.”
“My clients—” I start, and both women interrupt me at once.
“We have room!”
“Bring them to the party suite too!”
“Party suites are the best way to watch the games.”
“Especially with kids.”
“But we’re getting babysitters.”
“So we can actually watch.”
Tyler heaves another sigh. “Are you done yet?”
His sisters share another look. “Yes,” Allie says.
“Especially since you need to deal with your cat,” Keely adds. She gives us a finger wave. “Later, taters! We’ll let you get back to…whatever it was that you were doing that’s clearly sweet and innocent.”
“Agreed. Because I really don’t need to picture Tyler doing anything not sweet and innocent.”
They leave as fast as they arrived, and I peer around the room for Rufus.
“Sorry,” Tyler says as he bends and lifts the sofa. Rufus darts out like he’s been trapped under it for hours. “I’d say they’re not usually like that, except they are. They have zero boundaries.”
“Um, have you met my mother?”
His gaze locks on mine, and I tilt my brows for extra emphasis while he stands there, staring at me.
“Fuck,” he finally mutters.
Fucking. Yes. I support that plan.
I drop the curtain and the throw pillow. “Can you super emergency lock us in so no one else can get through that fancy door?”
He’s not looking at my body.
He’s looking at me, and he looks utterly perplexed.
“What?” I wipe my face. “Tell me I’m not wearing breakfast. Do I have part of a smoothie on my forehead?”
“No,” he says softly. “You just—you’re fucking perfect. That’s all.”
My heart swells so hard and fast at the sincerity in his voice that it makes my eyes a little wet. “So far from it,” I whisper.
He doesn’t answer.
But he does snag the dice, toss me over his shoulder again, and carry me to the bedroom, where he locks the door, settles me on the bed, and proceeds to pick which side of the dice he wants to land up.
And when I should be sucking on his fingers, he sucks on mine. And when I should be tickling his nipples, he tickles mine. And when I should be eating his cock, he spreads my legs and feasts on my pussy instead.
If Tyler Jaeger doesn’t love me, he’s doing a very good job of making me feel like he does.
Neither of us say the words.
I don’t think it’s in us. Neither of us wanted a relationship. Neither of us wants to get married.
But he’s rapidly become the very best friend I’ve ever had, and I don’t want this to end.
38
Tyler
It’s been years since I wanted my family to meet a woman in my life, but knowing Muffy is off with my sisters at the zoo while I’m at morning skate on Saturday isn’t bothering me as much as it should.
Also not bothering me?
Facing the Indies tonight.
If Gator Cranford’s still holding it against me that I slept with his sister one night in college, when I really did think I could spend forever with her, he can fuck right off.
“How much you need me to have your back, Jaeggy?” Rooster asks while we’re going through shooting practice. “You want me to rough him up right out of the gate so he’s got all his anger aimed at me, or you want me to lay low so he doesn’t know what hit him the first time he calls you a pussy?”
“Just play your game. I’m not worried.”
“Should be,” Lavoie says. “Dude acts like you knocked his sister up with triplets and left her to fend for herself in some backwoods town without running water or electricity.”
I checked in on his sister on social media for a couple years after college, and I know I didn’t knock her up. She’s living her best life. I’m living mine. No harm, no foul.