“Thank you,” Dad said to me with a dimpled grin.
“But, Dad, you seriously need to shut up.” My words were in vain when he continued praising me. He meant well. Jack Lair had a heart of gold, encased in a perfect male package. Funny, people who didn’t know I was adopted would always say how much I looked like my dad. As a kid, it was probably our similar dark hair. Now that I was grown, the same height and body type made us even more alike.
My adopted father could be a male model, even at the age of forty-whatever. And as good looking as he was, my adopted mother was stunning. But she was always sweet and kind, where my father had this cockiness about him. Dad’s female fans went wild over him. There was an entire army of them who called themselves Lair Lovers. Years ago, until my mom won them over, they’d made her life very difficult with their opinionated posts. Because of that history, my parents went to great lengths to protect our privacy.
“Tres, can you go check to see what’s taking them so long?”
Trestan glanced up from his game. “I know you want me to leave because you’re cursing.” The kid was nine going on twenty-nine.
“Okay, then spare your old man your mom’s fury and make me happy, please?”
When the kid huffed his way out of the room, my dad continued: “My point is… my son and your daughter are in love. You need to get over it.” I glared at my dad until he briefly met my eye and winked before continuing. “No punk will take care of or look out for Alivia like Shane will.”
That was true. To be clear, though, my dad hadn’t always felt that way. When Alivia and I had gone through puberty, it had been hard to hide that we’d stepped from the “friend zone” to the “shit-I’m-into-you zone.” The change in attitudes had sent our fathers into panic mode. Everything they had feared would happen happened. My mom had most definitely gotten to Dad. In fact, most of the words he’d just recited like a hotshot were actually repeated verbatim from the things she’d said.
Trey stared at me, his scowl softening just a tad. “You know I love you, kid, and this has nothing to do with you.” He thought about that for a pause. “That’s a lie. It has to do with you being a horny teenager. You can’t help it. It’s kind of your job.”
“Pot meet kettle,” my dad mumbled.
“Fuck you,” Trey barked back, causing my dad to laugh harder. Beneath that hard, heavily tattooed exterior was also a man with a heart of gold. You’d never pick up on it by watching the way they bickered, but Trey adored my dad, and even more so my mom. They had a special bond, and Mom would defend or protect Trey as fiercely as she would my dad, siblings, and me. His ice-blue eyes settled on me. “You know where I’m coming from, right, kid?”
Throwing my dad, a “dude, chill” look, I tried to placate Trey by saying, “I know, Uncle Trey. I get it.” I wanted to add that I loved her, but that would only add fuel to his fire. The man had a rough history with love.
Despite that, I knew he loved me like a son. I had a special connection to him. Besides my parents, it was Trey who’d made it a point to keep me engaged. That influence had ebbed and flowed over the last thirteen years—and not always in a positive sense. Sometimes I’d learned by example what not to do with my life.
Trey had had a damn rough time of things after a tragic motorcycle accident. I barely remembered the details except for how it had affected me. I had come to depend on him being around, and then he wasn’t. To a seven-year-old, when the man I admired and loved as much as I did had gone off the grid, it had messed me up almost as much as losing my mom had. Stupidly, I had taken it all personally, until I later learned the scope of what had happened.
Those days had led to so much heartbreak for Trey. Then again, things happened for a reason. With time, he’d met Camilla and a daughter he never knew he had. The man he was today was miles away from the man he used to be. And that man had watched me grow from an obsessed kid to the man I was today… a man he loved, even though he hated that I was dating his daughter.
Before I could say anything else to negate the need to cut my dick off, Aunt Camilla and my mom walked into the living room. The sight of them had me bolting off the couch and reaching for the clear plastic container holding a pale-pink corsage.
One look at her husband had Camilla fisting her hips. “Trey Taylor,” she hissed in a harsh whisper. “Lose the attitude right now.”
In a flash, his expression smoothed just as Alivia hesitantly walked in, instantly making me stupid, with her beloved Miss Kitty following right behind her. That big white puff of fur hated my guts. Alivia claimed she was just old and cranky, but I believed her father had brainwashed the thing somehow.
Whatever awkwardness had hung heavily a few moments before literally dissipated. My mouth gaped at how gorgeous my girl was. The silky fabric hugged her everywhere, and its pale-pink color enhanced her beauty. Unlike most girls who fussed over prom with fancy hairdos, Alivia wore her hair naturally, just the way I loved it. She looked so much like her mom, with thick brown curly waves, bronzed skin, and curves that made her a knockout. But whenever she graced me with ice-blue eyes inherited from her dad, it never failed to steal my breath.
“Hi,” she said once the distance between us had been closed. The move forced Miss Kitty to hiss at me. “Mom, can you grab her? I don’t want Shane getting fur all over his pants.”
Camilla snatched her up as I ignored the feline psychopath and stared into my girl’s eyes in awe. “Liv, you look beautiful.” The apples of her cheeks tinged a shade darker as the smile on her face widened.
“You do too.” In a typical Alivia move, she raised on her tiptoes and kissed me hard.
“Shit,” I said under my breath. “Are you trying to get me killed?” What was it that had those who claimed they loved me needing to put a bounty on my head?
My panic forced a giggle as she smoothed her hands down my lapels before adjusting the pink pocket square that matched her dress. This was a big difference from the leather jacket and jeans that I favored. Also gone was the scruff I usually kept peppering my jaw, and instead I had shaved smooth for the occasion.
Aware of the three sets of eyes admiring us, and the one set monitoring me, I tamped down the urge to pull her into my arms and kiss her back the way I really wanted to.
She twisted toward her parents and smiled. “Dad?”
“Livi…” It looked like the badass was about to cry. This was his baby girl… his squirt. He had called her that her entire childhood until Alivia had put an end to it. Trey then began calling her Livi. I tried once… that ended quickly. “You’re fucking breathtaking.”
“Trey,” Camilla scolded, again forgetting that every other word from her husband’s mouth involved fuck in one form or another.
He waved an impatient hand. “I am what I am.”
I took the moment to slip the corsage on Alivia’s slim wrist as our moms captured the moment. She then pinned a matching pale pink rose to my lapel. We were then positioned in an endless range of other poses for picture after picture, all while I couldn’t keep my eyes off Alivia. I’d crushed on Alivia from the moment we’d met and hadn’t stopped for the last dozen or so years.