“So, is it love or just lust?” Kaplan asks, falling in beside me as we walk. I don’t reply because I don’t have to, and knowing him, he doesn’t expect me to anyway.
“She’s great,” Rina says as we stroll around, checking out the various attractions and games without stopping at anything in particular. “Stella chatted my ear off about her the other night on the phone. But I didn’t expect her to be here today. It’s a surprise. A nice surprise, but still a surprise.”
“Take that up with Luca,” I tell her.
Luca gives an unrepentant shrug. “She’s perfect for him.”
“Are you two…?” Carter trails off.
“Bumping uglies?” Brecken finishes for him, and I give him a look. “What? Since when are we not grown-ups and able to ask the obvious question?”
“Since you just used the term bumping uglies,” Grace retorts.
Brecken laughs, holding up a conciliatory hand. “You’re right. I should have said fucking.”
“Or maybe the better question would have been to ask if they’re together?” Rina pokes Brecken in the side.
“Can we not?” I droll in a bored tone, already knowing none of them will listen to me.
“No,” Kaplan and Luca say together.
“I want to sell the condo at the Ritz and buy a house in Rina’s neighborhood closer to the hospital,” Carter declares, changing the subject. “Grace says she’s not ready to move again so soon.”
My lips quirk up into a smirk, and I throw him a grateful look.
“Then do it or not but stop talking about it already,” Kaplan grouses. “I want to hear more about the pretty Texas honey my brother is fucking.”
“Why? Because now that Landon is into someone, that means you’re next?”
Kaplan blanches at what Rina said, and we all chuckle under our breaths.
“Shut your face, baby sister. That’ll never happen.”
“Until it does. Look at Landon.” Brecken points at me.
“I’m going to go find Stella,” I announce, needing space because this will all start again, and I’m not ready to talk about it. Talking about it sets it on a different level when all I’m trying to do is get from one moment to the next, and unfortunately, that doesn’t always feel possible. Elle and I have a lot of strikes against us already and now that she’s met my family, this thing between us feels real when I’m not sure either of us was ready for that.
“You mean you’re going to find Elle,” Luca calls out with a laugh in his voice as I saunter off. I flip them all off.
I’m trying not to think. Just go with it and see what happens.
Something I’ve never been particularly adept at.
I could text Oliver or Amelia to find out where they are. But as I wander through the massive fairgrounds, staring at my phone, I pull up my text chain with Elle, scrolling through the conversation she had with Luca when she thought it was me.
Sexual favors, huh?
I could go for that.
Sex. Can we keep it just that?
I shoot Elle a quick text, and she informs me they’re all about to get on the pirate ship ride. I head in that direction, having been to this fair every year since I was kid. Even when we did rent out the entire thing. We didn’t this year or last year. Just asked for half the crowd while paying for double the loss in revenue.
The fair organizers were only too happy to comply. I paid for it myself because I want Stella and Layla to have free rein of the fairgrounds without being stalked. And before you start questioning that, it’s fucking real.
Stella and I live in a small town twenty-five minutes outside of Boston.
But anytime I take her out in the city, her face ends up in tabloids like she’s a celebrity kid.
This has also started happening with Layla since Oliver and Amelia got together—their relationship alone made national news—which has also led to Oliver bringing in security—Amelia has no clue about this—to follow them whenever they go anywhere, ready to step in as needed.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again… money breeds madness.
By the time I reach the pirate ship, Oliver, Amelia, Elle, Layla, and Stella are already on the ride. Their arms held up high in the air as the ship swings like a pendulum, screams hitting the impending dusk air.
I watch as Elle and Stella share glances and smiles and laughs and screams. It has me smiling like a fool. Like a guy falling for a girl and a father happy his kid likes the woman he’s falling for.
I don’t know how I could have ever imagined this thing between us being just sex.
“I want to deserve her,” I whisper to overly fragrant, cool air. “She’s not you—she’ll never be you—but could she be the next best thing for our girl?”
Would she even want that?
The ride ends, and I watch as they shuffle off, still laughing, breathless in their fun. Elle catches my eye, and I swear she blushes, biting her teeth into her lip and giving me this adorably shy-girl vibe. She’s still so uncertain. So damn sexy.
“Anyone hungry?” Oliver asks, and Layla squeals out a hell yeah because Layla could eat constantly if allowed.
“I saw the grilled cheese guy right beside the fried dough guy over there.” He points somewhere I’m not looking—I’m too busy staring at my girls. “Stella Bella, there was also that loaded baked potato guy nearby.”
Stella whoops into the air, Layla style. One of Stella’s favorite foods is loaded baked potatoes. She’s tried to grow potatoes but to no avail. If I told her we were moving to Idaho tomorrow, she would not fight me on that.
“You coming, Dad?”
I stare at Elle.
She gives me a look.
Followed by a smirk.
I shake my head.
I turn to Stella.
“I think I’ll take Elle on the Ferris wheel first. You stay with Layla, Uncle Oliver, and Aunt Amelia.” I wink at Amelia, who just laughs it off at this point considering she and Oliver aren’t actually married or even engaged for real.
“Come on, girls,” Amelia calls out, taking Layla by the arm and pretending to give her a rough tug. “I’m starving. Do you see all this fair food? How will I sample it all if we don’t start now?”
“Solid point,” Layla agrees. “Stella, I bet I can eat a potato faster than you can.”
“Anyone vomits in my car, you’re all grounded,” Oliver declares.
But they’re walking away. They’re leaving me here with Elle. Elle, who is sauntering slowly up to me, her head canted, her hair now knotted in a braid over her shoulder, her eyes glimmering in the waning light as they promise all the naughty things that have my mind racing and my cock hardening.
“Hey,” she says impishly.
“Wanna go for a ride with me, beautiful?”
“You’re awfully friendly today, Dr. Fritz.”
“I thought I was pretty friendly with you last night when I snuck over, Miss Wilde.”
She takes my outstretched hand, and it’s like all my missing pieces suddenly fall into place. I don’t even care if the world is photographing us. I just care about her. Her. Her smile is my salvation.
Holding her hand, my lips silent, I find the Ferris wheel, and when the guy running it sees me, he nods his head and holds the small line back, allowing us to immediately climb into the next waiting car.