“I have Fridays off so really you just need Mondays and Wednesdays covered.”
“I can’t ask you to do that.”
He stares at me like I’m nuts. “Why do you think I’m here?”
I told myself that we were helping each other out, but he has completely shattered that. He moved in only to help me. “Asher, we aren’t your responsibility.”
His eyes slide to my son and then back to me. “I never said you were, but I’m living here. I’m going to help. You just need to let me.”
“Yeah, Mommy.”
We both look at Sebastian, who is covered in pizza sauce, and then I turn back to Asher. “Okay if you can, great. But you don’t have to.”
I don’t want anyone feeling obligated to me. He isn’t the one I got pregnant with, but he is the one who stepped up.
I know Colt would have too, and I think Asher feels saddled with the responsibility left behind by the brother he loved dearly.
“I have a lot to learn.” Asher nods over to Sebastian. “Who else better to teach me than my cool nephew?”
Sebastian is grinning wide. “I’m gonna teach you how to swim.”
Asher nods his head, playing along effortlessly. “Yeah, you are. And you’re gonna teach me how to play catch too, right?”
“I already taught you that.” Sebastian places his little hand over his face, so playfully irritated with Ash.
“Oh yeah, that’s right. Well you might have to teach me again.”
“Okay. That’s fine.” Sebastian shrugs and goes about eating his pizza. I lock eyes with Asher. He winks, and I smile because his love for Sebastian is palpable, and I’ll never stop being grateful for that.
We have a week before classes start, but I’m already feeling that familiar crushing feeling inside.
I don’t want to fail.
“Can we go swimming?” Sebastian runs to me and jumps on my lap when I’m sitting on the couch in the living room with my friend, Sawyer.
Sawyer and I have known each other for a long time. We went to the same private school and now are attending the same college.
“You gotta ask your mom, buddy.”
He sulks and pushes his bottom lip out. Sawyer laughs. “Oh man, he knows how to use his cuteness.”
“No kidding.” I lift Baz above my head, and he giggles. “Go ask your mom.”
He continues giggling. “Nooooooo.”
He lets his little arms out as he flies in the air, trusting me fully. “Yes!”
“No!” he yells through another goofy giggle.
“Ask mom what?” Viv walks into the living room from the kitchen, hands on her hips, wearing long black dress slacks and some silky blue blouse with sleeves that go to her elbows. Fuck Viv, it’s summer.
I tickle Baz’s sides, and he giggles more as I look to Viv. “He wants to go swimming.”
“Pleeeaaassse, Mommy?” Baz is hanging upside down over my shoulder now as he looks over at his mom.
She smiles, her teeth pearly white and straight. She has a fucking beautiful smile when she actually relaxes enough to let it out. “Okay.” She holds her hand out for him. “Let’s go get our suits on.”
Baz climbs off my lap and runs to her excitedly. “Yes!”
They head upstairs, and I escort Sawyer out to the patio so we can watch Sebastian swim.
“Quite the setup you’ve got here.”
“No shit. The Crenshaws don’t fuck around.”
I laugh as we take a seat in the lounge chairs around the pool.
“Yeah, I can see that.” He looks at the outdoor pool, complete with a hot tub and a waterfall.
He shakes his head, smiling and kicking back in the warm summer sun. “I still can’t fucking believe Vivienne Crenshaw got knocked up in school.”
The way he says her name makes her sound like some sort of nun, but I get it. Sawyer was in her class in school, so he knows as well as I do that she had a reputation of being a goody-goody. “Yeah. I know.”
“Especially with the Sterling brother she chose.” My jaw ticks slightly, thinking about Colt and Linc. Both sore subjects. “I mean you, fine. Linc, makes sense. But Colt?”
My teeth clench at an uncomfortable level. “I know.”
The sliding glass door opens, and I turn to see Baz run out in little bright blue swim trunks with floaties on his little arms, squealing excitedly with Viv running after him. Surprisingly, she’s not in jeans but instead is wearing a black one-piece mom suit that still shows no hint of a figure.
Still, her legs are nice. Shapely, tanned, and toned. “Baz, wait!”
She scoops him up as he heads for the stairs, going down into the pool and then carries him in.
“Seriously, can you imagine fucking her?”
What the fuck? I turn my focus back to Sawyer, who is still kicked back in the lounge chair, one arm tucked under his head. “What?”
He’s unbothered by my irritated tone. “I’m just saying the girl is uptight. Sex with her would be all structured and shit. Probably have to make an appointment.”
I watch Viv hold Baz in the pool, letting him float on his stomach. “I haven’t thought about it.”
“I’m just saying, no offense to your brother, but those two fucking to make that very cute kid had to be the quietest, most boring fucking sex there ever was.”
My fist clenches at my side as I fight the urge to punch this motherfucker. “Shut the fuck up. Not an image I want in my head.”
He chuckles at that, staring up at the sun. “I’m just saying, man. I still don’t believe it.”
“Well, believe it. There was a DNA test and everything.”
He sits up in the chair, leaning his elbows on his thighs and facing me. “You knew her in high school. Head always in a book. So fucking focused and perfect. Never got in trouble. Was on the student council. Set for fucking Harvard.”
“Yeah well, perfect people have sex too.”
Even if I hate him talking about it, I have to admit I don’t get it either. Colt was exactly like her. Structured and perfect, with so much pressure on him to be that way. I never thought he would cheat on Penelope, and when I found out it was with Viv, I was even more shocked.
The asshole actually yawns. “Fucking boring sex.”
“Again, not something I want to picture.”
He laughs as we both turn to see Sebastian splashing Viv, soaking her hair as they both laugh. I’ve never had the balls to ask her how it all went down but figured it had a lot to do with alcohol.
“Yeah well, speaking of fucking . . . You’re going to that party with me tonight, right? Because Bianca was asking about you a-fucking-gain.”
I roll my eyes. Bianca Thomas. Another Kansas City prep school plant here. She was in my class in high school and a real pain in the ass. Blond. Slutty. Rich. Spoiled as fuck.
But she is hot, and I could use a good lay. “Maybe.”
“Maybe? What the fuck man? I get you wanting to help out your nephew, but you can’t just play house here all year.”
“I’m not playing house, but we just moved in. I’ll have to see if Viv needs help.”
He shakes his head, kicking back in his chair. “You know Bianca got a tit job over the summer, right?”