Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 86068 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 430(@200wpm)___ 344(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86068 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 430(@200wpm)___ 344(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
“I’m sorry,” he says softly as I kiss his neck, “for being a dick.”
“You weren’t a dick,” I reply, then laugh. “I mean, you were a little bit of a dick, and you scared the hell out of me.” His hand rubs my back. “But it’s fine.”
“Nico wants me to meet with him,” he shares, and I sit up right away, looking at him. “He came up to me last night, wondered if the rumors were true about me looking to get back into the game.”
“And?” I question, and he smiles at me.
“Look at you prying into my business,” he jokes while I glare at him. “He wants to sit down with me tomorrow.”
“Are you going to do it?” I can’t even try not to ask the question.
“I am,” he confirms. “I would like to talk to your dad about it.”
“Well.” I tap his shoulder with one hand. “No time like the present.” I kiss his lips. “Family lunch is in one hour.” I get up off his lap. “Which means makeup sex has to last no more than ten minutes since it takes forty minutes to get there.” I hold out my hand to him, and he gets up, holding my hand.
“I think you need to text your father and tell him we are going to be late,” he suggests at the same time he throws me over his shoulder and slaps my ass. “We might be really, really late.”
CHAPTER 32
XAVIER
“With a minute to spare,” Vivienne says from the passenger seat as I pull up to her parents’ house and shut off the car. “And you thought we would be late.” She laughs, putting her hand on the door handle.
“Nothing says get off my daughter like your father calling you while I’m in you.” I shake my head, getting out of the car. Taking a deep breath, I walk over to the sidewalk and slip my hand into hers. “You look beautiful.” I bend to kiss her lips.
“You aren’t so bad yourself.” She gets on her tippy-toes and kisses my lips.
“Dad!” we hear Cooper yelling from the open door of her parents’ house. “Vivienne is making out with Xavier in the middle of the sidewalk. The neighbors are watching.” I can’t help but laugh at him teasing Vivienne, who flips him the bird.
“There are so many cars here,” I note, seeing both sides of the street are lined with cars, and even the driveway is packed.
“Everyone is in town, so that means chaos with the family,” she states as we walk toward the door where Cooper stands.
“I could hear the voices from the street,” Vivienne says when we walk into the house. I look up, seeing a couple of kids running through the rooms and then disappearing.
“If you think it’s loud from the front of the house, you should hear the backyard,” Cooper says to us before he turns and walks back into the house.
“Here we go,” Vivienne encourages from beside me. “Don’t forget you love me.” She smiles up at me. “You can’t take it back.”
“Never,” I tell her, feeling the flutter in my stomach as we walk into the kitchen, and she was not fucking kidding. Every single corner is filled with people. I follow her as we make our way through the crowd saying hello to everyone as if we didn’t see them yesterday.
“This,” she coos when she gets to Franny, who holds her daughter in her arms, “is Stella Bella.” Vivienne grabs Stella from Franny. “And she loves me the most.”
The little girl squirms in her arms and throws herself back at her mother. “Traitor,” Vivienne mumbles. “Wait until you’re five and want candy.”
“Stop threatening my daughter,” Wilson warns, coming over with a bottle of water in his hand for Franny.
“There you are,” Michael says, coming over to us with Dylan following him. The two of them are two peas in a pod. “I wanted to ask you, Xavier, did you cry when you met my grandfather?”
“Ugh,” Wilson groans, “whatever.” Making both of them laugh.
“If you would go golfing with my grandfather, do you think you can handle it?” Dylan asks me, trying to roll his lip.
“Fuck you both,” Wilson says, then looks at me. “Last year, he asked me to go golfing. I thought it was all the guys, I show up, and it’s just the two of us.”
“And it made him so nervous,” Michael says, holding his stomach while he laughs, “he barfed in the bushes the whole time.”
“It wasn’t the whole time.” Wilson rolls his eyes. “It was the first six holes.”
“It’s okay,” Franny says to him, trying not to laugh. “It’s sweet.”
“Aren’t you glad you didn’t cry?” Vivienne leans over and mumbles. “Let’s go get food.”
She slips her hand in mine as she steps outside into the yard. A big white tent covers half the yard with round white tables everywhere. Most of them are filled with people, a long table toward the back of the tent is filled with silver food trays and people in line getting food. “There you are,” a woman with strawberry-blond hair says, coming toward us, and Vivienne shrieks. “I was wondering if I was going to meet the man everyone is talking about.” She smiles at me as Vivienne takes her in her arms. They rock back and forth as they hug.