And now it’s my turn to feel territorial.

  Not that I think anything would happen, but the thought of Avery alone in a hotel room with any man that isn’t me is enough to piss me off. I keep my face impassive, trying not to let the jealousy show. They’re gone a moment later, and I try my hardest not to stare after them like I wish I was the one with her.

  “They are so cute. When are they just going to get together already?” Rebecca says and when I look at her, she’s staring in their direction with a smile. “They would give us beautiful grandchildren. Can you imagine?” I’m trying not to react to her words but she frowns at me. “What?”

  “She doesn’t see him that way.”

  “I don’t see why not. Lucas is a catch.”

  This is absolutely not the conversation I want to have. And I mentally curse whatever cosmic God is forcing me to endure it. “Of course he is. That doesn’t mean every woman is going to be attracted to him. Sometimes there’s just…no spark.”

  “Hmph,” she says before she takes a sip of her champagne. “And what’s this about you seeing someone?” She raises an eyebrow at me. “What’s she like?”

  My phone vibrates in my pocket and when I pull it out, I see it’s from Avery.

  Heart Eyes: I don’t think I’ve ever seen you two be that friendly.

  I raise an eyebrow at her message just as Rebecca’s voice interrupts me. “Is that her? Why didn’t you invite her?”

  “Why the sudden interest in my love life? You barely had interest in it when we were married,” I say half joking.

  She scoffs. “Whatever, that is not true!”

  I laugh as we make our way back towards the room. “It’s new and I’m not talking to you about it.”

  “Do you love her?” She presses.

  There’s a sudden tightening in my chest at the thought; not over the fact that I may love her, but how can I love her without telling Lucas the truth? The second I admit that thought to myself, it becomes ten times harder to come clean about what I’ve been doing the past month. Maybe I could give up the best sex of my life, if Lucas couldn’t handle it, but if I’m in love with her? Could I give her up? “We haven’t said it yet.” Yet. My mind fixates on that word like a warning.

  “But you do…”

  We make it back to the party and people are now on the dance floor and I’m reminded again of the secret I’m hiding, disallowing me the chance to dance with Avery. I realize I haven’t answered her message when another one comes through.

  Heart Eyes: Mine

  Me: Yes, baby. No reason to be jealous.

  Heart Eyes: Like you were when you saw me and Lucas?

  Me: I was not jealous.

  Heart Eyes: Cute that you think you can lie to me.

  I smile at my phone, wishing that I could find her and kiss her smart-ass mouth.

  I’m out on the balcony talking to my brother sometime later when Avery makes her way outside. She’s alone and assumedly looking for me, but stops when she sees me talking to Bryan. There aren’t many people out here, so I wave her over and she approaches with caution, knowing that my brother knows about us and I can sense her apprehension.

  “Avery.” He nods at her and she smiles.

  “Bryan.”

  “You can do better, you know,” he tells her with a cocky smile before he takes a sip of his drink.

  “Fuck off,” I tell him and Avery giggles. “Hey, gorgeous.” I turn my gaze to her, running my eyes up and down the length of her as I can finally drink her in and she gives me a different smile than she gave Bryan, one that’s reserved for me.

  “Hi.” I am trying my best not to openly ogle her but she’s so fucking stunning in this black dress that I can’t pull my eyes from her and Bryan standing with us makes it less odd to anyone paying attention.

  “Oh, for the love of God.” Bryan rolls his eyes. “You know I’m the better-looking one,” he says to Avery as he points between him and me. I roll my eyes because Bryan and I do look really fucking similar, only I’m in better shape and he’s about an inch taller, something he never lets me forget.

  “Do you mind?” I look at him and he shrugs. “You know what? Go away.” I wave him off even if it makes me standing here with Avery look more intimate.

  I lean over the railing and she stands next to me, but further than I’d like her to be as we both stare at the city skyline. “You look beautiful,” I tell her because it’s the first time I’ve been alone with her.

  “Thank you. You look so handsome.” She runs her gaze all over me. “You really wear the hell out of everything.”

  “I’m glad you think so considering yours is the only opinion that matters to me.” There’s a light breeze that blows her hair gently and I get a whiff of her shampoo and her lavender perfume that now has the power to make my dick hard. God, she smells good. “I want to peel that dress off of you later.”

  She shifts her face to look at me. “Okay.” She looks over her shoulder and then up at me shyly. “I’m going to go to my room for a minute.” She blinks her eyes several times. “Maybe I’ll see you there?”

  Mentally I’m already there, on my knees with her legs wrapped around my face and my tongue buried between her thighs. “Yes. Five minutes.”

  “Oh, Dad, I was looking for you!” Raegan exclaims from the doorway as she comes outside. “We’re going to cut the cake.” She links her arm with Avery. “Come.” The two of them walk in front of me and I try to keep my eyes off of Avery’s ass, but fuck me, if it isn’t perfect. I’d already given my toast, so this time Wes speaks and he really does seem to be crazy about Raegan. He talks about how she’s his soulmate and the love of his life. How he’s never loved anyone the way he loves her and that he can’t wait to spend the rest of his life making her happy. His arms wrap around her waist as he presses a kiss to her lips and my eyes immediately find Avery across the room only to notice her slipping out the door as everyone claps for Wes and Raegan.

  I’ve been very aware of almost every move she made tonight and while we haven’t had a chance to make it upstairs, I wonder if now is our chance. I wait a few minutes for Wes and Raegan to start dancing before I go after her and I see her waiting for the elevator. I check my surroundings before following her and just before the doors completely close, I force them back open and move into the elevator with her.

  Her eyes are wide and I realize she wasn’t actually expecting me to follow her when I see tears pooling in her hazel eyes.

  “Baby, what’s wrong? Why are you upset?”

  “I’ll be fine, we can’t…” she starts as she wipes under her eyes. I pull her into my arms and swat her hands away to do it myself.

  “What’s wrong?” I ask her again as I collect a stray tear that’s threatening to fall down her cheek.

  “Wes’ speech.” She lets out a shaky breath. “It just got me thinking. But I’ll be fine. I just needed a minute.”

  “Hey, thinking about what?” I raise her chin to look at me. The elevator dings and the doors open letting us out onto our floor.

  “Tonight is just a little harder than I thought it would be. Not being able to touch you or even look at you for too long.” She runs her hands up my chest and rubs the space over my heart. “Lucas is talking about going downtown later, and I just…want to be with you. I can’t ever be alone with you without having to lie to everyone I know. What if we can never be together like that?” Tears form in her eyes but she blinks them away as quickly as they appear. “And then I feel like shit because we’re here to celebrate Rae and we both said we didn’t want to do anything to upset her and I know we have a plan…” She trails off.

  “Hey, it’s okay.” I press my lips to her forehead and hold her tighter in my arms. “I feel the same. I wish I was able to dance with you and touch you and kiss you. Instead, I’m seething that someone else gets to do two of those things so freely.”

  “I wish it was you,” she whispers as she rests her hands behind my neck.

  I cup her face and press my lips to hers, pushing her against the wall behind her as she rubs against me. It feels like it’s been days since I’ve pressed my lips to hers and not the few hours since I left her room. She tastes like cherries and it makes me want to kiss down her body to taste the sweetness of her pussy. I pull away but still keep my lips close to hers allowing us to breathe each other in. “We should get back,” she whispers and I shake my head.

  “Not yet. I need another minute.”

  I press my forehead to hers and shut my eyes, allowing myself to think of a time down the road when things will be easier. My hand wraps around her back, holding her tighter against me and she lets out the sexiest sigh. I press another gentle kiss on her lips when a voice interrupts us.

  “What the fuck?” My eyes dart to the source of the voice to see Lucas staring at us, his face going through a range of emotions. Confusion, shock, hurt, betrayal, anger.

  Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!

  Avery and I pull apart just as he takes a step forward, his brows furrowing even more and his eyes darting back and forth between me and Avery. “Dad, what the fuck? Are you drunk?” He looks at Avery. “Are you?”

  “Lucas…” Avery says as she takes a step towards him and holds her hand out to touch him, her eyes wide and unblinking.

  “WHAT THE FUCK?” He repeats and she flinches, dropping her hand.

  “Okay, you have about one more fuck, Lucas Daniel,” I warn him. Not that I really care if my kids swear but they certainly weren’t going to do it at me.

  “You’re shitting me, right? You…and…you have a girlfriend! And…Avery? What is going on?” He yells.

  “Lucas…” Avery’s worried eyes dart to me for help and I wish I knew what to say. I was supposed to have time to plan for this conversation. He was not supposed to find out until I told him and I curse myself for not waiting until we were behind closed doors before I kissed her.

  “We should talk, Son.”

  “Talk about what? Why you’re mauling my best friend in a corner like some horny old guy?” He says with an incredulous look.

  “Lucas,” Avery snaps. “Stop it.”

  “Stop what? This is fucking weird.” He shakes his head. “I don’t like it. Don’t do this again.” He points between the two of us and I realize that he thinks this was just a one-time thing brought on by too much alcohol.

  Avery and I share a look before I turn my focus back to him. “Lucas…” I think about going along with it, but I don’t know if that would just make things worse in the long run. “Avery and I have been…seeing each other,” I tell him because the thought of insinuating that Avery was just a drunken accident or fling does not sit right with me.

  He blinks his eyes several times. “I’m sorry, what did you say?” He takes a step toward me and I don’t think I’ve ever seen the look he’s giving me. “What?” His voice is low and angry and at this moment, I don’t think he sees me as his dad but the guy that touched the woman he believes belongs to him on some level. Fuck. “ARE YOU KIDDING ME?” He screams. Yes, screams. “You’re…” He points at Avery. “AVERY? That’s who you’ve been seeing? You’ve been sneaking around my back with my best friend?” He spits through gritted teeth. “And on top of that, the woman I spent years being in love with?” He darts his eyes to Avery and I can only assume the anger there is brought on by hurt and maybe a little embarrassment. “And you? MY DAD? I wasn’t good enough for you, so what, you decided to go for the older version of me?”

  “It was never about you not being good enough—” Avery starts.

  “Save it,” he growls at her. “You are the fucking worst for this, Avery. I’ve been nothing but a good friend to you and you mess around with my dad? I can’t even look at you.”

  “Don’t talk to her like that,” I snap at him. “I raised you better than that.” I see her lip trembling and the devastated expression on her face. He goes to respond when I pin him with a warning glare that I hope he heeds. “You and I should talk alone.”

  “For what? So you can apologize for stabbing me in the back? I’m good.” He puts a hand up before running a hand through his hair. “I’ve looked up to you my whole fucking life only for you to do…this?” His lips form a frown and he shakes his head. “How could you do this? OF ALL THE FUCKING PEOPLE IN THE WORLD?”

  I sense Avery moving next to me and when I look over at her, her gaze is focused on the floor. “Avery, can you give us a minute?”

  She nods before looking up at Lucas with tears shimmering in her eyes. “I never meant to hurt you,” she chokes out and I hate that I can’t comfort her right now. He doesn’t look at her as his angry gaze is still trained on me. “I know that’s not enough but…I’m so sorry.” She sniffles before walking down the hallway toward her room.

  “How did this happen?” He snaps when we see her enter her room. “When?”

  “Last summer.”

  “A year? This has been going on for a fucking year?”

  “We kissed last year and that was it and then winter break…” I tuck my hands in my pockets, not wanting to get into the details. “Things got more serious when she got home for the summer.”

  He chuckles as he looks at me with such disappointment. “You’re the guy she met up with after her graduation party.” He puts his hands over his eyes and lets out an angry groan. “You are unbelievable! How…you knew how I felt about her.”

  “Yes, felt, you’ve been saying for years that you don’t have those feelings for her anymore.” I point at him. “I am not trying to deflect blame but you said you were over her.” I cross my arms over my chest. “How about you be honest with me about it?”

  “Like you’ve been honest with me?” He argues.

  “I wasn’t expecting things to get this far. I thought…” I sigh. “Fuck, I don’t know. I thought I just needed to get her out of my system. Once. One time.” I lean against the wall. “But things changed.”

  We stand in silence for a minute before he speaks. “You could have anyone. Why her?”

  I hear the sadness in his voice and this is what I was afraid of. Not his anger or the yelling, but the thought that I’ve hurt my son so deeply that we may never recover from it. That he feels betrayed.

  “I don’t want just anyone.”

  “And when were you going to fucking tell me?”

  “After Rae’s wedding. I just…we wanted to be sure before we told you.”

  “Sure about what?”

  That I love her? That she loves me? “That this…was real.”

  “Are you kidding me? So, you’re not just sleeping with my best friend, you want to what…marry her? Make her my stepmom?” He spits out. “You’ve got to be joking. Jesus Christ, Rae and I really got screwed in the parents department. You’re just like Mom. You don’t care about anyone but yourself.” His words are like a punch to the gut and I don’t know if he’s just saying them to hurt me or if he feels that way on some level. I hate that there’s any part of him that thinks I don’t care about his feelings.

  “That’s not fair,” I growl because after everything, I’ll be damned if he makes me feel like I’ve ever been a shitty father until this.

  “Oh? You want to talk about fair right now?”

  “Lucas, I didn’t take Avery from you,” I argue because while his anger is warranted, it seems like he’s angry about the wrong things. “You guys were never together!”

  “So, that makes it okay? You’re my DAD.” He shouts. “And you’re screwing around with a girl who’s way too young for you by the way, who I also had feelings for! You don’t see anything wrong with that?”

  “I didn’t say that.”

  “Then what are you saying?”

  “That I’m not just screwing around with her.”

  He doesn’t say anything for a moment before his cold eyes go from angry to hurt. “Do you love her?”

  I stare at him for a second, deciding if I want to tell him the truth. “Do you?” I ask him.

  He crosses his arms in front of his chest and glares at me. “If I said yes, would it even matter?”

  My heart squeezes thinking that I’ve misread this whole thing and Lucas is still in love with her thereby making this whole situation even more complicated. “Yeah.” I nod, sadly. “It would matter.”

  His eyes soften slightly just before he averts his gaze and looks down the hallway. He turns back to me after a few moments. “If I told you I still loved her, would you let her go?”

  I shake my head at him. “This isn’t a fucking test. Answer my question. I would do anything in the fucking world for you, but if you’re asking me to give her up, it better be for a reason other than she’s your best friend.”

  He doesn’t say anything. “I made myself fall out of love with her years ago and part of me thought she’d eventually come around. So, yeah it really fucking stings that my dad is in love with her now. But no, I don’t love her and if I did, knowing she’s been with you would have done the trick.” He snaps. “Do you know how weird this is for me?”

  “Yes, and I’m so sorry,” I tell him.

  “Not sorry enough to stop,” he retorts.

  “Is that what you want?”

  “You’re asking for what? My blessing to be with her? You don’t have it.”

  “I don’t know if I’m asking for your blessing right now. Maybe just…acceptance?” That we can get through this?

  “You don’t have that either!”

  Anxiety and maybe a little misplaced anger shoots through me because is he really telling me he doesn’t want me to be with her? “So, you just don’t want me to be with her?”

  “No, I don’t,” he says instantly.

  “Why?” I grit out. “Because it’s weird? I don’t accept that.”

  “You know why.”

  “Because you had a crush on her when you were fourteen? Lucas, come on. She’s had a serious boyfriend since then and you had a girlfriend in high school. Multiple, if I recall.”

  “Because I was trying to get over her!”

  “For the love of God, we’re going in circles.”

  “No, we’re not. It’s pretty simple, Dad.” He takes a step towards me. “Avery is off limits.” I swallow down the immediate reaction to his words which would be to tell him that he doesn’t have a say in anything regarding the woman who’d said she belonged to me just hours before.