“I get it, Dad,” Lucas says.

  “Yeah, same,” Avery chirps from the back and when I turn my head over my shoulder, she gives me a small smile.

  We’ve been seated at a table for twenty minutes, long enough for Lucas and Avery to order Bloody Marys and for me to order a coffee while we engage in mindless small talk as we decide what to eat. After deciding—and it’s no shock to anyone that Lucas is getting the chicken and waffles—he excuses himself to go to the bathroom leaving me alone with Avery and the overwhelming need to lower the tiny straps off her shoulders to reveal her perky breasts.

  On instinct, my eyes immediately drop to her chest, ogling all of the flesh on display that I’d been trying to avoid while in my son’s company. I’m seated directly across from her, while Lucas sat to her right, so I have the perfect view of her.

  “Are you looking at my tits?” She asks with a cheeky smirk. Her eyes float to where Lucas disappeared before darting her eyes back to mine.

  “Yes,” I tell her as I hold the coffee cup over my mouth and take a healthy sip. “Did you wear that dress just to torment me?”

  “No.” She shakes her head as she swirls her straw around her drink before pulling it to her mouth. “But I thought you’d like it.”

  Watching those full lips wrapped around something has me picturing them wrapped around my dick and I clear my throat as I do my best to discreetly adjust myself. I lean back in my chair and stare her down as I run the tip of my index finger around the rim of my mug. “I do. I’d like it even better on the floor next to my bed.”

  Her mouth drops open and her eyes dance mischievously. “I don’t want to wait a week to touch you again.”

  My nostrils flare, because fuck I don’t either, but someone had to remain level-headed and sneaking around is one thing, but sneaking around while sharing a house with Lucas is crazy. My eyes dart toward the restroom before I can reply and I’m glad I did because Lucas is only a few yards from the table.

  “Hey, what’d I miss?” Lucas asks as he drops to his seat.

  I shake my head still trying to calm the erection that is rising at the thought of touching Avery. “Nothing.” She shrugs and takes another long sip of her Bloody Mary before setting it back on the table.

  “I can’t believe you’re going to live here,” Lucas starts, “and not in New York.” He leans back in his chair, his arm still firmly resting on the back of Avery’s. “You sure there’s nothing I can do to convince you to move to the city?”

  “You would need to convince my mother to expand the franchise.” She giggles.

  “Fuck, I’m going to miss you.”

  “It’s no different than us going to different colleges,” Avery challenges with her eyebrows pulled together.

  “That was different.”

  “How so?” She counters and my eyes float to his, wondering why he’s choosing to have this conversation now and while I’m here.

  He shrugs. “I don’t know. This is real life now, and I always pictured us living in the same state. Meeting up for drinks after a long day of work. How we were in high school but…adults.”

  She gives him a smile that seems somewhat placating and I suddenly feel guilty and ashamed all over again because I can read between the lines. Is he thinking that living in the same city would allow her to develop feelings for him? Was he hoping to create a bunch of little platonic moments that could lead to something real and intimate?

  “I’ll visit,” Avery says as she puts a hand over his. He looks down at her hand and gives her a curt nod and a smile. If I know my son as well as I think I do, it’s one hundred percent fake.

  Halfway through brunch, which includes two drinks and a shot of Jameson for both of them, I feel my phone vibrating in my pocket. Avery had gotten up to go to the bathroom and Lucas is scrolling mindlessly on his phone. When I open it, my eyes immediately look up and flit around the room, making sure that my son’s attention is not on me. He’s still looking down when I open the message from Avery. I hadn’t changed her name yet because I didn’t know what to change it to, so it’s just her phone number which I worry is just as bad because I wouldn’t be surprised if Lucas has it memorized. I hold my phone under the table, turning the brightness on my phone down as paranoia takes over, and open her text.

  Unknown Number: So, I was thinking

  Me: About?

  Unknown Number: That I don’t know what your dick tastes like

  Me: AVERY

  Unknown Number: What?

  Me: I’m not doing this with you here

  Unknown Number: Let’s fix that next time. Preferably while I sit on your face.

  My eyes widen at her words and my dick jerks in my pants. I cough in an attempt to stifle a groan just as the girl responsible slides into the seat across from me like she hadn’t just told me she wants to sixty-nine as if it were the most casual thing in the world.

  A hint of a smile finds her face before she turns back to Lucas. “Do you want to take another shot before we go?”

  “Obviously,” Lucas says as he raises his hand towards the waitress.

  “Haven’t you guys had enough?” I ask them, the question I really want to be asking lurks beneath which is ‘Avery, haven’t you had enough if you’re sexting me at a table with Lucas?’

  Lucas chuckles and shakes his head. “Dad, you can head back, we can Uber home in a bit.”

  “Yeah, Theo. Don’t worry so much. Everything is fine.” She blinks her eyes several times at me and gives me a smile. I can’t tell if it’s flirtier than usual and I don’t know what the fuck I want to do in this moment: stay here and watch the two of them drink too much and risk her continuing to entice me with her sexy messages or leave. But leaving means I don’t get to be around the woman who is slowly getting under my skin and I don’t like that option either even if she is driving me crazy. I pull the glass of water to my lips and take a long sip, trying to temper the envy I feel over my son dismissing me so he can be alone with the girl that spent last night riding my dick.

  This is Avery.

  Your son’s best friend.

  You cannot be jealous.

  You are not allowed to be jealous.

  “Right, well I’ll just get the check and be out of your way.” I smile at both of them and see a flash of disappointment cross Avery’s face. I hate how much that thought pleases me. That she wants me to stay.

  “Are you sure?” She asks.

  “He’ll be fine. I’m sure he can go hang out with his new lady.”

  A wicked smirk crosses her face and I do my best to warn her with my eyes not to pull at this thread but she looks at Lucas before turning back to me. “That’s right. Lucas seems to think you met someone?”

  “I’m not talking about this with either of you,” I grit out and Lucas chuckles.

  “Testy.” He shrugs.

  I’m relieved neither of them push it and I’m even more relieved when my phone begins to ring but that relief is immediately replaced with annoyance when I see who it is.

  My ex-wife and the very irritating mother of my children.

  “Rebecca.”

  Lucas’ eyes immediately flash to mine in panic before he looks down at his own phone, assumedly to see if she’d called him first before she tried me. He draws a line over his throat. I’m not here, he mouths and I nod, like I haven’t done this dance with both of my children and their mother for the better part of a decade. It comes with being the favorite parent. I love and hate that title. Love that they know they can always come to me and that I’m always in their corner. But I hate that they don’t feel those same feelings for the woman who brought them into the world. Raegan had come around a little more as she got older, but Lucas has been my shadow since birth. His relationship with his mother was more difficult to repair after she essentially abandoned them to travel around the world with the man she cheated on me with.

  By no fault of my own, my children have always been aware of the circumstances around the demise of our marriage and definitely chose sides. Not that Rebecca gave them much of a choice by choosing to dick ride that asshole that never paid any interest in her children.

  It shocks all three of us that they’re still together all these years later but birds of a feather, so they say.

  “Do you have any idea what your daughter has done?” She shrieks and I pull my ear away from the phone before turning the volume down.

  I sigh and pinch the bridge of my nose. “What’s wrong?” I’m calm because there’s no way if Raegan was really in trouble, she’d call Rebecca before she called me. More than likely they’re just in an argument and Rebecca is calling me to complain, which is odd behavior even for her because she knows I’d never take her side over my daughter’s.

  Lucas and Avery share a look before leaning forward in almost perfect sync like they can hear through the phone.

  “SHE’S GETTING MARRIED! And I haven’t even met this guy! You had ONE job, Theo. Talk her out of dating this old guy. YOU said we had to let her make her own decisions and now look at this mess.”

  “WHAT?” I snap into the phone because fuck the fact that she’s getting married; I’ll deal with my irritation over that in a second. She told her mother before she told me? And this asshole didn’t even ask me? “How do you know? She told you that?” I ask.

  “What what?” Lucas is mouthing out loud at me. “Told who what?” he whisper shouts.

  “Hold on, Rebecca, Lucas will not shut up,” I growl at him.

  “Oh, let me talk to my baby!” She squeals and I should have known the mere mention of Lucas would turn her attitude around.

  “You can talk to him in a second,” I grit out, shooting Lucas a smug grin and he lets out a groan before scrubbing a hand over his face. “Did Raegan tell you this?” I ask her.

  “No. Laura told me so you know there’s got to be some truth to this.” Laura is the mother of Natasha, Raegan’s best friend, so unfortunately, I do believe this is probably accurate information. Fuck.

  “So, they’re engaged officially?” Lucas’ mouth drops open and Avery’s eyes widen, having put together what Rebecca just told me. Avery points to her left ring finger and I nod at her and shrug because I’m still a little unsure about the truth.

  “Well, not officially, I guess. Laura said Natasha said there’s a ring,” Rebecca says and I let out a breath thinking about my sweet little girl with some guy twice her age that I barely know. “They’ve only been together six months. This is a mistake!” Rebecca wails. “You need to fix this, Theo.”

  “ME? I’m sorry, have you met your daughter? Headstrong as hell and stubborn?”

  “She listens to you, Theo.” She sighs. “Look I’m still in Italy, but I can come home if—”

  “No, don’t come home in a panic. It would just set everything off. Let me see what the hell is going on before you get all hysterical.”

  “Fine. Call me back,” she says without another word and I roll my eyes at my ex-wife’s inability to ever say goodbye before hanging up. That shit used to piss me off.

  It still does.

  I set the phone down and look at both of them. “So evidently, Natasha told Laura there’s a ring.”

  “What the hell? They’ve been together for like five minutes. We’ve met him twice. How? We should go over there.” Lucas points back and forth between us.

  “Worst idea,” Avery interjects and my eyes find hers. “You two going over there guns blazing over what very well may be a rumor is the worst idea! And it’s going to make an already sensitive situation more precarious. She knows how you guys feel about Wes.”

  “We use his name?” Lucas blinks at her like she just used the name of his sworn enemy.

  “Sure.” She shrugs. “She posts him on Instagram with his name. I know you weren’t raised in a barn; have some manners for your future brother-in-law.” She gives him a smile, blinking her eyes several times.

  I groan and point at Avery. “You are not helping.”

  “Wait for her to come to you.” She looks at me with those bright hazel eyes that had me on my knees last night. “When has she not? Are you worried she’s going to elope? She wouldn’t do that.”

  “Wes,” Lucas interrupts before I can respond, “should at very least come talk to Dad. Want to talk about not having manners?”

  “And maybe he will! All the two gossiping Gabbys have come up with is that there’s a ring. That can mean so many things.”

  I feel out of control at the moment. Last night. Being here with Avery. Talking to my ex-wife—which always makes me feel a little uneasy afterwards. And now my daughter potentially making the biggest mistake of her life. I flex my hands before balling them into fists while looking at Lucas.

  “I’m going to head out. You good with getting home?” I say, not looking at Avery because I don’t want her to think this is about her.

  “Yeah of course, but you want us to come?”

  “No, you guys stay.” I sign the check and stand before either of them can protest.

  “Dad, if you’re going over there, I want to come.”

  “I’m not. I just…need some air,” I say without another word.

  My eyes follow Theo out of the restaurant and I wish I was going with him. I wish I could hold his hand and tell him to breathe and that everything will be fine. I wish I could sit on his lap and kiss him and rub the stress off of him.

  But if I’m being honest, I’m not sure if it will be or if I’m even the right person to help for that matter. I don’t know if his agitation is about Raegan potentially being engaged to someone he barely knows or the fact that he’s twice her age, thereby making his feelings a little more complicated and maybe even a touch hypocritical given that he spent last night sleeping with his son’s best friend who happens to be half his age. It’s probably a little of both which is likely why he wanted to get away from me.

  “Damn,” Lucas shakes his head. “You want to go sit at the bar?”

  I nod, knowing that under any circumstance other than what happened last night, my only concern would be Lucas and talking it out with him with shots of tequila and fried foods. We find two empty bar stools and Lucas orders us two shots before I’m even in the seat.

  “Remember we have dinner with my parents tonight.”

  “Right.” He looks at his watch. “In six hours?”

  “I’m just saying,” I tell him, hearing his underlying meaning that we will definitely not be drunk by then.

  I want to text Theo, but sitting directly next to Lucas is not the time to do it.

  “I have to pee. I’ll be right back,” I tell him as I hop off the stool and make my way into the ladies’ room. I push into a stall and have my phone to my ear before I’ve even locked it behind me.

  “I assume you’re by yourself.”

  “You assume correctly.” I expect him to say something else and when he doesn’t, I speak up. “Do you want to tell me what you’re thinking?”

  “Not really.”

  “Can you tell me where you’re going?”

  “Home.”

  “Okay.”

  I can hear the distance in his voice and I don’t know what to say now that won’t come off clingy so I decide just to end the conversation. “Alright, well…I’ll see you.”

  “Wait,” he says. I don’t respond but I don’t hang up either. “I want to see you tonight.”

  My stomach flips in response. Okay, this is good. “I know it’s a stupid idea but…I just…I need you again.”

  I bite my bottom lip and I squeeze my thighs together because SAME. “Okay.” I try my best not to let him know that I am squealing on the inside at this man wanting another night with me.

  “I don’t know how.”

  “I’ll figure it out,” I tell him because I know I have the most obstacles in this situation due to my plans to go out to dinner with my parents and Lucas. “But, I should go.”

  “Mmmhm. Don’t drink too much.”

  “Okay, Daddy,” I sass and I wonder how he’ll take the nickname.

  “Fuck,” I hear him whisper into the phone. “Avery, you’re going to fucking pay for that.”

  “Promise?”

  “Talk soon.” He grunts into the phone. “And be safe.”

  “Fuck it, I’m calling her,” Lucas says as we are walking out of the restaurant. It’s an hour later, and we each had another shot and two more drinks, so while we aren’t drunk, we are teetering on the edge and I do not think calling Raegan and exploding all over her is a good idea.

  “No! Don’t.” I put my hand over his phone.

  “How could she keep something like this from me? From me!?” He shakes his head. “It would be like you keeping something from me.” Guilt gnaws in my gut at his words. “I’m always on her side about everything. Yeah, I give her a hard time about her new boyfriend but if she’s marrying this guy, I need to know what the fuck is going on.” He begins pacing and I realize he’s definitely not calling our Uber, so I open my app up to request one. My fingers itch to text Theo in case he has to do damage control if Lucas drunkenly explodes all over her but I decide against it for now.

  “Rae!” My eyes dart to his and I realize he’s on speakerphone.

  Relax! I mouth at him.

  “What?” She snaps, annoyed. I remember she’s supposed to be sick but she doesn’t sound all that sick?

  “Ummm… how are you? I heard you weren’t feeling well.”

  “Oh better. It might have just been a little bug.”

  “Oh good, you’re not pregnant, are you?” He chuckles and I smack his arm and shake my head at him.