by Amali Rose
“Big-dick Bruce?” I repeat the phrase slowly, sure I misheard.
“Yeah, like Bruce Willis.”
“Bruce Willis has a big dick?” I ask, confused.
“I mean, I think he would, don’t you?”
“I—I had never thought about it.”
“Well?” she prompts and I burst out laughing.
“You are such an inappropriate human.”
“This is not news,” she replies ruefully.
“Uh, well, I mean it’s not anaconda-style, run-from-the-room huge, but it’s definitely bigger than any other dick I’ve encountered before, and I am slightly concerned for my jaw when I finally blow him.”
“You haven’t blown him yet?”
“Oh my God, go!” I push her toward the door.
“Fine, but I’d just like to say you’re a shitty friend for forcing me to ask the question. A real friend would have given me all the details as soon as you slept with him.”
Pushing her through the door, I bite my lip to hide my grin.
When we reach our seats again there has been some movement and Grayson is now sitting beside the aisle, leaving two vacant seats, then Lulu, then Miles, who shoots us an apologetic smile.
“He threatened to never babysit again.”
Addy huffs and flops down into the chair next to Lulu, but she is not having any of that.
“No, you move,” Lulu growls at Addy. “That’s Charlie’s seat.”
“You’re killing me, kid.” Adelaide groans.
Lulu just points to the other chair. “Move!”
Two hours later, I am laughing hysterically at Lulu’s antics as she riles up all the Chicago fans around us, cheering on her Penguins loudly and proudly. I understand what Miles was talking about now, realizing all the indulgent looks from earlier have transformed into glares of annoyance. Especially since the score is not in their favor.
On my other side, Adelaide and Grayson have been bickering nonstop. While Grayson looks like he’s having the time of his life, Addy looks ready to kill.
Him, me, I’m not sure she’s overly concerned with the details.
Something happens down on the ice, which I miss. This isn’t overly surprising since I haven’t spent much time watching the actual game. Everyone around me jumps to their feet yelling and it’s only when they all start to quiet down and take their seats again that I see one of the Pittsburgh players heading for the penalty box.
Lulu must notice at the same time because the next thing I hear is her voice yelling at the top of her lungs, “Jesus Christ, Karen!”
It feels like everyone in our vicinity has turned to stare while Miles quietly chastises her. When an older gentleman in front of us turns his judgemental stare my way, my usual timidity deserts me and I roll my eyes. “Oh, please. Who doesn’t love a good Karen joke?”
Down below us one of the coaches calls a time-out and immediately the giant screen above the ice starts showing the crowd. The camera pans across until it lands on a couple in the stands, a loveheart surrounding them on screen and the words kiss cam flashing.
To my right, Grayson starts loudly cheering and he turns to Addy with a huge grin. “Pucker up, baby, the camera can’t resist this face.”
Adelaide turns to me with a panicked look. “Switch seats with me.” I shake my head laughing and cross my fingers that Gray gets his wish. I am totally shipping Graddy.
“Daddy!” I look across at Lulu who is pointing at the screen and waving. When I look up, I find my own wide eyes staring back at me, a bemused Miles by my side, the two of us surrounded by a red heart.
“Kiss her, asswipe,” Gray yells across Addy’s chest before resting his head on her breasts with a blissful grin. She smacks him and pushes him off.
“Kiss her, asswipe!” I can’t control my laughter when Lulu copies Grayson and yells at Miles excitedly.
When he turns to look at me, the expression he’s wearing is almost predatory, and before I have a chance to object, his hand grips my neck and drags me to him. His mouth finds mine in a passionate and all too brief kiss, before he pulls back slightly and gently runs his thumb across my bottom lip.
The sound of cheering and hollering draws our attention back to the big screen and my exuberance over the moment vanishes when I see that now, instead of reading kiss cam, the screen declares itself DILF cam, and a sense of dread twists deep in my stomach.
“Those fuckers.”
“Are you really surprised?” Sophie’s husky voice travels through the car speakers.
“Not at all,” I begrudgingly admit. “To be honest, we had our suspicions.”
“From what I’ve heard, Harvey thinks if he makes enough trouble for Charlie, you’ll come knocking on his door begging to defend her honor.”
I swallow down a bitter laugh, because that’s exactly what I had been itching to do. The second our kiss cam picture had been splashed over the tabloids with all kinds of fun headlines (my personal favorite was Dating the Douche) and cruel insinuations, I had wanted to get in front of any camera, any microphone, anything, and reveal that show for the utter garbage it was. Fuck the defamation clause.
“Hold up, Soph. I’m just pulling up to Charlie’s.” I see Charlie standing out in front of her house. When her face lights up with that goddamn beautiful smile and she jogs to my car, a painful ache tugs at my chest. For the first time, I’m starting to understand her fear and grasp the reality of the risk we’re both taking. It was so easy for me to tell her love was worth the risk—we were worth the risk—when I didn’t fully comprehend what it could cost us. I thought I did. I thought I had been in love before and weathered heartbreak, but I had no fucking clue what it meant to love a woman until her. If she decides this is all too much and she hands my heart back to me, an unremarkable, fragmented shell because that’s all that would be left, how could I possibly come out of that still standing?
“Hey, babe.” She climbs into the car and leans over to press her lush mouth to mine.
“Sophie’s on speaker.” I nod toward the Bluetooth display.
“Oh. Hi, Sophie,” she squeaks, shooting me a nervous look.
“I was just about to tell Miles that I heard Harvey is going to hire an investigator to dig into your background.”
“He won’t find anything.” She laughs. “I’m the most boring person alive.”
“Sophie, we have to go. Thanks for the warning, I appreciate it.” I end the conversation, needing to talk to Charlie alone.
“No problem. Good luck, you guys. Just ride it out, okay? There will be a new scandal soon enough, I’m sure.”
We say our goodbyes and an uncomfortable silence hangs over us.
“You’re worried? About the investigator?”
I glance at her quickly before turning back to the road in front of me. “A little. You’re not?”
“I mean, no, not really. I wasn’t joking, there is literally nothing they could use against either of us.”
“What about your mom?” I ask quietly.
She flinches and quickly turns away from me to look at the passing scenery.
“She’s a mess but nothing too out of the ordinary. She has a gambling problem and mooches off her boyfriends, but she’s never had any trouble with the law or anything. My grandparents always made sure of that.” She turns back to me wearing a forced smile. “Even if they do find something, it’s just like Sophie said. There will be some new controversy rocking the world soon enough and they’ll forget all about you.”
I can’t hide my grimace. “I’ve been planning on that for almost a year and yet, here we are.” I reach over and squeeze her thigh. “I hate that you’re going through this because of me.”
“It’s fine. Yes, I could do without having my picture taken as I leave the gym and finding it plastered all over the internet but—”
“They did that?” I bark.
“Not my best moment.” She giggles. “But apparently a girl needs to keep her figure trim when she’s coming
between a true love like yours and Aspen’s.” I roll my eyes at her. “Seriously, I can deal with it.” She lifts my hand off her thigh and threads her fingers between mine. “You’re worth it, Miles. I don’t think you have any idea how worth it you are.” She brings our hands up to her mouth and kisses my fingers.
“Now, enough of this. I have been freaking out about this dinner all week. That is the issue we need to be focusing on.”
“Why are you freaking out?” I don’t try to hide my amusement. “You’ve spoken to my dad on the phone and he already loves you more than me. You’ve met Gray. There’s nothing to be worried about.”
“God, you sound so sure, I want to punch you.” She drops my hand with a sigh of exasperation. “I want them all to like me. I don’t make a very good first impression.”
“They’ll love you,” I insist but she just levels me with another glare. “C’mon, I saw you at your work thing, you had them eating out of the palm of your hand.”
“That was work, Miles. Is your dad going to ask me how to file a government report? Is Thomas going to ask me about the key rules for negotiating an employee contract? No.” She shakes her head vehemently. “They’re going to ask me things like where I grew up, which sounds like a very simple question, but ten minutes later when I’m rambling about the time I fell and twisted my ankle because my poppa’s car had broken down so I was running for the subway, they’re going to think I’m a nutcase!”
“Rambling like that, you mean?” I side-eye her with a huge grin, but her stony expression tells me she doesn’t find the humor in the situation. “Well, prepare thyself, Chicago, because we’re here.” I pull into my dad’s driveway, behind Thomas’ SUV and cut the engine. “You ready?”
Her face is ashen and there are tiny little beads of sweat along her hairline. I would laugh but I’m pretty sure the punch comment wasn’t an empty threat.
I lean over and grip her neck, running my thumb along her jaw. “You have nothing to worry about. We’re going to go in and eat some good food, have some laughs and that’s it.” I want to taste her, but I know if I start I won’t be able to stop, so instead, I place a gentle kiss on her upturned nose. “Now, let’s go.”
We walk to the front door of my dad’s bungalow, and Charlie exclaims over how cute the place is. I try to look at it through her eyes, but to me, it’s just home. No matter where I live, this place will always feel like coming home.
I open the door and the smell of my dad’s taco casserole is like a punch in the face. It’s the only dish he knows how to make, and he only brings it out when he’s keen to impress.
“Wait.” Charlie pulls me to a stop and looks at me panicked. “Your dad is Robert, brother is Thomas and his wife is Chrissy. What are their kids’ names again? Taylor?” She’s clenching my hand hard and I wonder if she might pass out.
“Tully, Carson, and Shae. You need to relax.” I pull her into a hug, enjoying the way her head fits right under my chin, and bury my nose in her coconut-scented hair. “No one is going to care if you forget their name.”
“Is that you, Miles?” we hear my dad shout. “Get your ass back here, your daughter’s refusing to put her clothes on.”
“See.” I pull back. “Forgetting a name is the least of our worries.”
“Hey, Gray,” I shout across the table. A second later a hand is thrust over my mouth and Lulu, who has planted her ass on Charlie’s lap most of the night, glowers at me.
“Don’t yell, Daddy. Christ.”
Jesus Christ indeed.
I stare at her dumbfounded, trying to decide if I should remind her, again, about appropriate language. Charlie makes the decision for me, quietly whispering in her ear and handing her another cannoli to eat.
“What’s up, douche?” Gray smirks at me across the table.
“I’m going to be near your work on Monday, you want to meet for lunch?”
“Sure. Downtown Pizza?” He shoves a pastry in his mouth. “Oh, wait, Monday? Yeah, I can’t.”
“Why not?” Grayson never turns down pizza, especially since he knows I always pick up the tab.
“Just can’t, don’t be such a nosey Nellie.” He turns to Chrissy and asks her to pass the plate of eclairs.
“What does Grayson do?” Charlie whispers in my ear.
“He’s a sports rehabilitation therapist. He works for one of the junior hockey league teams.”
“Oh wow.” She looks shocked, which is a fairly common response when people find out what he does after they’ve met him. “That’s such a serious job. I kind of assumed he…” She trails off, her nose wrinkled cutely. “Actually, I have no idea what I thought he did.”
“Hey, Nugget,” Gray bellows, earning him a look of reprisal from Lulu.
“What,” she snips.
“Are you excited for your birthday party next week?”
“Yes!” She squeals, bouncing on Charlie’s lap. “But it’s my birthday on Wednesday so you can give me my present then, okay?”
“Whatever you say.” He laughs.
“Charlotte, will you be joining us for the party?” Thomas’ clipped voice cuts through the din.
“Uh, yes.” She looks to me for reassurance. “I hope that’s okay with everyone. I don’t want to intrude.”
A chorus of denials bounce around the room from Dad, Grayson, and myself, and I shoot Thomas a dirty look.
“Of course she’s coming. She’s my girlfriend.”
He shakes his head ruefully, turning back to his dessert.
“I’m getting a Barbie Dreamhouse,” Lulu declares, her voice ringing with excitement, she brings everyone’s attention back to her.
“Maybe. If you behave yourself for the next four days.” I snatch her last bite of cannoli and pop it in my mouth.
“Daddy!” She growls.
“You gotta be quicker, kid.” I lean down and blow a raspberry on her cheek, delighting in her giggles. When I straighten, I find Charlie’s eyes locked on me, lit with a heady combination of amusement and desire.
“Are you having fun?” I whisper.
“Yes. I think they like me.” Her voice, also a whisper, is full of optimism. I wish I could make her understand how much more it is than simply like. Dad and Grayson are already prepared to walk through fire for her for no other reason than she makes Lulu and me happy.
“I think so too. They probably could have done without the twenty-minute explanation of the differences between corporate and business law, but other than that, you’re doing swell.” I tug a lock of her hair, savoring the flush that sweeps across her cheeks.
“God, that was bad, wasn’t it?” She buries her face in Lulu’s hair, drawing a giggle from her.
“They love you, relax.”
“Jeez, pluck a duck, we love you.” Lulu reaches up, wrapping her arms around Charlie’s neck and drags her down to place a sloppy kiss on her cheek.
Watching the two of them together, blood starts rushing to my head and my right arm starts to feel numb. I’m torn between wondering if this is a stroke and wanting to agree with Lulu and tell Charlie just how much I love her.
Instead, I turn to Gray and pierce him with my most severe glare. “Stop teaching my kid coded swear words.”
“No idea what you’re talking about.” He starts licking cream from his fingers. “Hey, Charlie, I need you to give Adelaide a message for me.”
“I am not getting involved in that mess.” She shakes her head, but her lips are tilted in a small smirk.
My phone vibrates against my ass, distracting me from Gray’s response, and when I see the name on the screen, I quickly excuse myself and head through the kitchen to the back yard, looking for some privacy.
Stepping out into the ink-black night, I accept the call and put the phone to my ear.
“Harvey.”
“Miles, nice of you to finally take my call.” His words are dripping with derision.
“I didn’t have anything to say to you.”
“And, now?”
“Now, we need to talk.”
“Good to hear it.” The creak of leather sounds through the phone, followed by the snick of a lighter. I hear him inhale, then blow out a puff of air. I can almost smell the plume of smoke I know will be floating around his pallid, moon-shaped face. “We’re going to shoot a reunion show next month and you’re going to be on it.” The certainty in his voice has me gritting my teeth. “You’re going to be contrite and tell the country how you want to make amends. How sorry you are for breaking Aspen’s heart and screwing around with the makeup girl. Aspen will put on a good show, a little something for her video reel, before she forgives you. You tell us how the love of a good woman has redeemed you, you’re a changed man, and then voila, your reputation is absolved, and you can go back to living your life.”
“You’re an asshole,” I grit out doing my best to control my temper.
“That may very well be true, but I’m also great at what I do, Miles, and if you want your little girlfriend’s name to stop being in every tabloid in the country, you’ll start toeing the line.”
Charlie’s words ring in my ears. Her assurance that she can cope with this, that she’ll stick by me.
But for how long? How long am I willing to risk losing her, when all it will take to make it go away is a piece of my pride.
“I’ll think about it.” I hang up before he can answer. It’s the best I can do right now.
The silence surrounds me, and I sit down next to the ancient grill that Dad refuses to get rid of, wondering how my life got so fucking complicated.
The low hum of voices in the kitchen distracts me and I stand, ready to get back to my girls, but as I get closer to the kitchen, I realize those voices belong to Thomas and Charlie and a flicker of panic surges through me.
“Excuse me?” Charlie’s incensed tone urges me to move quicker.
“I’m just saying that it’s convenient how you turned up out of nowhere and now suddenly my brother’s name is being dragged through the mud all over again.”
“Are you insinuating that I’m responsible for the trash—”
“I’m saying I’m tired of seeing my brother hurt and if I find out you’re the one responsib—”