Chapter 21
“After we get married, every Friday night is going to family night!” The senator smiled brightly, her forehead wrinkling. This was the first time that I had ever seen her smile when it wasn’t forced. Her thin hand held tightly to my dad’s as they took a seat on one side of the dining room table in preparation for game night.
I stifled a groan as Alyssa clapped her hands in excitement. It seemed as if Damien was following the same train of thought as I was when he let out an audible groan, plopping into the dining chair next to where I was sitting. His hand found mine beneath the table and gave it a gentle squeeze. His thumb made lazy circles on the back of my hand, making the skin there tingle.
“Hey, we love family game night! Don’t we, Lyss?” my dad questioned. His green eyes, which reminded me so much of mine, turned to Alyssa who was dressed in a cute pair of high-waisted jeans and a flowy floral top. As I watched their eyes connect and Alyssa smile, nodding in agreement to my dad’s question, I couldn’t help but to feel like an outsider. Of course, he is my dad, but he seemed more fatherly toward Alyssa. She was so obviously everything he wanted in a daughter. I had no doubt in my mind that if I had turned out like she had my dad and I would be closer. Maybe he would even have a nickname for me.
My dad patted the chair next to him and Alyssa took a seat.
“The dream team reunites,” she said, high-fiving him.
“Dream team?” I questioned, glancing sideways at Damien who rolled his eyes.
“They’re convinced that they’re the ‘dream team' because they always beat everyone at charades.” He squeezed my hand under the table. “We’ll beat them though.”
I smiled, squeezing his hand back. When had they played charades together before? Why wasn’t I invited?
Alyssa propped her elbows up onto the table. Her brown hair hung down long, the ends flickering against the top of the wooden table as she tilted her head to the side. “How are we playing? The teams are uneven.”
“Matt’s coming,” I told her, actually excited to have him. I could tell that Matt was quickly going to become one of my closest friends. Despite how jealous Damien acted around him for bearing the title of my boyfriend, he actually really enjoyed his company.
Senator Jacobs squinted her eyes. “Oh, well this should be interesting.”
My dad’s eyebrows raised and a large toothy grin replaced his easy-going smile. “Is he?”
Just then the doorbell rang, echoing through the dining room. My dad’s head snapped up and he hurriedly jumped to his feet. “I’ll get it!” he called as he sped to answer the door.
Alyssa narrowed her eyes after him then turned toward me. “I would be jealous if I were you,” she joked.
I nodded in agreement. “Shouldn’t I be the one running to the door?”
“Role reversal. It’s like Freaky Friday in here,” she said with a chuckle.
Damien smirked. “Better watch out before he steals your man.” His hand squeezed mine to emphasize his statement.
A small laugh escaped my throat before I scoffed and shook my head. “Matt would never leave me for a guy. Especially not an old man.”
“Hey! I heard that,” my dad defended himself as he entered the room with a blushing Matt behind him. He had probably caught the end of the conversation too. “I am not an old man.” He took his seat again, pecking his soon-to-be wife on the cheek. “Let the games begin!”
“You have no idea what you’ve just gotten yourself into,” I mumbled to Matt as he took a seat next to me. To my surprise, and Damien’s, as soon as he sat, he leaned forward and pressed his lips to mine in a short display of affection.
I easily hid my shocked face with a smooth smile.
“Why?” he questioned.
I was about to respond, but was cut off by my dad’s cocky smack talk. “Because, I’m sorry to tell you this son, but you’re playing on the losing team.”
Matt shook his head. “Sorry to tell you this sir, but I’m never on the losing team.”
Smirking, Damien let go of my hand and placed it on my thigh, squeezing it as he said, “Yeah Mr. Phillips, you’ll see. You may wish that you two were playing for the same team.”
Matt laughed, understanding the joke easily and finding it amusing, while I didn’t. I kicked his leg under the table, mad that he might have given us away with that last statement.
“Dad, honestly, you can’t smack talk in charades,” I said, turning the attention to him as he began to pass out paper slips to everyone and pens.
Damien nodded in agreement. “Yeah, that’s like going swimming without a bathing suit; it doesn’t make any sense.”
Senator Jacobs glared at her son. “We won’t talk about that event during family night.”
Matt smiled at me in adoration. “That’s my girl,” he cooed in admiration.
Alyssa laughed while Damien rolled his eyes.
“All right, let’s get this game on the road!” Dad yelled, much too loudly for a dining room. “The words you write have to be able to be acted out and they must fit into one of the categories of film and television, books, music, hobbies, or animals.” He rubbed his hands together in excitement before picking up his pen and scribbling down a word, then tossing it into one of the little woven baskets in the center of the table that I assumed was for our team.
I placed both hands on the table, writing the word Goosebumps onto my index card and then folding it in half once before placing it into the basket for the other team. I smiled to myself. There was no way in hell anyone would be able to guess that one.
I felt Damien’s hand on my thigh again as his other hand placed his index card into the basket for the other team to guess from. A shiver went through my body when his hand slid farther up my thigh, tracing the outline of my shorts with his fingers.
“All right,” my dad spoke once everyone had finished, clapping his hands together loudly. “Any volunteers to go first?”
Matt, Damien, and I looked at each other, none of us willing to step up to the plate. Honestly, I didn’t mind going first, I just wasn’t ready for Damien’s hand to be removed from my leg. His fingers were now trying extremely hard to slide up my shorts, but unfortunately, to no avail.
“I’ll go first!” Alyssa chirped as she dug her hand into the basket and pulled out an index card. Her face contorted as she looked at the card and then she glared at Damien. “I have a feeling this is your card, and I refuse to act it out!”
“What, you didn’t enjoy my entry for the hobbies category?” Damien asked with a smirk as my father snatched it out of Alyssa’s hand.
“Damien, how could you put this in for family night?” My father questioned as he extended the card in front of us. Damien and I laughed as my father’s face grew red with frustration. Written on the card were three letters that made up one inappropriate word: sex. My father was clearly not as amused as Damien and I were.
“You said you wanted something that fit into the hobbies category, and that’s what I gave you. If Alyssa won’t act it out then we get the point because she picked the card and it’s against the rules to put it back in the basket when everyone already knows the word. That way you and my mother can’t gross us all out of the room. Thanks for the easy point, Lyss,” Damien said exaggerating the nickname my father had called her.
“I guess I’ll just go again,” Alyssa growled in annoyance. She clearly wasn’t pleased by Damien’s entry in the basket, and from where his hand was located I had a feeling I knew who the word was for. She pulled out another one and this time her face lit up; she must have picked one of Matt’s. I had a feeling Damien’s other card was just as bad, and mine weren’t meant to be easy.
I watched her act out a few dance steps before the senator guessed that she was trying to do some dance called the cabbage patch. Matt snapped his fingers and pulled me out of the confusion by saying, “I didn’t think anyone would be able to do it or guess it. Oh well.”
“That was a good card Matt,
pretty difficult to figure out,” my father praised as the senator picked out a card.
I watched as the senator’s face contorted as she looked at Damien. “Damien, I’m sick of these cards. You clearly don’t understand the term of family night. I don’t appreciate these vulgar scenarios,” she yelled as she slammed down her card on the table. The words skinny dipping were scrawled neatly across the card and my whole team laughed.
“Actually, I wrote that one,” I confessed with a smile. As soon as I admitted it, Damien finally managed to get his hand up my shorts and feel the lace outline of my panties. He knew that the card was about him and he wanted to remind me about our time skinny dipping together.
“Jade,” my father scolded.
“That makes two points,” I said with a smile as he picked out a card. I could tell it must have been one of Damien’s cards because his face scrunched in anger.
“I think game night is over,” he growled as he crumpled up the card and tossed it onto the table before walking out of the room.
“Already?” Alyssa groaned, staring after him.
Damien leaned over the table and grabbed the ball of paper while the senator stalked out with disgust etched across her features. He let out a dark chuckle as he glanced at the card. “Good one, Jade,” he said as he placed the card in front of my eyes for me to read the words, pool sex.
“I didn’t write that one,” I stated.
“I did that one.” Matt smirked wickedly as Damien and I glanced at him in shock. “What? I couldn’t let you guys have all the fun, and from the way Damien has his hand up your shorts I had a feeling you two had done it. I just took a wild guess, and it looks like I was right.”
“What made you guess that it was in a pool?” I asked curiously.
“Love and pool water sounds poetic,” he said with a smile as Alyssa waved goodbye at that moment, probably in fear that we would start talking about our sexual experiences.
“Wait, Alyssa, how did you know you would work well with my dad before game night tonight? He has a nickname for you and everything, but I had never met you or heard of you before the newspaper article.”
“He took me out to lunch a few times when he and my mom started dating, and he’s been over for game night with us before,” she answered with a shrug before she walked out of the dining room.
My face fell slightly at her words.
“What’s wrong, Jade?” Matt questioned, wrapping his arm around my shoulders to keep up our own charade; we would have won for sure if this was a part of the game.
“My dad has never taken me out to lunch. He’s never played games with me before tonight, and he sure as hell doesn’t have a nickname for me,” I said with a frown and I leaned into Matt for the comfort I needed. How could my dad treat her so differently from me? Even if I wasn’t the perfect daughter it wasn’t fair to treat a future stepdaughter better than his actual daughter, right?
“I will take you out to lunch sometime,” Matt offered once he saw my down-turned face.
“It’s not the lunch I’m worried about,” I said as Matt hugged me tightly and understood that I needed a moment to accept that my father had replaced my family earlier than I thought, and that I wasn’t a part of his perfect family picture anymore; if I ever was.
Chapter 22
“I’m very proud of you lately, Jade,” my father stated as he sat down across from me at the table. The way he said it made it seem like he was being forced to give me the compliment. We had come back home late last night after the disaster that was family game night and I knew that I was in for a lecture about my choice of words during the game, but I wasn’t expecting this. The shock must have been obvious on my face because he cracked a small smile.
“Why is that?” I asked cautiously, afraid of where this conversation was going. We had an agreement, ever since my mom died, that we would eat breakfast together whenever we were both here, but we hardly ever talked. We agreed, silently, that it was for the best for our relationship if we ate in peace, but now I was curious about why he had broken that agreement.
“You could have disobeyed Tara and me, but instead you found a great guy and have tried to change. I know that you didn’t agree with what Tara and I thought was right, but Damien just causes trouble. Matt is a great guy. I love seeing him, Tara likes seeing him, and I think even Damien is warming up to him.”
“You’re right,” I said with a smile. I was smiling because my dad saw what we had wanted to see. He wasn’t seeing that Damien and I were secretly together, and that Matt was gay. He didn’t see that the only reason Matt played the perfect boyfriend was because I was blackmailing him, and that Damien and I had to teach Matt how to even kiss me realistically. Instead he saw Matt and me as a happy couple, and the fact that I was no longer pictured in the newspapers with a lesbian lover or kissing my future stepbrother.
Everyone was seeing what we wanted them to see, but how long could we keep it going? There was no way I would marry Matt, but the second he and I broke up, and I began to slip back into my normal routine of doing what I want, which included Damien, we both would be sent away. There had to be a way out of this that worked out for everyone, or at least for Matt and Chase like I promised.
“Wow, I think that’s the first time I’ve ever heard you say that,” my father mused as he looked at me in shock.
“There’s a first time for everything,” I stated with a shrug. I gripped my fork tightly in my hand and began to move the rest of my scrambled eggs around on my plate so that I wouldn’t have to make eye contact with him.
“I can see that,” he said before getting up and walking around the kitchen. We didn’t speak again for a few moments until the phone rang loudly and he ran to grab it. “Hello, Tara.”
I rolled my eyes as he spoke to his fiancée. I zoned out on the conversation until I heard him say that he was going to lunch with Alyssa tomorrow. “Why don’t you ever take me out to lunch?” I asked curiously when he put the phone down on the counter.
“To be honest I didn’t think you would even consider joining me for lunch. You’ve been angry at me ever since your mother passed and—”
“But what about before then? You never even asked when I was younger.”
“We never really connected, Jade; you were so close to your mom. You adored her and loved her, but not me. So I didn’t want to force the relationship, I’m sorry. How about we start over? I will take you out to lunch today, and if you want you can bring Matt,” he suggested with a smile before he walked out of the room.
Heck yeah I was inviting Matt, my dad loved him like the son he never had, and I needed to start off on the right foot this time. I scooted my chair away from the table and grabbed the phone off the counter where he had left it. I dialed the phone number that I had learned by heart over the last few days in case anyone asked me for it, and waited for Matt to answer.
“Hello?” a female voice asked.
“Hi, Mrs. Hurst, it’s Jade. Is Matt there?”
“Oh hi, Jade, yes he’s upstairs with Chase let me go get him,” she answered before I heard her lay the phone down and walk away to get him. I smiled lightly knowing that Matt and Chase were probably making out and his mom would snap them out of it in a second so they wouldn’t get caught.
A few seconds later, Matt’s voice came through the phone. “Jade?”
“Hey,” I responded.
“What’s up?”
“What are you doing?” Before he had a chance to answer my first question, I asked another. “Want to go to lunch with me and my dad?”
The other end of the phone was silent for a moment. “Sorry, I was just checking my schedule.” He laughed lightly into the phone, obviously finding his sarcastic joke funnier than I had. “Looks like I’m free.”
“I didn’t even tell you what day I was asking for.”
Matt chuckled again. “Well, since we’re in school during lunch time, I assume it has to be on a weekend, and since it’s Saturday morning, I assu
me that you’re asking about today. Also, I’ve already had football practice for this morning, so I’m free this weekend. Anything for my loving girlfriend.” Sarcasm dripped from the last thing he said, and I smiled at his words.
“You know what assuming does right, smart-ass?”
“It makes an ass out of you and me,” he replied easily.
I rolled my eyes, “All right then, be at my house at noon.”
“Sounds, good,” Matt replied through the phone. Before he hung up, he added, “Love you my little Jadey-kins.”
I rolled my eyes at his words. “Oh, just hang up the phone.”
Laughing at my response, he said, “No you hang up first,” copying the annoying teenage couples in the movies that argue over who has to hang up first.
So I hung up, smiling to myself as I did so.
***
The table was quiet. Matt and I sat on one side of the booth with my dad on the other. My dad was smiling at Matt who, like me, was shoving tortilla chips and salsa into his mouth.
Suddenly, my dad cleared his throat and intertwined his hands on the table in front of him. My and Matt’s eyes snapped up to him as he spoke, saying, “So, Matt, I just want to apologize for the inappropriate humor at last night’s family night.”
Matt wiped his mouth. “No, there’s nothing to apologize about. I had a ton of fun.”
My dad raised his eyebrow. Either he didn’t believe Matt, or he was confused to how such a golden boy could have enjoyed my and Damien’s inappropriate humor.
I dipped another chip into the salsa that I was convinced was made by magical elves themselves and stuffed it into my awaiting mouth. We were at a little Mexican restaurant that was near Matt’s house called Mexican Affair. Neither my dad nor I had been here before, but when we had asked where Matt would like to eat, he said that this was his favorite place, and now I knew why.
Crush: A YA Romance Collection Page 15