When I'm with You (Hope Town #3)(13)

“I’m here?” I continue, hoping to get off the hook from what I’m sure would end up being the third degree of questioning if he had his way.

“Yeah, sweetheart, you are. I’ve missed you,” he says, and I instantly feel guilty for not being around. It’s not his fault this is the last place I want to be.

“I missed you too, Dad.”

He turns, favoring his bad leg, and I frown. He just shakes his head. “Don’t even start, Emberlyn. Your mom’s already been on my ass for overdoing it this weekend.”

“Then maybe you should start listening to her before your ass is on the ground.”

“Sass,” he warns. “Just like your mom. Just like your sister. I’m surrounded by f*cking sass.”

“Whatever.” I laugh, wrapping my arm around his waist as he pulls me to his side with one arm over my shoulders. “What did you do this time?”

“And still she sasses me.”

I look over and up, way up, and stick my tongue out at him. His soft laughter vibrates against me, and I smile at him.

God, I love my dad.

“Went head to head with Asher at Crossfit the other day. Little shit still can’t handle the fact that I can kick his ass with one leg.”

“I swear you two act like kids sometimes,” I joke.

We walk the rest of the way together, and I selfishly soak up the comfort his nearness brings me before we walk into the madness of family dinner night. As usual, the Reid’s house is full to bursting and the echoes of two dozen or so voices carry from the back deck. When we round the corner to where their back family room is, I stop short at the sight in front of me.

“I think the little f*cker has some cross-dressing tendencies if you ask me,” I hear and take my eyes off the scene in front of me to look over and meet Cohen’s laughing eyes.

“I’m starting to agree,” my dad jokes, releasing me and walking through the open patio door that leads to where the rest of our huge family is.

“Molly!” I look up when Megan walks in from the porch and give her a smile.

“Yes, Mommy,” Molly sings from her spot in the middle of the living room.

“Would you leave Nate alone and come on out?”

“I can’t. He isn’t a princess yet,” she continues with her singsong voice, the smile in her tone matching the huge toothless one on her face.

“Yeah, definitely has some cross-dressing tendencies,” Cohen repeats, taking a huge pull from his beer. “Hey, Em,” he says and walks over from the kitchen island to give me a hug.

“Hey,” I softly respond, looking back at Nate.

“The girls are asking about you. They’re down at the dock acting like little schoolgirls. All you hear is giggles coming every few minutes. They’ve been like that for the last half hour, ever since Dani got out of time-out.”

“Time-out?” I laugh, my eyes moving back to Nate again.

He looks up after Molly stops brushing the god-awful electric blue shadow on his lids and gives me a smile. My stupid body starts to burn with just that little bit of attention from him, and I hate myself for it. Why can’t I get over him? Even now, when he is as far from appealing as it gets, I crave him.

His shoulder-length hair is pulled in every direction with little butterfly clips of every color of the rainbow. Aside from the eye shadow, he has bright pink lipstick on, what I’m assuming is blush making huge circles on his cheeks, and as if that wasn’t enough, he has a bright pink tutu on.

And still, he’s the most beautiful man I’ve ever laid eyes on.

If anything, the horrendous makeup just accentuates the hard chiseled lines of his face. He looks just like Cohen said, like a cross-dresser, only a cross-dressing Adonis.

“She needs to learn to listen. She tried to tell my Molly-Wolly that blue wasn’t my color, so she had to go to time-out until she thought about her actions. Right, Molly-Wolly?” Nate answers my question with a smile.

I ignore his smile and turn my back to him, just as I’ve done every time I’ve seen him over the past year. I can feel his eyes on me as I make my way out back. Maybe a year ago, I would have laughed with him and asked him why he continues to put the women in his life in time-out, but not now.

Cohen continues down the steps when I pause at the railing and look around at everyone spread out over the large backyard. Megan is walking away from her husband, smile on her face, and heading down toward the dock. Lee, her husband, is standing with Cohen’s brothers, Cam and Colt, following his wife’s retreating back. That is until Cohen steps up and gives him a good-natured shove. Zac, Jaxon, and their dad, Asher, are tossing the football around with Beck and Greg. Axel and my dad are standing around the grill while Izzy, Dee, and Chelcie move around the huge farm table that takes up one side of their outdoor dining area.

Spotting my mom with Melissa, Sway, and his partner, Davey, I make my way to where they’re playing with Dani’s boys. I stop to give my mom a hug, saying hello to everyone else I pass as I make my way down to the dock.

Just as Cohen said, all the girls are there. All six of them indeed giggling in their little makeshift huddle. My sister looks up when my feet hit the wooden planks and gives me what I couldn’t mistake as anything but a relieved smile.

Being the baby of the girl side of our group—hell, the baby of the whole group—I don’t spend as much time with them as she does, but it doesn’t mean our bond isn’t strong. All of our parents have been friends for so long that even though I only share blood with one of them, we are very much a family.