Chapter 18
Family night – may involve teasing and poker but always involves whiskey
Lucas
I groan as I lower myself onto the sofa. I’m exhausted. I thought being a small town cop would be relaxing. I didn’t realize Smuggler’s Hideaway isn’t a typical small town island. If I had, I might not have spent the day arresting women for exposing themselves at the Bootlegger bar.
Weston thought it was hilarious. He also ended up asking one of the women out to dinner. Personally, I don’t understand the appeal of a woman who throws herself at you. I much prefer a complicated woman.
Chloe skips down the stairs. Speaking of complicated women.
“You ready?”
“The game doesn’t start for fifteen minutes.”
She rolls her eyes. “Not the game. Are you ready for drunk poker?”
“Drunk poker?”
“I told you it’s family night.”
Shit. I forgot. “Drunk poker is family night?”
“Lily tried doing a monthly Sunday dinner but people kept on cancelling. No one cancels on drunk poker.”
I draw a hand down my beard. I’m tired and have no desire to go anywhere, let alone move from the couch. Natalia is at a friend’s house for dinner and a movie. I thought I had the evening to relax.
“I’m sorry, Chloe. But can I skip this one time?”
“You want to skip this one time?”
I nod. “Yeah. It’s been a hell of a day.”
“So, this is how it works?”
“How what works?” I ask, although I sense I’m walking into a trap.
“I do everything I can to help your family but you won’t spend one night with mine.”
I cringe. She’s right. She has done everything for me. But there’s one flaw in her reasoning.
“Lily and Jack aren’t your real family.”
“How dare you?” She growls. “How dare you say the two adults who helped me to survive my childhood aren’t my family? Do you have any clue what my childhood was like?”
Shit. I fucked up. I stand and prowl toward her. “No, I don’t. Because you won’t tell me.”
“Because I don’t want to talk about it! Would you want to discuss how your mother bullied you? How she starved you? How she locked you in a closet if you didn’t behave?”
My heart seizes at the pain in her voice. “Your mother did what?”
“You want details? I’ll give you details. She forced me to compete in beauty pageants from the time I was five. I hated those pageants. Everything was about your outer appearance. Why do you think I hate being called beautiful?”
A tear slips from her eye and I wipe it away. “We don’t have to discuss this.”
I don’t want her in pain. I never want Chloe to ever feel pain.
“Too bad. You started this. I’m ending it. Whenever I lost a pageant, Mom was convinced it was because I was too fat. I was six years old and she’d starve me. She would send me to school without a lunch and claim I forgot mine at home. It’s hard to forget something that never existed.”
“Sophia shared her lunches with me. I don’t know if Lily figured out what was happening, but Sophia’s lunches grew until she basically had enough food for two.”
I don’t ask why she didn’t tell anyone. I’ve seen enough abused kids in my job to know it’s not a simple question with a simple answer. A manipulative parent can make the child feel as if it’s her fault she’s being punished.
“Okay,” I murmur as I wrap my arms around her. Her knees buckle and she melts into me. I’ll be her strength whenever she needs it. “I’ll go to drunk poker but I’m not getting drunk.”
She pushes away from me. “It’s not your choice to get drunk or not. It’s about your poker skills.”
I waggle my eyebrows. “Don’t you worry. I’ve got the skills.”
Her eyes flare but she clears her throat and steps back. “You’ll have to prove it.”
I motion toward the door. “Let’s go.”
Lily and Jack’s house is less than five minutes from mine. Nothing is far in Smuggler’s Rest. I was afraid I’d find the small town suffocating. But it’s not. I glance over at Chloe. It’s intriguing.
“Awesome!” Weston hollers when we enter his parents’ house, which is already crowded with most of Chloe’s family. “I win the jackpot.”
I glare at him. “Stop making bets about me.”
“Don’t get your panties in a twist. It’s just a bit of fun.”
“It’s fun at Chloe’s expense. Not okay.”
“Chloe?” He raises an eyebrow. “You’re worried about the wild child?”
Chloe cringes next to me. She doesn’t enjoy being referred to as the wild child. What she doesn’t enjoy, she doesn’t have to endure.
I squeeze her shoulder before stalking toward Weston. “I told you to stop referring to my wife as a wild child.”
“You don’t have to call her your wife in this house. Everyone knows the marriage is a sham.”
A sham? I growl. Our marriage is not a sham. It’s real. Chloe and I are married. We said our vows, we exchanged rings, and we had our first dance. It’s real.
“Do you want me to choke you out again?” I ask instead of arguing with him about my marriage. My marriage is not his business. It’s no one’s business but mine and Chloe’s.
“I am loving this!” Sophia shouts.
Her boyfriend, Flynn, wraps an arm around her and hauls her close. “Don’t encourage them.”
“Weston is my big brother. I’m legally obligated to root for him getting his ass kicked.”
“He’s also my best friend,” Flynn says.
The door flies open and Nova rushes in. “Am I late? Am I the last one to arrive? What did I miss?”
“Weston and Lucas are about to throw down. It’s so romantic.” Maya sighs. “Lucas is fighting for Chloe.”
Chloe marches forward and shoves me away from Weston. “Enough. No one’s fighting for anyone.”
Jack clears his throat. “I don’t know. I think Lucas should have to fight for you.” He narrows his eyes on me. “Lucas didn’t ask me for your hand in marriage.”
Aw crap. I didn’t realize how close Chloe was to Jack and Lily until fifteen minutes ago. Had I known, I would have asked him for her hand in marriage.
“No one is asking anyone for my hand in marriage. I am my own woman and I can make decisions for myself,” Chloe says.
Paisley pushes her glasses up her nose. “I have to agree with Chloe on this one. The practice of asking a woman’s father for her hand in marriage is anachronistic at its best, patriarchal at its worst.”
“I think it’s romantic,” Maya says.
Paisley purses her lips. “It’s romantic for a woman to be a possession? Because that’s where the tradition comes from. A father had to give his daughter permission to leave the family home.”
“Why are you raining on my romantic parade?” Maya wails.
“Because there’s nothing romantic about a woman being chattel.”
“True,” Lily agrees. “We need to organize another women’s rights march.”
“Are they serious?” I ask Weston. I’m not sure how we went from my marriage being a sham to organizing a women’s rights march.
“Yep. Mom loves to organize rallies. But don’t worry. She never makes the men carry the sign saying Fuck the Patriarchy.”
I choke. “Excuse me? Carry a sign?”
He slaps me on the shoulder. “You married into the family, bro. This is what our family does.”
“I thought we were here to play poker.”
He grins. “I love when virgins join the family.”
I cross my arms over my chest. “I’m not a virgin.”
“In this family, you are.” He claps his hands. “Who’s ready to play some poker?”
We make our way to the dining room table which is set up for poker. Lily hands out shots of whiskey.
She raises her glass. “To the smugglers, bootleggers, rumrunners.”
“And the mermaids who loved them,” everyone except me responds.
Chloe elbows me. “Drink your shot.”
I down the shot. I expect the whiskey to burn but it’s smooth. “This is good.”
“It’s Buccaneer’s whiskey,” Lily says.
“Buccaneer’s whiskey? Is everything on this island named after a mermaid or related to Prohibition?
“Don’t worry. You’ll get used to it,” she says. “And we’ll help. It’s what families do. Help each other.”
Family? Despite my arguing about how my marriage to Chloe is real, it’s not a forever marriage. And her family is not mine.
But I wish they were. I have my parents but I don’t have any siblings or cousins or aunts and uncles.
I glance around the table at the size of the group. I always wanted a big family. And I wanted to give Natalia a big family, too.
My gaze catches on Chloe. I want her to be my family. I nearly fall off my chair from the realization.
Too bad my focus needs to be on Natalia and keeping her safe.