40
E rin leaned against the island as she watched Paetyn cut some celery while Cruz set up another table to ensure they had enough room for everyone coming for Thanksgiving. She’d volunteered to help him set it up, but he’d declined, telling her it would only take a few minutes. So, she sat at the island to watch Paetyn chop vegetables. She had long ago discovered her obsession with both of their hands. So it did not shock her the first time she’d watched him chop something or Cruz install a prototype for a new monitor on their garage door, that watching them work with their hands sent a little tingle through her.
When he finished the celery, Erin helpfully passed him the potatoes and continued to admire his hands as he worked. There was just something about it—the way he deftly maneuvered the knife and the precision it took to do so without cutting himself.
After the potatoes were finished, Erin slid him the carrots, her eyes still trained on his hands as she shifted from one foot to another, squeezed her thighs, and momentarily wondered if something was wrong with her. This shouldn’t have always turned her on, but it did, and she didn’t care. Mildly, she wondered if she should try to remove one of the security panels so Cruz would have to fix it. That way, she could watch and get a double fix.
She was so preoccupied with her thoughts and the constant motion of Paetyn’s hands that she hadn’t realized she’d absentmindedly slid him a loaf of bread when he moved to the final carrot. It was when he chuckled that she snapped back to reality.
“What am I supposed to do with that, Angel?” he asked, eyes catching hers, the consistent chopping still sounding in the kitchen, and it did nothing for her state.
Erin pursed her lips. “I was making sure you were paying attention.”
“Is that so?” he asked, amused, and it was easy to see he didn’t believe her. Luckily for her, Cruz saved her.
“What time are you supposed to pick up Morris and Julia?” Cruz asked.
“They’re coming with Taila. They’re staying at the same hotel, and she volunteered to bring them while we got everything set up,” Erin responded.
“And you’re sure you’re still okay with Caroline coming?” Paetyn asked.
“I am. Like I said, as long as she keeps her hands to herself, there won’t be a problem, but it’s also a little late to ask again now.”
“It isn’t because we will never let you feel uncomfortable in your own home. So if that means sending someone away at the last minute, that’s what will happen,” Cruz responded. Erin smiled at him, becoming more used to them calling it her home each time it happened.
“Do either of you need help with any last-minute things before I get dressed?” she asked.
“Once I put this on, everything will be cooking or done,” Paetyn stated.
“I’ve got everything set up. I think we’re good, baby,” Cruz responded.
“Okay, but call me if you need help.”
She exited the kitchen and went upstairs to her bedroom. They had an hour and a half before everyone would start arriving, and she knew that the dish Paetyn was making would take forty-five minutes to an hour once on.
Erin entered her ensuite and began to fill the tub. She’d already chosen what she would wear and wanted to soak for at least a little bit before she double-checked that they had everything and played hostess.
E rin listened, amused, to her grandmother and Lena’s conversation as she ate her dessert hours later. As soon as she introduced her grandmother and dad to Ancel and Lena, they hit it off. Her grandmother was a mess, and she’d learned that Lena was not much better. Neither woman seemed to have a filter, and their current conversation centered around the medicine comment made at dinner a couple of evenings ago.
“They weren’t as slick as they thought,” her grandmother stated. “I knew what they were referring to.”
“I’m sure they’ve been giving her plenty of their medicine,” Lena responded. “I wouldn’t be surprised if we were grandparents before long.”
“Mom,” Cruz said in a playful warning. Erin knew he and Paetyn often got the grandchild comment. However, she didn’t think they were as opposed to it as they led Lena to believe.
“I will be a great-grandmother,” her grandmother responded. Both women pretended her boyfriend hadn’t spoken, which caused Ancel to laugh and her dad to shake his head.
“I don’t know why you boys still try to dissuade her,” Ancel stated.
“If dissuading is what they’re going for, they now have two, and I can tell you from experience that Julia is more stubborn than a mule. When she gets something in her mind, that’s where it stays,” her dad responded.
“Morris, you really should get on the bandwagon because it means I’ll stop asking you when you will give me another grandchild. You aren’t too old to do so.”
Erin giggled at the horrified look on her dad’s face. She couldn’t blame him. The last thing on his mind was a child. Hell, he needed to start dating first, and those times were far and few between. Not that Erin wasn’t constantly volunteering to be his wing woman and pointing out women she thought would be good for him.
“Yes, I am too old to do so. At my age, I will not be chasing after a toddler. That ship has sailed; I wasn’t on it, and I have no intention of boarding a different one,” her father responded.
When her boyfriends chuckled, Lena looked between them. “Make sure the two of you board the ship.”
“We always board it. It just doesn’t set sail,” Cruz responded with a shrug, and Erin damn near choked on her pie before pinching him, which only caused him to laugh.
“Let him borrow your filter,” she directed at Paetyn.
“You and I both know I don’t have one either,” he whispered in her ear. “At least not when I’m boarding this ship we’re talking about.”
Erin shifted in her seat slightly as she took another bite of her pie.
“See. Just mannish,” her grandmother stated, and Erin started to think she had super hearing.
Lena nodded in agreement. “Yes, but that’ll work for us in the long run.”
Ancel snorted before shifting the conversation, and Erin finished her dessert before excusing herself to mingle with some of their other guests. They were spread out. Some were watching football, and others were holding different conversations. She found herself in another discussion with Emberly, asking her, Chayse, and Alijah for a little cousin, which Chayse made Taila’s problem.
“You know, Mom, I think giving me a sibling would be wonderful, and it would sort of give Emberly what she’s asking for.”
“Oh! A little auntie or uncle is acceptable, too,” Emberly agreed.
“I don’t normally curse in front of children, but hell no,” Taila responded, pulling laughs from those around them.
There was a knock on the door, and the console beside it lit up. Erin went to answer it and found Naidlyn on the other side to catch the end of the festivities. She greeted the other woman and stepped aside to let her in. She still wore her scrubs, and Erin was sure she was tired from her shift.
“Look, your mom’s here. Why don’t you pester her for a sibling,” Taila stated.
“Trust me. I have. Why do you think I’m bugging all of you?” Emberly responded.
Erin shook her head. It didn’t seem she’d escape the baby talk anytime soon.
C ruz stood at the bar, drinking his bourbon as he watched Erin laugh while talking to a few of their guests. She was glowing. The lilac wrap dress she wore contrasted against that smooth carob skin. It made him think back to his mother and Julia’s conversation an hour ago, but he shook it from his mind.
“She won’t disappear if you take your eyes off her for a moment,” Ancel teased him in Polish, joining him at the bar.
“When she’s the most beautiful person in any room she walks in, it’s kind of hard to,” Cruz responded.
Ancel chuckled. “I would tell you that was corny if it weren’t something I might have said.”
“Where do you think Paetyn and I get it from?” Cruz questioned, and the two shared a laugh.
“I can’t blame you. If I were twenty years younger,” Ancel teased.
“You’d still be too old,” Cruz pointed out. He’d be ten years older than Cruz was now and almost twenty years older than Erin.
Ancel chuckled. “You’ve got me there, but seeing the three of you so in love is nice, to see what you boys feel being reciprocated on the same level. Where both of you are equally invested in.”
Cruz furrowed his brow. “What do you mean?”
“You were both always more invested than your partners. They were nice women; they cared about you, but not on the level you did for them, and not equally, and I can understand that. Your type of relationship can be challenging. It’s easy to lean towards one more than the other. I don’t see that with Erin. The energy feels different, even from the two of you. You did well.”
“Dzie?ki, Tato.”
Ancel smiled at him at the spoken rarity before patting him on his back and joining Bronson, who Cruz had discovered throughout the gathering might have a bit of an infatuation with Julia. He wondered if he was the only one who’d noticed, but highly doubted it because the older man was not at all subtle in his staring, random joining of conversations she was in when he had no clue what was being discussed, and him volunteering to serve her, and only her, dessert.
His attention shifted back to Erin as he took a drink from his glass, and it was only seconds later that her eyes met his. She smiled at him, excused herself from the group she’d been conversing with, and approached him.
“Are you drinking to forget what my grandmother and Lena discussed over dessert?” she teased.
Cruz chuckled. “I started letting her pestering go in one ear and out the other long ago. But if I recall correctly, it was you who told her you weren’t opposed to children with the right men.”
“Hmm. I did say that, didn’t I? I meant it, but not immediately.”
“You probably should have clarified that to my mother. Which means I’m going to blame today’s conversation on you,” he smirked.
“Me? You were the one who decided to inform them that you board my ship often.”
“There’s no point in pretending we don’t. They know we aren’t virgins. They actively want us to have sex.”
Erin shook her head at him. “What am I going to do with you?”
“I could think of several things,” he responded.
She gave him that smile that could bring a man to his knees. “Kocham ci? kochanie.”
“Ja te? ci? kocham, Ma?y. Powiniene? pozwoli? mi pokaza? ci dzi? wieczorem. Mo?emy ?wiczy? dla mojej mamy i Julia.”
He’d been giving her Polish lessons since she’d asked, and she picked it up quickly. She’d even ask him and Paetyn to speak in nothing but Polish to her for an entire day once. Of the three of them, he kept forgetting that they were supposed to be.
“Pokaza?? ?wiczy??”
“Show. Practice,” he provided.
She laughed after a second. “I’d bet you’d like that.”
Paetyn joined them, handing her a plate. “That’s the last piece,” he told her.
“I’m not surprised,” Cruz responded. “She and Lawrence have been eating it like it’s a competition.”
Erin pursed her lips. “I like it. Besides, if he’d gotten the last piece, you’d make me more, wouldn’t you?” she asked Paetyn, lips pouting, and they laughed.
“Of course, Angel.”
At this point, Cruz had lost track of how often Paetyn had made the dessert for her. He couldn’t remember the name of it, but they’d had it while on vacation. To her credit, each time she asked him to make it, it was with a different fruit.
“How do you say ship in Polish?” Erin asked.
“Statek,” he and Paetyn supplied simultaneously.
“Czy ty te? masz zamiar dzi? wieczorem wej?? na mój statek?” Erin asked Paetyn in Polish before taking a bite of the dessert. Cruz smirked before drinking from his glass.
“Kilka kurwa razy.”
“Well, it’s a good thing the shop’s closed tomorrow,” she responded, and Cruz couldn’t have agreed more.
I t was a couple of hours later, and only nine of them were left in attendance. The five of them played poker as Cruz listened to the women and Lawrence plan a shopping route for the following day as if they were planning the best scenic route to take on a road trip. He wasn’t the only one who noticed.
“Are they planning a shopping route for tomorrow?” Nik asked.
“Yep,” Remy responded, raising Paetyn’s two thousand. “The most efficient way for them to navigate overly crowded stores with deals far from worth it.”
“They do realize they can shop anytime, right?” he asked.
“You do realize we can hear you, right?” Erin countered.
“I didn’t say you couldn’t, Ma?y,” Cruz responded, folding.
“Is there a reason you want to fight crowds for things you can buy on any given day?” Paetyn asked.
“Because they’ll be on sale,” Alijah replied.
“You know we’re rich, don’t you, baby?” Kieran asked, folding after a second.
“That’s not the point,” she countered. “It’s just what people do. They go Black Friday shopping.”
“Not all people, because I’ve never done that,” Kieran responded. “And you didn’t the past two years either.”
Cruz couldn’t recall ever going, now that he thought about it. He supposed it seemed a bit pointless and tedious when he could buy what he wanted whenever, but he knew that wasn’t the case for most people, and this time of year was when they got things they may not have otherwise gotten.
“Yes, well, I didn’t want to then, but I want art supplies on sale this year. So, I’m going to get them, and you are more than welcome to come and experience it for the first time,” Alijah replied.
“Same,” Chayse said. “A camera I’ve been looking at will be on sale.”
“I’m going for the shoe sales,” Erin stated.
Cruz looked over at her as he picked up his glass but refrained from telling her she could go shoe shopping on any day of the week. She was better about accepting the things they wanted to do for her and give her. He mainly didn’t want her caught in all the wild antics that could go on. He’d missed the exchange between Remy and Lawrence, and cards were dealt again.
“What time are we going?” he asked.
“Early. Around six,” Erin supplied. He wasn’t surprised that she wasn’t by the fact they were going with her.
“You’re going to be exhausted,” he told her in Polish with a smirk.
Paetyn chuckled before co-signing, “Muy jodidamente cansado.”
“Soy una ni?a grande. Puedo manejarlo,” Erin stated.
She didn’t have to tell them for them to know.