Chapter 10 Hunter #2
Luke only winces through the first few lines, and I give him time to adjust to the feeling of the needle going into his flesh. He sits in relative silence through the rest, shedding a few tears along the way and apologizing every time he wipes them away.
“You married?” he asks near the end.
“I was, but we’ve been divorced for a few years.”
“Girlfriend?”
“Not yet.”
“Don’t wait too long to find the right person.
Life passes in the blink of an eye, and there’s no greater joy than the love of a good woman.
I may be filled with utter sadness right now, but I wouldn’t give up all the years of happiness we had together to avoid this feeling.
Don’t waste your present on the past, Hunter. Life’s too short.”
“Noted, Luke.”
“I like you, Luke,” Tate says, obviously eavesdropping on the conversation. “I’m trying to get him to ask my cousin out.”
Luke glances from her to me. “She hard to look at?”
“No, she’s beautiful,” I reply.
“Is she mean?”
I shake my head.
“You’re wasting time,” he says.
“Boss’s cousin. It’s an issue,” I tell him.
“So not an issue,” Tate butts in again.
“I agree with her. One date never hurt anyone,” Luke adds.
I growl, hating that they’re ganging up on me, and it isn’t even a scheme they came up with beforehand. “I’ll think about it.”
“Smart man,” Luke says as he gazes down at the fresh ink on his skin.
“You’ve made your boss very happy,” Tate adds, rubbing her hands together. “Now, we need to make a plan. I’ll talk to Lulu.”
“No,” I snap, not wanting anyone else planning out my dating life. “Let me handle it.”
Tate lifts her hands and smirks. “I’ll keep my nose out of everything,” she lies.
I already know she’s going to be deep in my business, no matter what she says or how much I beg her not to be.
“This is so exciting,” Tate says, almost squealing with delight.
I hope for her sake, and mine, that whatever happens doesn’t make my world implode any more than it already has.
Am I upset about being strong-armed into asking Zoey out? Not really. I like her. The moment I laid eyes on her, I wanted her. I’m not an idiot or blind, but am I in the headspace to be a good boyfriend and a good father? I don’t know, but I guess we are going to find out.
“Let’s just hope she says yes,” Timber adds, lobbing that little nugget of anxiety into the mix.
“She will,” Tate answers with so much certainty in her voice that, if I didn’t know better, I wouldn’t question a single word coming out of her mouth.
Luke gives me a small pep talk one more time before he wishes me well, promising to check back with me soon for a full report.
I’ve never had so many people involved in my dating life—or lack thereof. This will either be the most amazing thing ever or the biggest failure of my life, which is saying something after going through a divorce.
Two hours later, I’m sitting at the bar, surrounded by a majority of people I’ve never met and the biggest plate of food I’ve ever seen in my entire life.
I’m a big dude, but there’s no way I can finish everything they made me take. Even after I stopped filling my plate, their grandmother added more. The woman wouldn’t take no for an answer, just like all the women in their family, from what I can tell.
“My dad was a single father when he met my mom,” Tate says. “Well, Tilly is actually my stepmother. They met after my mom died from cancer when I was little. And then there’s Wylder. He was a single dad too. Just because you have kids doesn’t mean you need to stop living.”
“I’m sorry,” I tell her, swinging my gaze from the plate to her. “That had to be hard on you as a little kid.”
“I was so young that it seems like a dream now, but it makes me understand a little bit about being a single parent and taking the leap to get into something more. My dad was all alone, though, and didn’t have an ex-wife to share custody, but that didn’t make it any easier.”
“I can’t imagine,” I whisper, and I can’t put myself in her father’s shoes.
“What are we talking about?” Mason, Zoey’s cousin, asks as he sits down with a plate as full as mine.
“Hunter is trying to figure out how he’s going to eat all his food,” Tate replies.
“You won’t. I never do, but that doesn’t mean I can say no to my grandmother.”
“Everything she made looks so good,” I tell them.
Mason chuckles. “Gram didn’t make all this. She’s not a great cook. She has a few dishes she can do well, but other than that, everyone else did the cooking.”
I stare at him, blinking. “But I thought…”
“You thought wrong. The sausage and the eggplant are hers.”
The door to the bar opens, and the two girls I know are Tate’s stepkids come barreling our way with their father, Wylder, right behind them, another little girl in his arms. Tate slides her chair back, leaping to her feet right in time to open her arms and capture the girls before they knock her right over.
“My girls,” Tate says, kissing each one of them on the cheeks. “How was school today?”
I remember when I was able to ask Amira that question in person every day. I miss those times, and I took every single one of them for granted.
“Boring, as usual,” the oldest says. “I’m ready for it to be over.”
“Just a few more months,” Tate tells her, fingering the braid that is slung over the girl’s shoulder.
“And then another year,” the girl replies.
“It flies by, baby. Don’t worry,” Tate says and turns her attention to the smaller one bouncing up and down on her tiptoes. “And you, sweetheart?”
“We dissected a frog today,” the small girl says with the biggest smile.
Tate’s face matches mine as she grimaces. “That’s gross.”
“I know,” the girl says, peering up at her dad. “Dad pretended to throw up when I told him.”
Tate chuckles as she leans across the girls to touch her husband’s face. “Hey, handsome.”
“Hey, doll,” he says to her before giving her a kiss on the lips. “Not the thing you want to hear about as you’re eating.”
“And this one,” Tate says, reaching for the little girl in his arms. The tiny thing doesn’t waste a moment and almost leaps into her mother’s arms.
“She’s good. Just woke up from a nap,” Wylder tells her, shucking off his coat. “I’m starving. Come on. Let’s get you two food, and we can sit down with Mom.”
I watch in fascination at how easy it is for Tate with the girls. Or at least, it appears to be.
“So, what’s new?” Mason asks me as Tate sits down with Willow in her lap.
“Not a damn thing. You?”
“Nada. How’s your sister?” he asks.
I peer over at Mason. “She’s good. Back home in Ohio.”
“I’m sure her husband is happy she’s back,” he says as he stabs his fork into a piece of sausage.
“She’s not married,” I tell him, knowing exactly what he wants to hear.
“Really? She’s too pretty to be single,” Mason says.
“Oh boy,” Tate whispers. “This is going to get interesting.”
“When’s she coming back?” Mason asks like he didn’t hear his cousin’s response.
“A few weeks.”
“Tell her to come in and say hello.”
“I will,” I lie with a slight nod.
“He’s lying,” Tate says without looking in my direction. “No sane man would give that message to their sister.”
Mason touches his chest with his free hand, his eyebrows drawn together. “What? I’m a good guy.”
He looks truly offended. I have no doubt that he’s a good person, but he also looks like so many guys I know who don’t make the best partners. While I wouldn’t mind him dating one of my friends, dating my sister is a different story.
“You are, Mason. You’re one of the best people I know,” she says. “You’re my brother and I love you, but...”
“Then what’s with the crack about a sane person not letting me date their sister?” he asks her, placing his fork down on his plate.
“Hey,” Zoey says, sliding into the seat beside me. “What’s going on over here?” When she asks the question, she looks at me like I was the one in the middle of a heated argument.
“Tate doesn’t think Hunter would want me to date his sister,” Mason says, his voice filled with hurt and a heavy dose of anger.
“Uh-oh,” Zoey says, placing her hand on my arm like it is the most natural thing in the world. “I stepped into it, didn’t I?”
And by the look on Tate’s face, she clocked Zoey’s hand immediately.
Shit.