Page 143 of Tenderfoot

“He calls you Lolita?” Raye asked.

I nodded exuberantly. “He does. Isn’t that the best?”

“It’s adorable,” Luna muttered, but she sounded happy too.

“And he held me the whole time I cried after I told Mom I wasn’t going to Easton’s birthday dinner on Saturday because she treats me like dirt.”

There were gasps all around at that one.

“Wait. Hold up. Seriously?” Jessie queried.

I nodded, my lips turning down. “It was unfun.”

“Babe,” she said softly, taking my hand. “Did you really finally lay it out for her?”

Another nod from me.

“I had no choice,” I admitted. “Javi told me either he was going to dinner with us, and then he’d rip them a new A-hole when they acted like A-holes to me, or I could tell them to kiss off until they could treat me with respect. I chose door number two.”

The haze was clearing, so I focused more fully on Jessie and Raye.

“I need my How to Deal with An Alpha training, because, even though Javi and I discussed it further when I wasn’t in danger of losing it, and we both agree that no time would be right but the law needed to be laid down, since then, Dad has called about ten times, Easton has called four. So I think I’m facing O’Neill Family Armageddon, and it was me who hit the red button.”

And yes, Javi and I did discuss this, after we returned home from brunch and shopping (and after we had sex again).

“Well, you weren’t there when Dad sprung Debbie on me at Lon’s,” Raye said. “Cap totally lost his shit. It was Inner Caveman time ten thousand. I was lucky he led me out rather than dragging me by my hair. So I think you picked the right way to go with that one.”

I’d sensed this, but it was good to know I was correct.

“What are you going to do about your dad and Easton?” Willow asked.

I grimaced, all this talk about my family was killing my Javi buzz. “I don’t know. I don’t want to think about it. I don’t want to deal with it.” I was fully focused now, as dealing with my family mess made me wont to be. “Although I feel like I picked the lesser of two evils, I wish this wasn’t happening now, because I’m happy.” I looked between all of them. “Like, really, really happy. And you know why I’m happy?”

“Because you and Javi are together and have had lots of phenomenal sex?” Willow guessed.

“Yes, that, but mostly because I can tell Javi is really, really happy.” I put my hand to my chest. “Because I make him that way. Can you believe that?”

“Of course we can,” Jessie said tartly.

She was just the greatest.

I looked at my bestie. “I’m the real me when I’m with him, Jess.”

“I’m glad about that, even if I’m not sure I understand it,” she replied.

“I’m pretty,” I said.

“Uh…yeah. You’ve seen yourself in the mirror,” Raye said.

“No. I mean,”—I leaned into them again—“I’m pretty.”

They didn’t appear to understand.

I leaned back. “I’m okay. No. I’m great. Being a server, or say I decided to study rocket science, and then I was a rocket scientist. Either way, I’m great just as I am.”

“Your fucking mother,” Jessie groused, hitting the nail on the head.

“I should have known, because of the way you guys are with me,” I noted. “But I don’t know…walking into Geordie’s with Javi…no, before that, just the way he looked at me when I came down the stairs at his place and he saw me all done up. It just…clicked. I was good, just me.”

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