Page 95 of Fielder's Choice

Ari rolls his eyes. “I don’t understand what the fuck you guys have with me and Lucia. I can’t fucking stand her.”

“I don’t think you hate her as much as you claim,” Knox shrugs.

“Fuck,” Ari grumbles. “Not you too, Fort.”

“Honestly, she’s not as bad as you make her out to be,” I say. “And you still haven’t told any of us why you don’t like her in the first place.”

“Because it doesn’t matter,” he sighs. “All that does matter is I don’t like her, and she doesn’t like me.”

“Alright,” Cole interjects. “Let’s spare Ari any more torture.” He turns to Knox now. “How’s the wedding planning going?”

Knox smiles brightly. It’s still weird seeing that from him. He’ll forever be Fort Knox in my mind. “Really well. We just picked out the venue and set the date. January next year.”

“No shit!” I say happily. “Congrats, man.”

“Welcome to the family,” Cole chimes, knocking his beer bottle against Knox’s.

“You don’t feel weird at all that one of your best friends is marrying your sister?” Ari asks, popping a pretzel into his mouth.

“No,” he shrugs. “Harlow is so fucking happy, and Knox has been good to her. As a brother, that’s all I want for my sister.”

Knox smiles. “Thank you for never being a dick about it. I love your sister, and I honestly can’t wait to marry her.”

“I know,” Cole replies. “And I’ll cut your dick off if you ever hurt her.”

Knox chokes on his beer as he laughs because, like the rest of us, he knows Cole could never do something like that, even when it comes to Harlow.

“You getting close to marriage with Sage’s new mom?” Ari teases.

“You’re never gonna let that go,” I chuckle. “Things are good. Olive and I still haven’t put a label on anything, but we spend a lot of time together.”

“Sage seems to really like her, too,” Josh says.

“Sage loves her,” I smile. “Liv really likes her, too. She took her the other day, just the two of them. They got their nails done,she bought Sage a new dress, and they had afternoon tea.” I grin wider. “She took my tea-party-loving daughter to a fucking tea party.”

Cole puts a hand on my shoulder. “It’s good to see you happy, man. Liv seems really great.”

“She’s incredible. I’m already falling so fucking hard. We haven’t even slept together, and I just can’t get enough of her.”

Josh looks at me like I have two heads. “You haven’t slept together? You used to fuck any woman that looked at you.”

I roll my eyes before sighing. Olive’s past is her own, and I won’t share any part of that. Virginity included. “Just taking things slow,” I shrug. “That’s all.”

“Never thought I’d see the day,” he says in disbelief.

And I get it. I know exactly how I used to be.

The guys know I haven’t slept with anyone since I found out Alicia was pregnant with Sage, but with me now actually pursuing a relationship with someone, it would obviously be hard for them to wrap their heads around the fact that we aren’t having sex.

Would I like to? Obviously. But even if Olive came to me right now and said she wanted me, I’d turn her down. She’s been through enough—she needs to take things slow and get comfortable with the idea of doing more.

I don’t care if that means we never sleep together. She’s more important to me than sex is.

And I’ll make sure Ineverdo anything that could add to her trauma.

When the guys finally leave around ten, I hop in the shower, cleaning myself off… and taking care of myself as well. Can’treally control the fact that I still want Olive, even if I’m not doing anything about it.

Once I dry off, I pull on a pair of fresh boxer briefs and flop onto my bed, ready to relax and wind down.

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