Page 22 of Wanting the Winger

“Jesus, you two are like fussy old women,” he gripes.

“What’s going on?”Suki asks from behind me.

“He got into a fight with a little girl and she kicked his ass,” I say.“She’s probably still laughing over how hard he went down when she punched him.”

“Bash, seriously.What’s wrong with my husband?”

I let out a short bark of laughter.“So many things, Suki.”

Carter, inside the house now, smacks away the arm I’m offering him, his brows lowered in a scowl.“I tripped playing pickleball and twisted my ankle.I’m fine.”

“Did he saypickleball?”Dex asks from the living room.

Suki gasps.“You arenotfine.Look how swollen your ankle is.Why are you walking on it?”

“Because I’m?—”

“Leo, can you carry him to the couch?”she asks.

“Sure.”

Carter bares his teeth like a rabid animal.Jesus fuck.The dramatics.

“You’re not carrying me anywhere.Both of you take one side and I’ll hop on one foot.”

“I’ll get ice,” Suki says.

Leo and I shoulder Carter’s weight.Even hopping makes him inhale sharply and hold his breath, which he only does when he’s really hurting.

Dex and Harry clear decorative pillows off the sectional where they were sitting with Darling.

Darling is taking up almost half of the longest row of seats, his legs in the air and his little wanger peeking out from beneath his tight T-shirt.

“Off the couch, Darling,” Carter barks as he approaches.

Darling looks up and yawns.He has Goldfish crumbs on his snout and doesn’t give a single fuck about moving.

“Darling, come on,” Mara says.

“Offer to sleep with him,” Leo quips.“He’s probably better looking than most of your boyfriends, right?”

“Says the guy who’s so desperate he creeps on women in bathrooms.”

“I wasn’t creeping.I didn’t even know you were in there.”

“There’s this revolutionary thing called knocking.Have you heard of it?”

Carter groans as we lower him to sit on the couch.“If you two don’t stop, I’m gonna make you wear the same T-shirt until you’re besties.”

Mara blanches.“Matching T-shirts?How will that?—”

Suki cuts in.“No, literally, the same T-shirt.He made Olivia and Charlotte share one of his T-shirts for two full days last week because they wouldn’t stop fighting.”

“It’s what my mom did with me and my sister,” Carter says.“It works.”

Suki helps Carter get settled, putting pillows behind his back and ice on his ankle.

“Guys, please eat,” Harry says.“We made so much food and all of us and the girls already ate.”

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