Page 125 of Forever

“Kidnap, kidnap!” Jacob kept hopping.

He went to leap off the couch but I grabbed him before he could jump down onto the glass on the floor. I turned around and saw Matt. He’d been standing behind me. I should have felt bad about elbowing him so hard. And biting his hand. But I did not.

“Enough of the chitter chatter,” Nigel said. “We need to kidnap our prey.”

“Dude, read the room,” Rob said. “The ladies are pissed.”

That was an understatement. “Matt, what the…” my voice trailed off because I was seconds away from cursing and I didn’t want to curse in front of Jacob. I stared at Matt’s masked face. “What is wrong with you?! Kidnapping? Really? You thoughtthatof all things was a good idea after everything?”

He cleared his throat. “Baby…”

“Yeah we did,” Rob said and lifted his hand for a high five. But Matt didn’t high five him.

I had a feeling this had been Rob’s master plan…

“Kidnapping commence!” Rob yelled. He threw a bag over Daphne’s head and then flipped the light switch.

Fuck.

Bee screamed.

“Coach, over here!” Jacob yelled.

I felt Matt’s arms around me again. And this time I breathed in his familiar scent. “Kidnapping, Matt? Really?”

“If you’ll excuse me, little dude,” Matt said and pulled Jacob out of my arms. And then Matt put a bag over my head and lifted me over his shoulder. The bag was silky soft. And it felt more like something from a sex club than a hardware store. Maybe Tanner had planned this instead of Rob…

The whole thing was ridiculous. But for some reason as I was hanging upside down, I was smiling.

“Who’s touching my butt?!” Kennedy yelled.

“Sorry,” Tanner said. “My hand slipped. It’s hard to make purchase in the dark with gloves.”

“And who’s touching my butt?” Justin asked in a much more excited tone.

“I’m not touching your butt,” Nigel said. “My hand is definitely on your thigh.”

“Then raise it,” Justin said.

“No thank you, sir,” Nigel said.

“Call me sir again.”

“No.”

Was Nigel carrying Justin right now? Justin had a whole foot on him. How was he doing that?

Matt carried me out of the apartment.

“Why does everyone look like they got into a brawl?” I asked. No wonder Matt hadn’t told me what his plans were. Because I would have said no to all of this.

“We were playing football,” Matt said.

Of course they were.

“Don’t worry, Mistress Brooklyn,” Nigel said. “I will have them looking right as rain before the wedding. Fresh faced and dapper. Because they get to be in pictures.”

He was throwing too many sayings at me to believe him. There was no way Rob wouldn’t be sporting a black eye at the wedding.

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