Page 14 of Protect Home
Her brows shoot up and she shakes her head, making her wild red curls bounce. “Don’t give me that look. I’m a perpetual people pleaser. Callaway would have killed me if he knew his little sister was playing yellow light in high school.”
“Great, so you know what it is,” Kodi states.
Navy nods. “Why? You aren’t actually considering playing it, are you?”
I shake my head and laugh. “No. But the concept is that the last person to touch the roof of the car when approaching a yellow light has to take off an article of clothing. I figured since we reserved Joe’s for the night, we could add some extra dirtiness to Dirty Bingo.”
Gasps surround me, and I’m not surprised at all.
Now that I have friends who are very much in serious and committed relationships, I predicted this hesitation. Bunch of fucking cavemen in this place. Thankfully, the single ones will hold the stakes steady for tonight.
“Have you met my husband?” Kodi asks, slicing her hand at her neck like a knife. “Fat chance that caveman will let so much as a sock leave my body.”
My point exactly.
Penelope chuckles, always finding humor in Callaway’s protectiveness over Kodi.
Navy lets out a slow groan. “Bodhi will hate this,” she says, stopping short before her tone perks up. “Let’s do it! I never liked rules anyway. He can punish me for it later.” She winks, making me giggle and Penelope gag.
“Disturbing,” Penelope coughs.
“Let’s see what the guys think,” I tell them, standing to my full height and walking to their table beside us.
As I approach, my eyes trace every handsome face with eyes trained on my arrival. It really should be illegal for a group of men to be so equally attractive. Callaway, covered head to toe in tattoos. Bodhi, built like an oak tree with giant muscles. Kingston, striking features with an intricate fade across his coarse hair to match. Mack, handsome in the wrestler kind of way. Jethro, too tall and lanky for his own good.
Beside the man I’m avoiding eye contact with is Crew Briggs. Briggs is newer to the team and a single dad to the cutest little girl.
Then there’s August Graves.
And would you look at that? His eyes are already dialed in on me, searing into my skin like they’d do anything to be etched there forever. The haunting amber color tells a story I haven’t quite figured out yet and have no interest in trying.
His light brown hair sits thick on top of his head, tendrils cascading loosely like they’re intentionally placed to look effortless and silky. I doubt that, yet it doesn’t stop me from internally appreciating them.
It’s little things like hair and eye color that cause a sensation of joy to hit me square in the chest. My heart recalls how just last month I sifted through applications of sperm donors. Images of men I could see my child resembling someday.
Men with red hair. Brown hair. Curly black hair. Coarse hair. Blue eyes. Hazel eyes. The list went on and on. A decision I was overwhelmingly excited to make. It took me a while, but I finally narrowed down my choice to black hair and blue eyes.
It’s important to me that the sperm donor is healthy. That’s the thing I focused most on when choosing, but it was nice to have multiple options.
And nothing is a coincidence.
I appreciate Navy and Kodi thinking of me tonight and wanting to make my last official night out something memorable. The team has a lot of travel days with the start of the season approaching, making tonight the only free night we all had. Kodi is usually more skeptical of things than Navy, but they both agreed to be open tonight for me.
“TT, girl. You switching teams?” Kingston calls out to me as I stand beside him.
“Never gonna happen, King,” I tell him, pulling him into a side hug. “I actually have a proposition for you guys.”
“My favorite,” August blurts, smirk at large. “I love a good proposition. What’s it include, little venom?”
I cross my arms at my chest, hating when he calls me that. “First off, that’s not my name. Not sure when that’s going to finally register with you, August,” I tell him, causing the rest of the guys to whistle from my roasting. “And second, you can gladly sit this one out if you’d like. Wouldn’t want to push you past your limits.”
It’s such a strange time for me to realize this, but I’ve never seen August with his shirt off. We’ve been around each other more times than I can count and worked side by side for almost three years now, but I’ve avoided being alone with him at all costs.
The team has a pool party? I decline.
Car wash fundraiser? Suddenly, I’m sick.
Beach day? Bye. See ya when you get back.
