Page 18 of Payback
“How do you even know what swiping left means?” Tanner interjects, his eyes narrowing in confusion. After all, before Gareth met Sloan, we never heard about him with any other woman.
Gareth shrugs. “I’ve heard the team talking about it…Whatever, Tanner. You know what I mean. She can’t room with just anybody.”
“Well, I bloody well know that!” Tanner replies.
Belle chimes in next with a shrug. “They’re kind of right. It took years of friendship with Indie before I trusted her enough to let her move into my place.”
“Because you thought I was mental?” Indie peals, her tone hurt and surprised.
“I don’t trust virgins,” Belle states softly, and Vaughn’s face pales in horror. Luckily, Sophia is at the other end of the table and didn’t hear her, and Rocky and the twins have been in bed for the past hour, so their precious little ears are safe.
“Let’s just announce all my private life to the table tonight, shall we?” Her eyes widen as Camden’s mouth opens, and she quickly claps her hand over it.
Poppy is undeterred by the spectacle and leans across the table to ask, “Don’t you have a friend from childhood you can maybe reconnect with? That’s what I did with Booker when I came back to town.” Poppy smiles a sweet smile at Booker.
Booker lifts his brows and deadpans, “And it only resulted in one accidental pregnancy, so things could have been a lot worse.” Poppy elbows him in the ribs, but he manages to add, “Well, two accidental pregnancies since they turned out to be twins.”
“And look how happy you are as a result,” Vi states, shooting a warning gaze at Booker. “You cheeky bugger. Don’t turn into a cocky sod just because your babies are in bed.” Vi redirects her attention to me with her brows pinched together. “I’d say you can stay at our place, but we don’t have the room. Honestly, we’ve been flat hunting for a while now.”
Hayden looks at me regretfully. “You should talk to us about the neighbourhoods you’re looking at so we can tell you if they’re safe.”
“There’s plenty of room at the house in Chigwell. You’ll stay there until you find something suitable,” Vaughn states matter-of-factly, not willing to listen to this conversation a moment longer.
“Guys! I’m not asking to move in with anyone!” I exclaim, holding my hands up to make sure they all still see me because they’ve been talking about me like I’m not here for ages. “My hotel room is working for now. I’m fine.”
“We have room, though,” Indie states quietly and looks over at Camden, who nods his agreement. “Our Notting Hill townhouse has three whole levels. The top floor even has its own kitchen and bath, so you really wouldn’t be a bother. You could stay there as long as you’d like.”
I exhale heavily because now everyone has weighed-in on my living situation, and I’m pretty damn sure I’m not getting out of here without moving in with one of the Harris Brothers. And since my other options seem to be unacceptable to them, I surrender to the lesser of all the evils.
“If you’re sure, I won’t be in the way,” I respond to Camden and Indie.
“It’s no problem!” Camden bellows cheerily. “As long as you ignore me yelling ‘goal’ from inside the shower, you’ll be a great flatmate.”
Indie flushes a deep red that brings a frown to my face.I’m so not going to nibble on that dangled bait.
