Page 26 of From That Moment

“You know, I should probably start lifting weights, too,” she said with a laugh.

“I like you the way you are,” Cross drawled.

“Yes, but I feel like the only thing I lift is a bottle of wine. That probably means I should get something more into my workout regimen.”

Everybody started talking about yoga and jogging, and nobody mentioned the bad man or the fact that Macon had even mentioned it to Joshua.

When my brothers got shot, everything changed. I was the one who usually joked around, while Nate joined in. Macon had always been quiet, yet not sullen. Now, something was different about him. Something we couldn’t change.

Cross had been shot in the attack as well, but he had Hazel to lean on. Had all of us. Macon had withdrawn, closed in on himself.

And there was nothing I could do about it.

By the time we finished our first course, because I had a feeling we’d go back to it, I was full, happy, and excited to get to the next phase of our gathering.

“Okay, let’s wrap everything up so we don’t add bacteria to our day. Then, it’s football time.”

“Wait, we have to play football?” Myra asked, looking down at her open-toed shoes.

“No one actually said football with the invite,” Paris said, wincing. “I would have brought tennis shoes.”

“Shit, sorry,” I said. “We usually play a game when we’re together.”

“Next time, I’ll bring the right shoes,” Paris said, and Myra nodded.

“We have the right shoes,” Hazel said, hip-bumping Dakota. “Cross warned me because he loves me.”

“It was just a happy accident on my part,” Dakota said.

“Traitor,” Paris said with a laugh.

“Okay, let’s get everything cleaned up, then we’ll play for a bit. And then figure out something to do with the two barefoot women.”

“If you say we should be cheerleaders, I will have to hit you,” Paris said, grinning.

An image of Paris in a cheerleading uniform right alongside Myra flashed through my mind, and I purposely pushed it away. No, thank you. I was not going to think about that at all. That was wrong.

And…fuck, I had a girlfriend. A girlfriend I wasn’t sure I even liked anymore, but still, I was not an asshole.

We cleaned everything up, dug into more pulled pork and a rib or two because we couldn’t help ourselves, and then we slowly made our way out to my back yard.

By the time we were done with the afternoon, we were covered in dirt, had a few bruises, Joshua was asleep on the bench outside after laughing and playing so hard that even I was exhausted watching him, and I just knew that this family was pretty cool. Somehow, we had all come together in this weird mesh of families and connections.

And I didn’t think it would be the same if Hazel’s friends hadn’t shown up.

I met Paris’s gaze, and she grinned, but I saw the sadness in her eyes. Once again, I wanted to know if there was something I could do. There was nothing.

As my phone buzzed, and I looked down to see a very not family-friendly photo of Allison on it, I groaned.

And not one of pleasure. Nope. I hadn’t expected to see my girlfriend’s tits on my phone like that.

Apparently, she was done with work, and still hadn’t come here. Instead, she wanted me to go to her house.

That wasn’t going to happen tonight, not with my other plans. I just had to wonder what exactly was going on between us. Our plans weren’t meshing. Our paths weren’t crossing.

I needed to figure out exactly what the fuck I was going to do about that.

Chapter 6