Chapter 20

Summer's ring covered fingers toss Liam out like an old rag on the deck, and I'm glued to the light green dress shaping her figure. It loosens along her hips and flows down to just above her ankles, but the top is open exposing her collarbones as it hangs off her shoulders. Her lips part slightly when her gaze catches mine, but she quickly gives me a friendly smile before turning around and walking away. Lately, she's the one who's much more eager to break any eye contact we make, something that feels so ass backward from what I've always known.

"So that's why the whole patch of grass needs to be dug up and we'll just replace it with rubber mulch or something easy for the kids," Nate says, and I've completely forgotten what the hell we were talking about.

"Swing sets are a bitch to put together, though. Are you going to hire someone?" Ford asks.

"Yeah, all of you. Pizza and beer as the compensation." Nate tips his glass of iced tea in our direction, and Ford laughs louder than necessary.

Abby walks outside with a tray of appetizers, placing them in the center of the table as six little feet follow her outside and their grabby hands reach for the chips and cheese.

"Don't fill up on this stuff, though. Mia has made a whole spread in there, and you all will eat it."

Mia insisted on doing the Friendsgiving cooking this year. Nate said he tried to have everyone bring a dish, like a potluck, rather than having his pregnant wife do all of the cooking but I guess she was adamant.

"Even if something sucks, you eat it," Nate adds on to Abby's comment.

"Mia's a great cook, what are you talking about?" Ford grabs three cubes of cheese, tossing them in his mouth.

"Yeah, but she's been real emotional lately. A grocery store commercial had her sobbing yesterday. I'm not even exaggerating, there were many, many tears." Nate's eyes widen as he makes eye contact with each of us around the table.

I remember those days. At least, a little bit with Kristen. She's naturally not an emotional person, so I remember being surprised when she started crying over a show she'd seen ten times before.

Conversation between the guys picks back up and I'm floating my attention between whatever they're saying and beyond the glass window into the kitchen where my daughter sits at the counter. I assume she's helping with something, but that seems like a loose term as one strawberry goes on the dessert dish and the next two end up in her mouth. Summer's watching her the whole time, finally slicing up a small bowl just for her to snack on, and I smile to myself.

Nate and Mia's house is similar to what I envision for me and CeCe one day. A lot of land, privacy, a modest home but enough room to have our family and friends over for birthdays or holidays.

I used to do that all the time when I first moved into my apartment. I loved hosting poker nights and game nights. It stopped when Kristen became pregnant and my time with my friends was drastically cut down. I want to blame that on her, but I didn't have to go along with every ridiculous thing she asked me to. It was a choice I made. I thought I was doing the right thing at the time.

"Come eat." Summer peeks her head out the door.

All of us pile into the dining room and I notice CeCe putting small foam hearts on every chair like she's setting up a tea party for her dolls or something.

"CeCe, don't do that," I say, picking it up from the seat closest to me. When I glance at the others around the table, I notice they're all an assortment of colors. Probably something from one of her craft books that she brought with her.

"No!" CeCe shouts.

"Hey," I say. "No yelling."

"That's Summer's spot," CeCe says, brows creasing as she pouts.

"What?"

"Daddy, Auntie Abby, MiMi." CeCe walks around tapping each chair like she's assigning us all seats.

"Oh, these colors are our spots?" Abby bends down to CeCe's level and strokes her cheek.

CeCe nods, and without a second thought or question, everyone waits for instructions on where to sit. My chest swells at the patience and just overall acceptance the people in this room have for her. CeCe's never been looked at as a burden by them, they've always loved her and treated her as if she's their own and I can't think of anything better than that.

When I take a seat and look up, Summer's seated directly across from me. She tucks a piece of hair behind her ear and waves her pink foam heart in the air—the same color as the one I got—and looks up at me through dark lashes. The corners of her lips turn up into a smile and I'm locked in on her gaze. I didn't anticipate her to demand so much of my attention without even trying.

"Gravy, Hunt." I hear my name and feel a jab in my left arm as Ford asks for the gravy, apparently a second time.

"Sorry," I mumble, handing him the gravy boat and silently telling myself not to look straight ahead for the rest of this meal.

"Okay, but why didn't you just say Titanic ? I would've gotten it then!" Mia protests, folding her arms over her chest.

"I said The Wolf of Wall Street . It's not my fault that your Leo knowledge only spans to who he dates and the Titanic ," Liam jokes as he tosses the scrap of paper into the used pile.

Mia makes another grunting noise as she walks off into the kitchen to check on the dessert. I've been out of the game for the last couple rounds, and it looks like Ford and Abby are the winners. They're both suspiciously good at Celebrity Charades, it makes me wonder if they practice in their spare time or something. I personally prefer a good old fashioned board game. Give me Sorry or Monopoly , even a game of Scrabble is more fun to me than this one.

"Anyone need anything?" Summer asks the group, but I don't look up at her when I answer no. My plan for the foreseeable future—until whatever the hell this is goes away—is to speak to Summer as little as possible and only make eye contact when necessary.

But my plan is immediately shot to hell when she takes a seat beside me, knocking her knee into my leg.

"Are you all right there?" Her head tilts as she looks over at me. A piece of hair falling into her face that she quickly gathers, pulling all of her hair to her other shoulder, showing the silkiness of her skin, practically putting it on display for me.

I have never been so fucking affected by Summer Kincaid in my life.

Her and I have had plenty of conversations over the years, plenty of moments where our eyes have met or smiles matched, laughs collided and skin grazed. Yet sitting next to her on this couch has me absolutely fucking weak.

A grunt leaves my chest louder than intended.

"I'm good," I say, pounding my chest with a fist.

I risk a glance in her direction and am met with the smirk I've seen a hundred times before. The challenging one. The one that taunts me. The one that wants to push me. And test my willpower, my patience.

She lifts herself from the couch and makes her way into the kitchen, Abby on her heels. I've got half a mind to just gather CeCe's things and call it a night so I don't have to find myself distracted and longing for something I shouldn't be paying any attention to. But we haven't even had dessert yet and that's CeCe's favorite part.

"Chase, can you help with this?" I hear my sister call for me from the kitchen.

When I walk in, she's holding a jar of chocolate fudge and clearly struggling to get it open.

"Where's your husband? This is his job now," I quip, which earns me an exaggerated eye roll from Abby as she walks past me and out to the living room, calling Mia's name.

The jar opens in one twist and I place it on the counter, licking my finger where some of the fudge ended up.

"There's this one too, while you're at it." Summer casually slides the caramel jar across the counter as her eyes pivot to mine. Without breaking eye contact with her, my hand shoots to the right, gripping the jar in my hand. Summer's bottom lip is pulled in and I don't miss the way her teeth peek out behind her lip as she grins slowly.

"Nice reflexes."

"Nice dress."

I'm stunned by my quick witted response, but Summer's lips purse together and a proud smirk seems to overtake her face.

"Wow," I say, feeling like I just let all my fucking cards show. "Sorry, that slipped out."

"Don't apologize. It is a great dress," she says, offering a knowing smile as she pulls ice cream from the freezer.

She walks by me, flipping her hair over her shoulder as she does, leaving behind her coconut scent that has me downright feral at this point.

And I'm left standing in the kitchen like an absolute idiot.

"Are we about ready to go?" I throw the question over to CeCe once she finishes her ice cream, knowing she'll probably protest. She loves being around Nate and Mia's boys. She's pretty bossy with them, makes them sit for her "class", and gives them both chores to do. The boys take it willingly for now—I'm sure that'll change as they all get older.

"Where's your heart?" CeCe's eyes plead as she looks up at me.

"What?" I ask, confused.

CeCe waves a small pink foam heart in front of me.

"Oh, uh." I tap both hands on my pockets, knowing damn well it isn't in there.

"I found it!" I turn around to face Summer as she's holding a pink heart, the same as CeCe's and hands it to me.

"This is the one she gave me, so you better find yours. I accept iced lattes as thank you's," she whispers.

"Same colors mean best friends." CeCe smiles, holding her pink heart up to mine. Before she turns and walks away to grab her backpack full of things she brought over. It dawns on me that Summer and I are the only two CeCe gave pink hearts to.

"Thanks," I say to Summer, extending my hand to give it back to her. She reaches to grab it at the same time, causing our hands to collide and the heart to fall completely from my fingers. We both do nothing but watch it float to the floor, as if in slow motion, neither of us is too eager to bend down and get it.

I'm hanging on by a fucking thread and know I can't trust myself to be alone with her again.