9. Purr State University

Willa and I walked into my living room, and I pushed down a nervous niggle in my brain. She knew my family, the twins especially since we"d all been in the same class, but this felt like we were walking into a reception and there were going to be questions.

And that was the opposite of sneaking around. I hoped she was going to be okay with this. I could still call the live stream off if she wasn"t.

"Hey, guys," I called out, greeting everyone. It was a full house tonight, and I liked that. Felt more like a home filled with family. "I brought new talent."

Five heads swiveled toward us. Flynn and Gryff gave a wave, but I could already sense the buzz of their twin telepathy rehashing our convo from last night. Fuckers had better be on their best behavior.

"Well, well, if it isn"t the infamous Willa Rosemount," Everett said with a grin, standing up to greet her. "Nice to finally meet the girl who"s got Hayes all twisted up."

I shot him a glare, but Willa just laughed. "Twisted up, is he? Good to know."

I rolled my eyes, gesturing to the others. "You know Flynn and Gryff. And if I"m lucky, you won"t remember Everett. And that"s Isak."

Isak waved from his spot on the couch, his eyes glued to the video game on the screen. He was only a freshman rookie barely getting game time for the Dragons and already had more followers than the rest of us combined, except for maybe Everett who was sort of FlipFlop famous. "Hey, Willa."

I introduced Penelope next, and I noticed how close she was sitting to Everett, their shoulders brushing. That was new. I made a mental note to grill the love guru on his own love life later. "And this is Penelope. She brings in the big numbers to our live streams when she"s in town."

Willa gave her a smile and a wave. "Hi, Penelope. Nice to have another girl at this testosterone fest. Have you known these yahoos long?"

Flynn straightened up as if that raised his hackles. "Hey, who you calling yahoo?"

Willa wrinkled her nose and glared right back at him. "You."

"Right you are," Gryff interjected. "Carry on."

Pen laughed and threw some popcorn at the twins. She really was just one of the guys around us. "Just a few months. My boss is engaged to Declan."

Willa glanced over at me like I"d committed a gossip sin. "Your brother got engaged?"

"Two of them actually." The Kingmans were having a busy year when it came to the falling in love department. "Chris is finally fucking engaged to Trixie, and Declan is engaged to—" Flynn and Gryff played a drumroll on their consoles with their fingers. It was going to be fun to see Willa"s reaction to this news. "—Kelsey Best."

"What?" Her head jerked back, and she looked at me like I was either on crack or a god. "Kelsey Best. As in the best songs of all time "Book Boyfriend"and"Cozy Kind of Love", and The Choicest Voice season three winner? That Kelsey Best?"

I shrugged. That was Kelsey, but while she was more famous than almost anyone else in the world, she was just a cool chick that was genuinely nice and almost family. "That"s her."

"I maybe just peed my pants a little bit. What the hell, Kingman?" She gave me a playful punch on the shoulder. "You"ve been holding out on me."

I grabbed her fist and rubbed my thumb over her taut knuckles. "Everyone in the whole world seems to know, so you must have been living under a rock or something."

"Wait, you work for Kelsey?" Willa asked, her eyes wide as she jerked away from me, shoved Everett aside, and sat on the couch next to Pen.

"I"m her assistant." Pen grinned, nodding, and then did her now infamous intro to all her videos on social media, with the cute head tilt and the heart fingers. "Hey, Besties."

"These two are practically family at this point," Everett added, smirking at Willa"s shocked expression.

Hmm. Family didn"t look at family like that, Mr. Love Guru.

"Okay, I know I was out of the what"s going on in America loop for the past three years, but damn." Willa shook her head, laughing. "I have clearly missed a lot."

"Oh, you have no idea," Gryff teased. "Stick around, and we"ll catch you up on all the Kingman family drama. Can you say sex scandal?"

Willa was going to get permanent wrinkles in her forehead from how often her eyebrows were raised in surprise tonight.

The way she interacted with my brothers and Pen had a warm feeling spreading through my chest, filling in a place I hadn"t realized felt empty until now. She fit in so effortlessly, trading quips with the boys and swapping travel stories with Penelope. This is what I"d been missing ever since I moved into this new house and started a big career.

Home.

Family.

Love.

Willa.

Shit.

She told me not to get too attached. Too fucking late.

"Who's ready for some football?" I pretended I hadn"t just thought any of that and started the prep for our live stream. Nothing like some good, old-fashioned competition to keep me on track.

Showtime was coming up and I pulled out extra controllers for Everett, Willa, and Pen. Pen waved it off and went and retrieved a couple of headsets, handing one to Willa too. "I like to play and whip the boys' butts on occasion, but it"s more fun to talk shit. It"ll be a riot if you"ll join in."

Oh boy. This was going to be a wild live stream tonight. Good thing I"d upgraded my internet again.

Willa came over to me for help with her set up. "You don"t think Xan watches your stream, do you?"

"It"s a distinct possibility. We"ve got a pretty big following at DSU, and it is football." Seeing and hearing Willa on the live would definitely blow our sneaking around cover. "If you sit on that corner of the couch, you won"t be on screen, and thanks to Isak, we"ve got a voice filter. You can sound like anything from a little kid to an old man."

I set Willa up with a generic username and showed her how to play around with the voice filters. "You don"t have to be on if you don"t want to. We can?—"

"No, I want to. Xan never let me hang out with his friends like this." She put her headset on and looked cute as fuck wearing it. I wondered if it would be too geeky for me to ask her to wear it for me later. Only the headset.

"And we"re live," Isak said and launched into our intro and naming tonight's sponsors. I walked Willa back over to the couch, blocking her body with mine until she was out of screen. Then I hopped on and introduced tonight"s players.

"Tonight"s matchup is guest star Everett Kingman and Isak playing as, you guessed it, the Denver Mustangs, against big time rivals, the twin terrors, Flynn and Gryff playing everyone"s favorite losing team, the LA Bandits." The guys played their parts, cheering and booing like the dorks that we all were.

"We"ve got some special guests with us in the announcing booth tonight. Say hello to everyone"s favorite Bestie, Penelope, and... super-secret sneaky guest announcer—" I glanced up at the screen name she"d chosen and snort-laughed so hard, I had to mute my mic for a second. "Please welcome... Patty Meowhomes."

Willa smacked her lips and said, "Thanks, Kingman, good to be here, looking forward to a watching you all play with your balls."

The chat on our live stream exploded. Lots of viewers asked if we actually had the KC Chefs QB in the house, because of course, Willa had chosen the voice filter that had her sounding like a twenty-something dude bro.

Pen leaned over to whisper something to Willa, and they both burst into laughter. I caught Everett"s eye, and he grinned, shrugging as if to say, "Women, am I right?"

If Pen and Willa were already thick as thieves, that was one more point in my favor. It was harder to go off the lands unknown when you had lots of friends you were leaving behind.

We launched into the game, and while Willa was funny as shit with her commentary and trash talk, she actually knew the game and quickly won over the live stream with her game analysis. Of course, she also got a chuckle every time she changed her screen name. She went as Dijon Sanders, Puma Esiason, Joey Montuna, and my personal favorite of the night, Purringle McKringleberry - Purr State University.

I immediately changed my name to A.A. Ron Purrlawkay, and Pen became Stray Jay Kwelin. Even as the video game tournament heated up, I kept missing my announcements because I was stealing glances at Willa, loving how natural it felt to have her here, in my space, with my family.

I settled into the couch, Willa tucked against my side.Yeah, I could definitely get used to this. Sneaking around or not, having her here just felt... right.

Now I just had to make sure Xander didn"t catch wind of our little arrangement. Because if he did, all bets were off.

But damn if it wasn"t like the asshat had mental telepathy, because just as I thought that, Willa"s phone buzzed. "Shit, it"s Xander." She yanked off her headset and held up her phone.

On my way with pizza. My way of apologizing for being a dick

Fuck a duck. I muted my mic and noted that at least it was the fourth quarter. If the two of us bolted, we"d only be missed for a few moments. "How long do we have?"

Willa was already grabbing her shoes, her fingers flying over the screen as she typed a response. Her phone buzzed again. "Like three minutes."

"Okay, don"t panic." I stood up, trying to think. "We can get you home before he arrives."

My brothers exchanged confused looks, but the twins caught on first.

"Xander?" Flynn asked, raising an eyebrow.

Willa nodded, biting her lip. "He"s not exactly thrilled about me hanging out with Hayes."

"Understatement of the century," I muttered, and threw the sliding glass door to the backyard open. "Come on, this will be faster."

We raced out the door, ignoring the catcalls and whistles from my brothers. I led Willa through my backyard, our hands clasped tightly.

"There is no way I"m climbing over that fence." She ran toward it with me anyway, and she panted as we reached the fence separating our properties. "And don"t you think for a minute you can just give me a boost. I"m a big girl and will not be responsible for taking out Denver"s hope for the future with my ass."

I grinned, boosting her up. "You"re cute if you think I can't pick you up, haul you over my shoulder, and carry you all the way up to your bedroom, Willa. These muscles are good for a lot more than just playing games."

"Why is that so hot?" She yanked on my shirt and pulled me down for a kiss.

"I"d tell you two to get a room, but I think that might be what you were trying to do." Isak jogged over with Flynn and Gryff right behind him.

"Welcome to Kingman Rescue Services." Without even needing to coordinate, Isak, Flynn, and Gryff lined themselves up in front of the fence, Isak on his hands and knees, Flynn half bent with his hands on his thighs, and Gryff with locked hands in front of his chest, like a set of Kingman man-made steps for Willa to crawl up and over.

"I feel like these guys have done this before," Willa said.

She scrambled up the guys and then stared over the top and looked back at me. "I... I don"t think I can jump from here. I"m gonna break my leg and then Xan will know for sure that we"ve been sneaking around."

I took a couple of steps back, took a running start, and launched myself off Isak, who grunted and swore at me. But in one big leap, I landed superhero style in Willa"s backyard. Then I reached up and steadied her, my hands gripping her waist and she crawled-rolled-climbed over the fence.

"Easy there, sweetheart." I helped her down, reluctant to let go. "You good?"

Willa nodded, her face flushed and her hair mussed. "Yeah, I think so."

We stared at each other for a long moment, the tension crackling between us. I wanted nothing more than to pull her into my arms and pick up where we"d left off in the car.

But the flash of headlights and the sound of an engine had us springing apart, reality crashing back in.

"That"s Xander"s car," Willa hissed, her eyes wide. "You need to go, now."

I hesitated, hating the thought of leaving her to face her brother alone. "Are you sure you"re okay?"

She softened, reaching up to cup my cheek. "I"m fine, Hayes. I promise. I"ve got years of practice handling Xander."

I leaned into her touch for a fleeting second before stepping back. "Text me later?"

"You know I will." With a wink and a blow of a kiss, she turned and raced toward her back door.

I watched until she disappeared inside, my heart hammering in my chest. That had been close. Too close. This whole secret relationship thing was going to be a lot harder than I"d thought.

But the memory of Willa"s smile, the feel of her hand in mine, the way she fit so seamlessly into my life... it was all worth it.

We just had to be careful. More than careful.And I couldn"t lose Willa. Not now, not when I was just starting to realize how much fun we were having together.

I jumped back over the fence, right into the knowing looks from my brothers.

"Sneaking around?" Isak asked, his tone disapproving. Great. My one and only little brother thought I was a dumbass. Maybe I was.

I nodded, slinking back toward the house. "For now. But I have a feeling things are about to get a lot more complicated."

Gryff clapped me on the shoulder, but he had none of his usual smirky grins for me. "Take it from someone with experience being a twin. It is fucking hard to keep a secret from the other half. Almost impossible."

He and Flynn shared a wise nod with each other. Isak frowned and didn"t say anything more.

"I know, I know." It was hard to keep a secret in this family too. "It wasn"t my idea. But I"m still trying to woo her, so I"ll take whatever I can get."

"Woo her?" Everett joined us in the yard. "You"ve been reading those dating books again, haven"t you?"

"Shut up. Your be-yourself advice wasn"t useful. I needed a plan with actionable steps." Now that plan needed some serious revision. I didn"t remember seeing anything on secret relationships in anything I"d studied. I"d have to dig deeper though, because there were always resources available to learn anything if you knew where to look for them.

"Wait, what about the live stream? Where"s Pen?" The TV still flashed in the living room, but I sure as shit hoped none of them were mic"d up for the events and subsequent conversation we"d just had.

Everett did not answer that question.

Isak waved it off. "I"ve got an ad running from one of our new sponsors and more in the queue if we need them. It"s fine."

How many sponsors did we have? Because I needed time to think through this problem and figure out a better solution.

And I'd start tomorrow morning. I was hitting the hardware store to buy some gate hinges and a magnetic latch to build an invisible gate between our two backyards. If we had to sneak around behind Xander"s back, we were going to do it right.