23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23

JET

“Jet! Tucker! Go get those card tables and chairs out of the Donovan’s shed and set them up back here. I’m still not sure we have enough yet,” Jenna called out from the back door.

“On it, Mom!” Tucker hollered back as he kicked the legs open on the last set we’d already dragged outside. He shot me a look. “You could feed an army back here with what we’ve set up already.”

I grinned, unfolding the chairs to go around the latest table. “You’re acting surprised. You know how your mom is. She’s probably baked enough to feed twice as many people than will actually be here.”

“Probably. But I know Bridgette’s bringing a huge thing of baked beans, your mom brought over a massive bowl of fruit salad, and the twins’ aunt is bringing a few trays of homemade tamales. Between that, the corn on the cob your dad’s grilling, and my dad’s barbecue, there’s not much for my mom to stress about.”

“Seriously?” I looked up. “Aunt Rosa’s tamales are the best. I tried them at Gabe’s wedding. If I could’ve brought some back…” I rubbed my stomach, and Tucker raised an eyebrow. “Seriously, man. Her Mexican food is to die for. Just like your mom’s cakes. I love when she bakes.”

“She did go all out on that. One for you and Nic.”

“Shit. Really? Her dutch chocolate with shredded vanilla bean and strawberry puree glaze?”

“It’s sad that you can spit that out like that.”

“Uh, you mean the best cake in existence? Hell, yeah, I know what it’s called. That’s gonna be my fucking groom’s cake when I marry Annie one day.”

“Yeah, that’s a ways off.” Annie’s voice carried through the back door. “Hey, babe.” She pressed a kiss to my lips and set a couple of containers of lighter fluid by the grill. “Charcoal’s in the back of the truck, Tucker.”

“I’m guessing that means I’m playing fetch?”

“Yep, that and it’s too heavy. Izzy almost busted her ass getting it. And guess who showed up to stick it in the basket for her.”

“Annie,” Izzy hissed, coming outside next, a bag loaded with streamers and decorations in hand.

Tucker and I immediately exchanged a look, and his expression darkened. “Don’t even say–”

“Yep.” Annie popped the p, a hand going to her hip as Izzy sighed, already looking defeated. “Fucking Zane again. I swear, it’s getting to the point that we can’t let Izzy go off on her own.”

“Oh, my God, I’m not a toddler. I swear, Tucker. It was fine. I warned him with the restraining order and ended up finding out he’ll be away for college next year. Like hours apart from us. So, did it suck to run into him? Yes. Am I glad I got the info? Yes. I’ll tell you every detail I know you want to know later. Now, you need to go get that bag of charcoal while Annie and I start to decorate. Shoo.” She pushed Tucker and I towards the house, and I headed in, laughing while Tucker just looked thrown.

“Oh, man. I love seeing Izzy back to normal.”

“Definitely. What sucks is now we’re worrying about Annie.”

My face dropped. She seemed fine when they came outside, but if this morning said anything, I knew she was far from it.

Grabbing the charcoal, we brought it out back for Chuck and my dad, and they got started on the grills while Tucker and I dragged out the last of the tables and chairs. Between us setting up, the twins decorating, and the moms playing hostess as our families started to arrive, the next hour flew by.

We’d just finished and gone inside for drinks and to wash up when the doorbell rang. Tucker headed around to the front hall to get the door. “Hey.”

“Hey,” Nic greeted back. “Uncle Stef texted just to head over here?”

“Oh, yeah. Thanos crew’s already out back. Come on in.” He opened the door wider, and when Nic stepped in, my uncle followed. “You must be Nic’s dad. I’m Tucker, Jet’s best friend.” He held out his hand, and my uncle shook it.

“Dimitris. Good to meet you. Jet!” he added with a wide smile when he saw me. “It’s good to see you again.” He grabbed my hand next and pulled me into a hearty hug.

“You, too.” I grinned. “How was the flight?”

“Good. Good. Now, who’s this?” He looked past Nic and I to where Annie was coming around the corner from the kitchen .

She paused, her eyes widening as she took my uncle in, and I smirked. He did look a scary amount like my dad. It was no wonder Nic and I looked so similar.

I reached out for Annie’s hand, bringing her up to my side. “Annie, this is Uncle Dimitris. Uncle Dimitris, this is my girlfriend, Annie.”

“Hi, it’s great to finally meet you.” Annie smiled and reached for his hand.

“Hi, Annie. It’s nice to meet you, too.” My uncle glanced back at Nic as they shook, but he looked away.

Annie slipped her fingers through mine when they were done. “Tucker, Izzy said she’s running home to change. She got something on her top, and your dad needs help with the grill.”

“On it.”

“Hey, Tucker, wait up a sec,” Nic said before he could take off.

“Yeah?”

Nic glanced at Annie before looking between the two of us. “I wanted to see if you two would be interested in finding a place together for next year. Depending on what your scholarships say about your housing.”

My brow rose, and I exchanged a surprised glance with Tucker. “Really? I mean, I’ll double check on things, but yeah, it sounds awesome.”

“Same.” Tucker nodded. “Jet and I always planned to room together if we could. And you’re kind of part of the crew now. Sounds good.”

“Really?” Annie yanked her hand from mine, hurt and betrayal mixed with anger in the glare she sent between us. “Great. Fucking great, babe. Thanks,” she hissed and took off down the hall, disappearing around a corner before I could think to react.

I winced, wondering what I’d done when it suddenly hit me in the face. My eyes closed as I cursed. “Sorry. My dad’s out back. Tucker can show you,” I called out as I hurried after her.

***

An entire hour had passed, and Annie still wouldn’t talk to me. After telling me to leave her alone, I reluctantly gave her some space, but it was killing me. Grabbing a plate, I piled it with Aunt Rosa’s tamales and Chuck’s barbecue and dropped into a seat next to Izzy as she took a dainty bite of her deviled egg.

“Where’s Tucker?” I glanced at his plate on the other side of hers.

“Getting drinks. He told me about what happened.” She gave me a sideways glance, and I sighed.

“I feel like the biggest dumbass on the planet right now.”

She glanced over to where Annie was visiting with their grandparents before giving me a sympathetic look. “You get what you did, at least, right?” I raised an eyebrow at her, and she held up a hand. “Just checking. She’s upset right now, but she’ll come around, Jet. If you and Tucker get a place with Nic, it won’t be like it is now. I imagine you’ll have your own rooms. Annie will be okay.”

“You think so?”

“Most likely. I personally like the idea. Like we’ll have a place for all of us to hang out next year if y’all live together. Annie wants to try the dorms freshman year, though. Get the whole college experience. ”

“I know. That’s what Tucker and I thought we would do, too, but if Nic’s really coming around and wanting to give things a shot…” I sighed in defeat, and Izzy gave me her sympathetic smile again.

“I get it. The person who needs to get it is Annie.” I watched as they did one of their freaky twin telepathy looks from across the yard, my gaze never leaving Annie’s face. She glanced at me, some of the fire gone before looking away. “Go try again,” Izzy urged, picking up her fork, and I nodded, leaving my plate of food behind me just as Tucker walked back up to the table.

“What’d I miss?”

I let Izzy fill him in as I left, saying hi to relatives and laughing like nothing was wrong as I crossed the yard. Annie stood up when I got close, and I followed her inside and down the long hall that ran along the back side of the house behind the stairs to the second den we hung out in when we weren’t in Tucker’s room.

I shut the door behind us, and Annie stopped to stand behind the couch, her hands resting on the back of it.

“I’m sorry.” We said it together, and my head popped up, finding her small smirk waiting for me in the reflection of the window. She shifted, facing me as she spoke.

“I got angrier than I should have. The morning started off like shit, my emotions are a wreck, and I flipped.”

“I wasn’t exactly sensitive about it.”

“No. You weren’t. You didn’t even ask me how I felt about it or consider how it would affect me at all when you said yes.” Her smirk was gone, and I could feel the hurt I’d first seen when it happened. I stepped up beside her, my arm just a hair’s breadth from touching hers .

“You’re right. I was so excited that Nic was wanting to make the effort that I answered before thinking everything through. He’s been here for over two months, and I still feel like I barely know him.”

“And is that your fault or his?”

My chest fell, knowing she had a point, but even if she did, I knew I wasn’t done trying. I just had to find a way to balance my life with the two of them in it.

She sighed, looking away again. “Catch. Fucking. Twenty-two.”

I inched my hand towards hers, relieved when she didn’t pull away. “How do I make this right?”

Slowly, she shook her head. “I don’t know. But just so you know, he asked y’all then, in front of me, on purpose. He wanted to hurt me.”

I frowned, but the look she shot me dared me to challenge her, and I quickly bit back my reply. Annie had a sixth sense about people. Something I’d been dismissing too much lately.

“I can turn him down,” I offered.

“Except you don’t want to, and I don’t want you to resent me for getting between you and your family.”

“And I don’t want you to resent me for choosing to live with him. You told me last week that I wasn’t putting you first. Let me.”

Annie rolled her eyes. “It’s pointless. I’m the only one that has a problem with it. Even Izzy’s excited about it.”

“Annie.” I took her hands in mine, making her face me. To look me in the eye for longer than a second during this conversation. “You are first. You always will be. Did you not hear me talking to Tucker earlier about the cake I wanted for our wedding ? We’re endgame, sweetheart. You and me. I know I haven’t been perfect lately, but every fucking day I wake up and I think about you . How incredibly lucky I am that I get to call you mine. How I want you to be a part of the rest of my life.”

Her eyes widened. “Oh, God. You’re not pulling a Tucker and trying to propose, are you?”

I laughed. “No. But I’m wondering if I should be a little insulted with how panicked you looked just now.”

“No. I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just, I’m eighteen , Jet. You’re nineteen tomorrow . We’re barely adults, and while getting married young might be the right road for Izzy and Tucker, I’m not there yet. I’m one hundred percent on board with the fact that we’re endgame. But I’m not in a rush to walk down the aisle.”

“Good to know.” I ran my fingers through hers, back and forth, loving the way they laced perfectly together. If only I knew how to fix the tension between us.

Annie looked down, studying our hands. “If you had to pick…”

“You.” I didn’t hesitate to answer. “Nic’s family, but you …” I reached up to capture her chin between my fingers, bringing her gaze to mine. “You, Annie Donovan, are my sun. My stars. My moon. Every piece of my universe. You hold it. You are it. There is no me without you.”

ANNIE

My heart about burst in my chest, and I blinked back tears. Everything he said I needed to hear so badly. Chaos rolled inside me. But that ? What he’d just told me? It was exactly how I felt about him. There was no me without him. As long as his heart was beating, mine could, too.

“Annie?” Concern furrowed his brow, and I shook my head.

Hurrying over to the door, I flipped the lock and then grabbed Jet’s hand, pulling him around the couch.

“Annie, what–”

I threw an arm around his neck, shutting him up with a kiss, and cupped my free hand to the front of his jeans. Almost instantly, I felt his cock stir to life, and I stroked him a few times until I felt the full length against my hand.

I stepped back, dragging Jet over me as I fell back on the couch, and he caught himself, his arms at my sides as he hovered over me. Those blue eyes searching mine. I let go of his cock to lift my hips and drag down my shorts, and it was about the time I had my panties hanging off an ankle that Jet seemed to catch up.

He looked down to where I was already bare, waiting and aching for him to touch me.

“Are you sure?”

I almost laughed at the mixture of confusion and hope on his face. “You don’t get to say panty dropping lines like that and expect me to keep mine on. Now, fuck me, Thanos.”

A groan left his chest, and he reached in his pocket for protection, his jeans off and the condom in place in seconds. “You’re going to eat those words later when we don’t have to be quiet.”

The edge of my lips curled up in a grin, but when Jet adjusted his hips lower and thrust inside, I released a low, guttural moan. This man was perfection inside me .

“Fuck, sweetheart. You’re already so wet.”

“Panty. Dropping. Lines.” I panted with the thrusts of his hips, my hands sliding around to his back as my fingers dug into the delicious lines of his muscles.

“Oh, God!” I cried out when his dick hit some perfect spot deep inside, and Jet covered my mouth with his hand. Something I’d be forever grateful for because the moans that came out of me after that would have been anything but quiet. He lowered himself over me, our eyes locking, and I dared him, begged him with my look alone to take me harder. Needing more.

He read me like a freaking book, driving into me faster and harder, deeper than I think he ever had before. And only a few short minutes in, I was convulsing around his cock with a string of curse words that came out as a mumbled mess beneath his hand. He lasted nearly a minute after me, and I was getting close to coming again when I felt the shift in his hips telling me he was close. His body shuddered over mine, his hips still pumping even past his release.

When he finally lifted off of me, I moved my legs, and he sat at the end of the couch, my pussy still throbbing and aching.

Jet took a few deep breaths, his head back against the couch, and he rolled it to the side to look at me. “You okay?”

I nodded. “The greedy whore still wants more.” I pressed my palm between my thighs, and Jet looked down before breaking out into a grin.

“I bet I can help her with that.”