Kai
Eleven … twelve … thirteen. Teagan has thirteen tiny freckles above her right knee. The pink polish on the pointer of her left hand is slightly chipped. She has crossed and uncrossed her legs twenty-three times while her plate of pasta has barely been touched. These are all the things I’ve noticed during tonight’s award-winning, awkward dinner.
“So, what the hell is this?” Burke points his Alfredo-covered fork at Teagan and me.
“Are you going to freak the fuck out and toss the table, or are you going to be rational? Because I’m really not in the mood for you to flip your shit. We have enough to worry about, don’t we?” Teagan kicks me under the table, and my gut clenches, an old reaction from when she was so dead set on keeping us a secret. She isn’t anymore. She’s already given me the green light to have this conversation with Burke. We knew it was coming.
“He isn’t going to freak out. Are you, Burke?” Paisley takes Burke’s bear claw of a hand into hers. I imagine her nails are probably digging into his skin as well.
“Just answer my question, Kai. You can deal with whatever reaction I give you. What is going on with you and my sister?”
“I love her. I’ve always loved her.” I smile at the suddenly bashful girl sitting next to me. “We probably need to take things a little slow because of everything that has gone down and will go down, but, yes, we care about one another, and every day that Teagan allows me in her life is a day I’ll be there. Always.”
I keep my cool and hold eye contact with Burke.
“So, you’re together? That’s what you’re saying? You and my sister are a couple?” He looks as if he’s in pain while he chokes out his rhetorical questions.
“Yes, we’re together,” Teagan says. “Please be okay with this, Burke.”
“I want you to be happy. Fuck, little one, I want that so fucking much. I can’t say that I love that Kai is the one who makes you happy, but I won’t fight this. Not anymore. Not if it’s what you really want?”
Paisley finally relaxes in her seat a bit after seeing that her man, who is prone to gorilla-sized tantrums, isn’t going to beat on his chest or lob any furniture through the air. Teagan beams at her brother with a megawatt grin while Burke sulks. I’m just glad to see Teagan’s okay with delivering the news.
“This is what I want. It’s what we want, Kai and me. Thank you for understanding. You may not love it, but I promise, he’s still the same man you’ve always known. Kai was there for you, for us, every step of the way after you took me in. You might not understand it—hell, some people may even think it’s straight-up wrong—but no one could ever get me or love me the way he does. I don’t want this to hurt anything between you and him either.”
Teagan and Burke lock into a stare-down. Of course, I don’t want Teagan to fight my battle for me. I have enough balls to plead my case to Burke, but now that she’s put it out there, I can’t say I’m not curious about his reaction.
“I’m not okay with it. I can’t just be okay with this. It was literally the last thing on earth I ever thought would happen before Jacoby outed you both to me but …” He gives a frustrated look to Paisley. I wouldn’t be surprised if she already coached him on how to handle this shit. His gruff voice portrays something far from cool. “But I guess I’ll get there. I love you, Teagan, and I’m okay with him.” He slightly nods in my direction. “The thought of you two together isn’t something I can even process, but I guess I’ll get used to it eventually.”
“Thank you.” Teagan pushes out the words under a harsh exhale.
Burke can’t help the smile he cracks at his sister. “Could you two just limit the PDA until I have some time to get used to this? I’m not sure I can handle you two going at it on the couch. Give me some time not to want to break Kai’s hands every time I see him touch you.”
“Deal.” Teagan easily agrees, but I’m not as compliant.
“So, the couch is off-limits. What about the deck furniture? Although that could end with some peculiar sunburns. Okay, maybe that isn’t practical. At least during the day, that is. Totally workable at night. What about her bedroom? Am I allowed in there?” I point my fork at Burke.
“Fuck you, Kai. I’m being more than reasonable.” Burke lets go of Paisley’s hand and grips the table. The girls put on matching nervous masks.
“What, bro?” My eyebrows pull together in a really frat-boy type way. “I’m just trying to make sure I understand the ground rules.” Grabbing the back of Teagan’s chair, I pull her closer to me. She lets out something that sounds like a squeak mixed with a giggle and resists my advance.
“All right, enough!” Burke stands from the table. “I’m not playing your little game. I gave you about as close to a blessing as you’re going to get from me. Don’t fucking ruin it, or I’ll glue those loose lips to your tiny fucking dick.”
“Your sister loves this so-called tiny dick.” Under the table, hidden from view, my hand slides up Teagan’s leg. Her cheeks go pink. She loves my cock so much; she’s ridden it twice already today. I’ll keep that and the intimate knowledge that my finger is currently tugging on her panties to myself. Well, maybe not completely to myself because Paisley shoots me a humorously observant smirk as Burke rushes away from the table. Delicately and deliberately, I slide my fingers through her pussy, making sure to hit her clit, so her legs instinctively open for me. I sink two fingers into her but then quickly withdraw as I stand from the table.
My lips brush against her ear. “Your pussy tastes better than any meal ever could. Finish up and then meet me out at my car. We’re going to need some privacy for what I have planned for round three.” She shoves her half-empty plate to the side, and I chuckle. “Finish. I’m going to talk to Burke before we go.” I almost abandon my course after the pout she gives me. Paisley gives us both a teasing click of her tongue. After kissing Teagan, I throw a biscuit at Paisley and head off in the direction in which Burke fled. I find him at his desk in the office with a pen in hand, furiously scribbling in a notebook.
“Bullshit aside, thank you, man … for trying … for not outright objecting.” I step into our shared home office and pull the door closed behind me. Teagan is his little sister, he raised her, and she’s been through a lot. Without her in attendance, I want to see how cool with this he really is. I’ve known Burke almost my whole life. We grew up together, struggled aside one another, built a business together. That man, the one who knows me and hopefully still trusts me, won’t hold back with me, man to man.
“You can thank Paisley. I meant what I said. You and I are cool, and of course, I love my sister, but I’m not super thrilled with the idea of the two of you together. At best, I’m tolerating this and attempting to keep my lack of enthusiasm about the situation separate to our friendship.” Burke lays his pen on the desk and slouches back in his chair, showing me exactly how exhausted he is.
“I know I’ve said it before, but I love her, Burke. Neither of us meant for it to happen. Well, at the risk of hanging her out to dry, the honest truth is that I really didn’t mean for it to happen, and I fought it for so long, but it’s real. I promise to treat her right and work every day to be even a fraction of the man she deserves. We both know there is no man, including me, who could ever be worthy enough for her, but I’ll work until my last breath to try to be.”
He nods, one that is slow-moving and drawn out. That’s all he gives me. I’ve known him long enough to read between the lines. He doesn’t love it, but, as a man who didn’t mean to fall in love, he gets it. Burke calls it tolerance. I’m going to go ahead and call it respect. Hopefully, one day, he’ll see it that way, too.
“I’m going to go spend some time with her and drop her back off to you later. Everything good?” I point down to where he was furiously scribbling before I interrupted. Leaning over his shoulder, it’s easy to see where his head is at, and the shorthanded chicken scratch isn’t anything like the tattoo masterpieces he creates with those same hands.
“Is there ever a time where everything is all good?” he shoots back.
“Nah, not really, but we’ve come through worse.”
“Logically, I know the shit with the guns and death threats was much worse than where we’re at now, but somehow, that’s hard to see when that fucking video of my sister is streaming online for every sick fucking bastard to watch.”
“Yeah … believe me, I know.”
I couldn’t hide the video from Burke once it went live. He needed to be told by me, so he didn’t hear about it somewhere else. Burke doesn’t have to deal with creeps from our past texting him about it. They wouldn’t fucking dare, but I can’t say a client or two hasn’t already contacted me to let me know they saw it. If I hadn’t had Teagan in my arms when the few texts came through, I would have hunted them down and plopped out their eyes with a spoon.
“I can’t fucking believe I’m going to say this, but get the fuck out of here. Make sure my sister enjoys her day. She really fucking deserves it. Make the most out of it before shit hits the fan.” A few motions of Burke’s brows and a slight change in posture tell me all that I need. There has been a giant wedge between us lately, but we’re still a team.
Fucking always will be.