“Is everything okay, Max?” Veronica asked as she put her hand on my forearm. She patted it softly and assuredly as if she was my mother. Honestly, I don’t think my own mom would be as caring and genuine with wanting to know how I was doing.
There wasn’t anything wrong.
It was the polar opposite. I felt fanfuckingtastic.
I felt like I was ready to take on the world. And I was ready as all hell to see Daphne later tonight and, hopefully, see all of her by the night’s end. She was the only thing I could think about at this point. I could barely remember to get up in time this morning to make it to the monthly Allen Sunday Brunch. My thoughts kept going right back to Daphne.
Since she texted me out of the blue yesterday afternoon telling me she had been thinking about me, my whole world felt like it had been turned upside down. While we’d been texting I found myself becoming more intrigued by the same person who I had been telling myself over and over I was supposed to hate. She was funny in a self-deprecating way without going overboard; smart as a whip, stubborn as a mule, and sexy as fuck. And dear Lord, when I replayed the sound of her coming in my head from the other night, my cock gets hard and my brain goes to fucking mush.
I couldn’t remember a time when a woman was so fucking distracting to me. For me, pussy was pussy was pussy. It had always been that way for me. A dime a dozen. A drop in the bucket. Whatever other euphemisms you could think of, that’s how I thought about women. But Daphne…she was more than that. She was worth more than all of them put together. She was more than a woman. Daphne was it, I think.
And that kind of scared the shit of me.
“Max? Sweetie, are you all right?” Veronica asked again.
“He’s fine,” Trevor answered. “He’s probably thinking about all the ways he’s going to get out of doing the dishes again.”
“I envy those that have never met you,” I told him.
“Is that right? Because you’re so dense that light bends around you.”
“God, you’re clever. If genius skips a generation, your kids are gonna be brilliant.”
That burn felt especially mean to say given that I was the only one here who knew that he was going to actually be a father soon. But a quick glance over to Veronica made me feel less guilty about saying the burn out loud. She was giggling with her every barb that was being thrown between Trevor and me.
Trevor came back with, “You have the charm and charisma of a burning orphanage.”
“Anyone who has ever said they loved you was lying.”
“Okay, that’s enough you two,” Jack chimed in from the kitchen. He had been prepping that god-awful vegan casserole dish that Avery had brainwashed him into believing was delicious. “Between the two of you, I feel like I’m in a tennis match in my own house. Quit fucking around and help out for a change.”
Avery sighed loudly as if on cue.
“Sorry, honey. It’s just that these two,” he motioned with the serving spoon he had in his hand to where Trevor and I were facing off. “They get the best of me sometimes. I’m weak and I beg for your forgiveness.” Jack was smiling and reaching across the kitchen island to pull Avery towards him into a big bear hug.
He held onto her tightly and started whispering something in her ear. Avery’s demeanor changed in a flash from being frustrated with her husband’s inability to keep from cursing in the presence of their kids to blushing bride. It felt almost uncomfortable to be in the same room with them while they shared this private moment between them. Beautiful seemed kind of too hokey a word and so overused, but it fit perfectly. It made me feel almost guilty for cursing in their house sometimes.
Almost.
“Thanks for being concerned about me, Veronica. I sincerely appreciate it,” I told her. With a smirk, I turned to Trevor. “At least someone gives a shit about their family around here.”
He started to laugh. “Yeah, right. That’s a good one, Max.”
I was biting my bottom lip to keep a straight face. “Relax, I was just fuc—”
“Jesus Christ,” I heard Avery mumble.
“Sorry, Avery. I meant to say, I was just joking around.”
Everyone in the room froze in disbelief that I had caught myself from saying the big bad “F” word out loud. So much so that when my twin nieces picked that exact moment to come running into the room, they were both taken off guard as well. They were dressed exactly the same from head to toe; both in adorable pink gingham dresses and each of them had only one sock on the same foot, the right one. Which was so odd. Because all I wanted to know was what the fuck had happened to the other sock?
Isabelle ran over to her mother and urgently tugged on the sleeve of her shirt. “Mommy, daddy, are you playing freeze tag? Who’s it? Can I be it next time?”
“Maybe they’re being robots,” Annabelle said. “Let’s pretend too!”
“We’re not playing a game, sweetheart.” Avery bent down and kissed the crown of Isabelle’s head. “Brunch is almost ready, though. Can both of you girls go and wash your hands before coming to the table, please?”
“I’m going to beat you to the crapper,” Annabelle said to her twin sister before becoming a blur of brown hair and pink cotton.
“No you’re not!” Isabelle yelled running after her.
Avery gave Jack a look of complete and utter exasperation. The rest of us were trying hard not to laugh. It failed the moment we heard Isabelle in the background yelling, “Let me in the crapper, now!”
Even Avery was chuckling a little bit as she left the room with her cellphone in hand.
It felt good to laugh. It felt good being with family and laughing.
And while we were coming down from the comic relief and started prepping the table to sit down and eat, Veronica came over to me. “Seriously, I hope everything’s okay. You look a little preoccupied,” she said.
I didn’t have the heart to tell her I was preoccupied with, let’s face it, pussy. So I nodded and smiled. “Everything’s fine, thanks. I’m just tired. Plus, I have to work tonight, so I might take a quick nap after this before I head out later.”
We all started sitting down at the huge farmhouse-style kitchen table since it wasn’t assigned seating at Jack and Avery’s house. Another reason I loved coming to their house. I remember having to eat dinner in a fucking blazer and khakis almost every single night growing up at my parent’s house. It was stupid and a waste of time. It didn’t make me any more of a gentleman than I was supposed to be. If anything, it made me want to break with the whole rich-kid stereotype. It must have had the same effect on Jack and Trevor, because I don’t think I’ve ever seen either one of give one single fuck about where we came from. Don’t get me wrong, being rich was fucking awesome. If anyone tells you being rich isn’t awesome, then they’re not doing the whole being rich thing right.
We were all seated and about to start digging in when Avery came back into the room and took a seat next to Jack.
“The hospital called. If it’s okay with you, I’m going to take the overnight shift for Maddie at the ER.” Avery took a bite of some vegan crap. “If you need help with the girls or anything, I can tell them I can’t cover.”
He waved her off. “Me? Help? Pfft, I got this covered. I’ll feed the girls some chocolate until they puke and maybe take them to a rager. What do you think, Max? Any ragers you know about in the city tonight I could hit up with a couple of hopped up almost five-year-olds?”
“Rager? It’s not nineteen ninety-three, Jack. So, no, there are no ragers that I’m aware of.”
“I’m joking, you—”
“Don’t you dare,” Avery said in a lighthearted voice. She turned her attention back to her meal. “So you’re okay with me working tonight? I probably won’t be home until late tomorrow morning and won’t be of much help until I get a good sl—”
“Honey, I’m good. Go and cover for Maddie tonight. I got this and the crazies over there,” his fork motioned to Isabelle and Annabelle who were busy making faces at each other and not bothering to eat one bit of food that had been heaped onto their plates. “I’ll drop them off in the morning and pick them up, too, to give you some time to catch up on sleep tomorrow.”
Avery leaned into Jack and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Thank you. I owe you one.”
With that kiss, everyone at the table went right back to eating the delicious meal and chatting and joking around like we usually did when we got together for our monthly brunch. Hell, I even had a bite or two of the shitty vegan casserole dish, that’s how happy I felt right at that moment.
And the fact that I was going to see Daphne in a few hours…well, that just made my smile grow wider until I felt like I might explode with excitement like a fucking teenager about to go on his first date.