I didn’t see Tathan on Friday.

He wasn’t at work, and I knew he had to take Casey’s photos tonight, and I’m kind of jealous I’m not there to watch him work.

Instead, I spend the night in my apartment and watching movies with Oliver.

Saturday, I spend the entire day with Casey and Zane preparing for the wedding, but mostly the bridal shower.

When I finally get back to my apartment, Tathan is unlocking his door, camera bag on his shoulder.

I envision what he must have looked like today while shooting. Those bright eyes taking on that brooding essence they have when he’s concentrating and the way he selectively chooses the angles that give him the images he’s seeking. So sexy.

God, he’s seriously starting to get to me.

By the time I walk over to him, he’s leaning into the wall waiting for me, relaxed and content as he watches me approach. . . unlike me who’s fidgeting with everything from my hair to my dress, to the strap of my purse.

He gives me that adorable smile, eyes twinkling as he looks at the sundress I wore today. “Hey.” His eyes drift south. “I’m disappointed I didn’t see you all day.”

He’s flirting.

“You missed out.” I poke his chest when I get closer.

“Is that so?” His eyebrow arches in question, and then he groans as if this is devastating news to him.

“Yep.” My shoulder presses into the wall as I wait to see what he’s going to do next. It’s like I’m giving him an opportunity here, which I am.

“Hot tub?” he suggests, leaning into my wall, his eyes still wandering.

I groan, giving in. Like he had to ask. “Meet me down there in twenty minutes.”

He winks. “Deal.”

“WHAT HAPPENED WITH you and Colton?”

“How’d you know about Colton?”

“Casey. . . .” He’s amused and takes a drink of his beer. He’s on his third one now, and I’m on my second glass of wine as we sit under the stars. “She gave me your life story yesterday when I was doing the engagement photos.”

She sucks.

“Colton cheated on me with his roommate’s girlfriend after my dad got sick. I caught them in bed of all places doing the nasty, the horizontal mambo, bumpin’ uglies. . . .” Tathan starts laughing at this point, his shoulders shaking. “Boinking. . . banging. . . I could go on for days with this one.”

It’s apparent I spend entirely too much time on Urban Dictionary and have had maybe too many glasses of wine.

He laughs. “Did you kick his ass?”

“I threw a firecracker into the bed with them,” I tell him proudly. “I aimed at the goods, but missed. Either way, he went out with a bang.”

He looks terrified but amused. “Remind me to never get on your bad side.”

“You were on my bad side. . . but I used office supplies against you instead of fire. I was almost arrested for the firecracker incident too, so I’ve laid off the explosives.”

“For throwing a firecracker?” He can’t help but laugh again, shaking his head.

“I may or may not have set his car on fire too.” I point at him. “No one had any proof!” I decide it’s time to change the conversation to him. “Do you miss your parents?”

His head slumps, and he nods. I instantly feel horrible about asking that. I just blurted it out without thinking.

Nice timing.

Of course, he misses his parents, fuckface! What kind of horrible monster are you to bring this up?

“It doesn’t get any easier. Paul and Elle have been great though.”

“How do your brothers deal with it?”

“Better than me. . . .” His voice trails off into a whisper. “They were older. Maybe it was easier for them.”

“I don’t think it’d be easy for anyone.”

I pay attention to the song playing on his phone and smile.

I love listening to Elvis Presley for many reasons, most of which have to do with my dad. He used to play all his records when I was a kid, so the love was pretty much forced on me. Although I did come to appreciate his songs and the meaning they held.

This one in particular, “Pieces of My Life,” was one of his favorites. I never knew much about my mother, but from what I gathered, her and Dad had some problems. Problems he regretted and weighed heavily on him since there wasn’t anything he could do to fix the situation. She was gone, and once they’re gone, there’s nothing you can do.

“Elvis was amazing, and I was apparently born in the wrong decade,” I note, sinking down in the water.

“I think we both were.” He moves slightly, shifting and reaching for another beer. I take that moment to refill my wine and stare up at the sky full of stars. It’s so peaceful out here and the way the warmth of the night feels on my skin, this feels almost like heaven.

“Were you close with your dad?”

“Yeah.” I smile at the memories of him. “My mom died when I was just three months old. She was hit by a car when she was running one morning.” My voice fades when my gaze drifts and finds Tathan.

He sits back against the concrete, his brow furrowed in what seems like pain. “I’m sorry.”

“I don’t remember anything about her. My dad said I looked just like her and the photographs I’ve seen we could be twins.” I shrug. “But my dad raised me all by himself. He never dated anyone that I can remember. It was just us. When I went away to college, I came home every weekend to check on him and then he got sick. It was out of the blue too. Just, hey, I have stage IV lung cancer.”

It takes Tathan a moment before he speaks, deciding on his words. “It’s never easy. Doesn’t matter if you watch them die over months, or it just happens in one day. They’re gone.”

He knows exactly how I feel and I know that right then, I am exactly where I want to be and with who I want to be with at this exact moment.

Tathan just gets me. We have such similar life experiences, well, not the “he’s rich” one, and “I’m not” one. But the love of our family and the tragedies we’ve both suffered run so parallel. I’ve never felt a connection like this with anyone, especially not Colton. Tathan looks so inviting, wet, bare chest, arms spread open and relaxed. I want to curl up in his embrace and snuggle him.

I scoot toward Tathan, wanting to see what hot tub kissing is like when a noise draws our attention toward the gate and I realize I forgot my Saturday night buddy was coming over. Casey.

Fuck. Just fuck.

She shuts the gate behind her, tosses her towel aside and does a cannonball into the hot tub, drenching both Tathan and me.

He looks a little shocked with water beading down his face. “I think she drank that entire bottle.”

Sure enough, she’s holding an empty bottle of wine that she sets down on the edge of the concrete and shakes the one beside me, seeing it’s still half full. “Let’s party!”

When I scoot away from Tathan, Casey notices our proximity and smiles, drifting to the side of the hot tub to sit on the edge. “Was I interrupting?”

Tathan smiles but doesn’t say anything because I practically shout, “No!” before he can get a word in.

“If by interrupting you mean was I hoping to cop a hot tub feel, then yes, you were most definitely interrupting,” Tathan states, with that smile and those dimples.

Thank God for the hot tub because my cheeks were already red, so my embarrassment is masked by the heat.

Fucking Casey has impeccable timing.