Getting Lucky (26 page)

“Oh, I saw how he was looking at you this morning. He was smiling on the inside,” Kathy said.

Smiling on the
inside
? And how had he been looking at her?

“How can you tell if he’s smiling on the inside?” Kate asked.

“Mothers just know,” Kathy said. “And that’s all I really need for TJ right now. Fun and friendship come first anyway.”

“And sex,” Lauren said. She looked at her mother-in-law and pointed at her pregnant belly. “Pretty obvious we do it.”

Kathy almost choked on her coffee but she gave Lauren a grin. “And I hope you keep it up. I want lots of grandchildren.” She glanced at Delaney.

Delaney held up her hands. “I gave you
four
.
At once
.”

“And I love them to pieces,” Kathy agreed. “Makes me want four more just like them.”

Delaney laughed. “Just like them? I thought you liked me, Kathy.”

“So, honey,” Kathy said to Hope. “We’re not talking grandkids from you. Lauren and Delaney are on that. If you can just make TJ smile and realize that sometimes people want to take care of
him
too, I would be eternally grateful.”

Oh, God. His mother wanted to be
grateful
to her.

Hope took a deep, cleansing breath that didn’t do one thing to calm her down.

But she couldn’t ignore the truth—she wasn’t the only one who thought TJ needed and deserved happiness. She also wasn’t the only one who thought she could be the one to help him find it. And she couldn’t leave that alone, even if she should. If they all hated her when she left, well, there wasn’t anything she could do about that. Because if she could give TJ one fun, sweet, hot summer, she was going to do it.

“So you think TJ will be at the bar tonight?” she asked.

“He will if you are,” Phoebe said.

“Even before he knows about the short shorts,” Lauren added. “But I really need to be sitting facing the door when he comes in and sees you.”

“Okay, I’m going tonight,” Peyton said.

Hope turned to her. “Really?” That was great. Hope could get to know her better and show her that alcohol didn’t have to be part of a good time. Then when she left Sapphire Falls, she would feel as though she’d been a good big sister.

“Yeah,” Peyton said. “Michelle is in town this weekend.”

Hope’s stomach knotted instantly. “
Michelle
Michelle?”

“TJ’s ex,” Peyton confirmed.

“And you think she’ll be there tonight?” Oh, wow, how Hope wanted to meet this woman.

“Oh, definitely. And she’ll probably be looking for you.”

“For me?”

Peyton smiled. “You don’t think you could be in this town for twenty-four hours and not have people know all about you, do you? And I guarantee Michelle knows you’re here. With TJ.”

“And that’s going to be a problem?” Hope guessed. Based on Peyton’s tone and on the history Hope knew about, she was sure it was going to be a problem.

“Oh yeah. But I’ll be there.” Peyton patted her shoulder. “I can take her.”

“Take her?” Hope felt like a parrot.

“If she tries to start something with you. I’ll have your back.”

Peyton moved off to help finish cleaning up the kitchen while Hope pondered her new situation.

TJ’s mother wanted her to make him happy. All of his sisters-in-law and friends wanted her to make him happy. No pressure there.

And her sister who didn’t even know she was her sister would have her back when TJ’s ex came looking for her at the local bar.

And she was going to be wearing short cut-off denim shorts.

Great.

None of that sounded dramatic at all.

TJ would be thrilled.

Chapter Nine

Hope hadn’t come back to the house all day. TJ hadn’t seen her at lunch when he’d gone in to eat at three p.m. when he’d come up with an excuse—that he hadn’t needed—to stop at the house, or at six when he’d finished work for the day and come home.

Where the hell was she?

And why was it driving him so insane?

She’d been here for one day. One freaking day. And she wasn’t
actually
his girlfriend. She was his houseguest, at best. It didn’t matter where she was, and she had no reason to keep him apprised of her agenda for the day.

It was still driving him insane.

Too restless to make dinner and settle in for the evening, and not in the mood to face his mother’s dinner table and all of the inevitable questions, he headed to town. He could grab some food and catch his nephew Henry’s baseball game with Tucker and Delaney.

Henry was twelve and loved all sports. Getting involved with the summer baseball program in Sapphire Falls had been the perfect way for him to meet kids his age and make some friends before the school year started.

TJ grabbed some concessions and headed for the field. Tucker was standing at the fence, coaching Henry during their warm-ups, and his brother Travis was seated on the metal bleachers. He chuckled and climbed up to settle next to Travis.

“Staying out of the house?” he asked.

Travis’s wife, Lauren, was hugely pregnant, two weeks from her due date, and had been…difficult…over the past two months.

Travis grinned and dug into TJ’s bag of popcorn. “Actually, Lauren’s out of the house too.”

“What’s she doing?” And did she know where Hope was? But TJ managed to keep the last question to himself.

“She’s going out with the girls.”

“The girls” usually included Adrianne Riley, Phoebe Spencer, Delaney almost-Bennett and Kate Leggot-soon-to-be-Spencer. He wondered if it included Hope tonight.

“Including Hope,” Travis added with a grin that said he knew TJ had been wondering.

Travis was actually a really good brother.

“I’m glad the girls have hit it off,” TJ said casually, lifting his root beer for a drink.

It didn’t escape him how strange that was. He never wanted the women he was messing around with to get involved with his family. They’d been through enough because of Michelle. But something about Hope being a part of the circle of women that TJ thought of as some of the best on the planet felt good.

Maybe because he wasn’t messing around with her. Or hadn’t. Really. Yet.

“How’s it going with her?” Travis asked.

“I’m having a hard time keeping her clothes on her,” he admitted.

Travis looked at him with wide eyes. “Oh?”

“Topless sunbathing yesterday. Naked yoga this morning,” TJ confirmed.

“Not topless yoga, but
naked
yoga?”

TJ nodded grimly.

Travis looked surprised, then impressed, then amused. “I can’t think of a single reason why any of that is a bad thing.”

“It makes it ha—difficult to remember that I’ve known her just over twenty-four hours,” TJ said.

Travis laughed. “If Lauren had taken her top off within twenty-four hours of meeting me, it would have saved me two years of blue balls.”

TJ couldn’t help but laugh at that.

“And look at Tucker and Delaney. He had her out in the barn the first night she was in town.”

TJ shook his head. “I know.” And he’d really thought that was rushing it, going too fast, but seeing his brother with his fiancé now, there was no question they were meant to be together.

TJ sighed. Maybe he didn’t know anything at all. That actually wouldn’t surprise him that much.

“And Lauren said Hope’s hot,” Travis said. “Enjoy the view, I say.”

TJ felt the root beer slid down the wrong pipe and he had to hack for a moment before he could reply. “Oh yeah?”

Travis grinned and held up his phone. The message from Lauren read,
It’s HOT in this kitchen and we’re not even using the ovens. Hope is something.

TJ coughed lightly. Hope definitely was something. And hot. “Pregnancy hormones?”

It was a well-known fact that Lauren was bisexual. Travis loved to brag about the fact that he’d won her over even with her having twice the options to choose from. Most of the time, Lauren thought that was funny and would make a smart-ass quip back, or simply roll her eyes. Once in a while, she’d go off on a rant about how being bisexual didn’t mean that she’d simply fuck anyone who came along or that she was attracted to
all
women any more than Travis was attracted to
all
women.

The
last
time Travis had said it was about five weeks ago when bitchy-pregnant Lauren had replaced happy-and-glowing-pregnant Lauren. The Lauren who had been fortunate enough to have an incredibly easy first two trimesters had been kidnapped and killed by the third-trimester Lauren. Nobody messed with third-trimester Lauren.

When Travis had made his dumb-ass comment, she’d whirled on him and ranted for ten straight minutes about how a person’s sexuality couldn’t be so easily defined and how society’s small-minded assumptions about things they didn’t understand was only contributing to more fear and hatred when people should be embracing each other’s differences and diversity or, at the very least, minding their own fucking business.

“Not hormones. Hope’s Lauren’s type,” Travis said to TJ’s question.

TJ marveled, not for the first time, at his brother’s open-mindedness and confidence. It didn’t bother Travis a bit that Lauren occasionally found women attractive—and commented on it. Having known Travis for thirty-one years, that was a level of maturity TJ was happy to see and hadn’t really expected.

Travis turned his phone again so TJ could see the photo he had pulled up.

It was of Hope. Her hair was down, the blue streaks bright on Travis’s screen. She was smiling, the look on her face the same one he’d seen in his kitchen when she’d been talking about oils and stuff with Delaney and Tucker—passion and happiness.

Two things he’d love to see in another room in his house.

Or any room actually, but in regards to another topic entirely.

And with fewer clothes.

TJ looked up at his brother and knew instantly that he had not hidden his feelings well. Travis was looking at him with a knowing grin.

“Wait for it.” Travis touched his phone’s screen, reducing the size of the photo.

As it shrank, more of the scene was revealed.

Like the fact that Hope was standing in front of Kate. Kate was seated on a wooden stool in Adrianne’s shop’s kitchen. She was wearing shorts and had one foot propped up on the countertop next to her.

And Hope’s hand was on Kate’s inner thigh. High on her inner thigh.

“Acupressure for increasing sexual excitement,” Travis said. “Or so I’ve been told.”

TJ couldn’t look away from the screen. “Holy…”

“That’s exactly what I thought.” Tucker dropped onto the bleacher in front of them. “Levi’s gonna flip when he sees that picture.”

“Already forwarded it to him,” Travis said with a grin.

“Reply?” Tucker asked.

“Nope. But Lauren said Kate went home to change her clothes and hasn’t shown back up yet.”

They all laughed. And TJ felt a little jealous.

Not that the envy was something new. He was surrounded by happy couples—more all the time. Seeing his brothers and friends fall in love and make homes and build families was amazing. If not hard to take once in a while.

He had wanted the same thing. So much so that he’d let the desire blind him to the fact that he and Michelle had been missing some very key components—like mutual respect, friendship and trust. Just to name a few.

Did he wonder sometimes what it would be like to be in a relationship where you not only wanted to be naked with your girl all the time, but where you laughed and shared and
liked
each other? Sure. And he did believe it could happen. There were examples all around him.

But he also knew it didn’t happen that way for everyone.

There were examples of that all around too.

They sat through the first three innings of Henry’s game, talking and joking, cheering and coaching.

Delaney showed up just in time to see Henry snag a line drive up the middle and turn a double play. She climbed into the bleachers with a huge grin. “Hey, guys.”

She leaned in to kiss Tucker. When they parted, Tucker smacked his lips. “Margarita.”

She laughed and nodded. “Had to have one with the girls before I headed over here.”

“You didn’t drive, did you?” Tucker asked with a frown.

“I walked. It’s like six blocks,” she said with a shake of her head. “But Lauren asked me to send you over to the Come Again,” she said to Travis. “She’s really tired.”

“Well, I know she’s not drunk,” Travis said, stretching to his feet. “How’s her mood?”

“Great.”

Travis looked skeptical.

Delaney laughed. “Seriously. Hope did this massage to her lower back and gave her lavender oil. It’s supposed to help her sleep at night but it’s also really mellowed her. Said her back feels a lot better. She’s pretty content.”

Travis looked at TJ. “I’m telling you right now, if you don’t want to keep her and she’s managed to soften up third-trimester Lauren, we might just have to make it a threesome at my house.”