Love Unexpected (Navy Love Series Book 2) (16 page)

“I have a question for you,” I say casually, although I feel anything but casual. “Why, out of curiosity, were you so against me and Char—Reed?” I catch myself before calling him by his first name.

She lets out a long sigh. “I don’t think Reed is good enough for you. He comes from a fucked up past, and I think he’ll carry all of that baggage into a relationship. Plus, there’s a good age difference between y’all.”

“Why is—was the age difference a big deal? Dad is like eight or nine years older than Mom.”

“I guess I never thought about Mom and Dad’s age difference. But Dad didn’t have all the baggage Reed has.”

“What kind of baggage? Everyone has mentioned this shit, but no one will tell me what it is.”

She steals a glance at Sawyer, ensuring that she’s still zoned in on her tablet and not our conversation.

Is there some long lost child or an ex-wife back home in Michigan that I don't know about? What baggage can he be carrying that is too much for me to handle?

Tess must sense my confusion.

“Did y'all ever talk when y'all had your little thing going on?”

“We did, but not about anything like that,” I answer her.

“Well, I can't say that's surprising. Reed doesn't talk about his past. All any of us know is he had a fucked up childhood. All of us assume whatever happened to him was seriously fucked up. And you don't need that in your life. You have a good head on your shoulders, you're Mom’s only hope for a college graduate out of us.”

Tessa dropped out of college after two semesters, and our older brother Tucker never went, he instead chose to run off and elope shortly after graduating and knocking up one of the cheerleaders.

“He’s just got a fucked up mindset from all of it. He doesn’t
do
love, Bug. He’d rather fuck any and every girl possible then move on when they get too attached. I love him, and many of our friends said he’s the male version of me, but he has issues for why he is the way he is. I just liked to have fun, it’s more than that with Reed.

I can’t say it doesn’t cut a little to hear, but I knew these things about Charlie. I heard them constantly while we were sleeping together. That was different, though. Even though I wanted more, I knew, or
thought
, it wasn’t a possibility. Now that we’re actually trying this dating thing out, I feel the fears of my heart being broken.

“I know I was probably overstepping my boundaries where all of that was concerned, but I was just worried about my baby sister.”

She says it jokingly, but I can't stand when she or any of her friends refer to me as a baby.

“I might be younger than you, but I’m not a baby, Tess. I know you want to look out for me, and I appreciate that more than you know, but who I choose to sleep with or date or whatever, is my choice. I hope that next time you’ll respect my decision and not interfere.”

“I'm sorry,” she says with watery eyes. “I didn't mean to, Bug.”

I lay my hand on top of hers, trying to give her comfort.

“No big deal. Olive you, T.”

“Olive you too.”

“Mommy, why you crying?” Sawyer damn near shouts. Her headphones are still over her eyes and, I'm sure, the movie or game is still going.

Tessa and I both break out in laughter, smiling at Sawyer. Leave it to her to lighten up any situation.

“So, I’m pretty boring except school and working in the coffee shop. Tell me what’s going on with those babies?”

“Things are good. The doctor thinks they’ll come early, though; he said it’s pretty common with twins. I’m surprised they’ve stayed in this long.” She rubs her hand gently over her bump as she talks.

As if on command, Sawyer’s hand goes to the other side of Tessa’s belly. It’s amazing how in-tune these two have become in such a short time.

Our food arrives and breaks up their little moment. We eat and chat more about the babies, school, and everything
except
Charlie Reed.

Tegan

Arriving back at Tessa and Hunter’s house, after a moment of persuasion from Sawyer and the promise of baked goods, I decide to hang out for a bit.

Charlie is running errands and I have the day off anyway, so what better way to spend the afternoon hanging out with two of my favorite people?

Sitting at the dining room table, eating my second sprinkled cupcake, my phone chimes with an incoming text.

CHARLIE: When’s xmas brk 4 u?

Me: I c u changed ur name n my phone.

CHARLIE: brk?

Me: Y?

CHARLIE: No reason

CHARLIE: …….

Me: Dec 16- Jan 7

CHARLIE: K. C U at 8.

I put my phone down, dumbfounded by his question. He’s up to something I know, I just have no idea what it could be.

I don't have long to ponder it, though; my sister is in full prepping mode. We've already organized the nursery, again—this makes three times now—since returning from the restaurant and now we’re making turkey day arrangements.

It’s coming up soon, and with Tessa being pregnant, we have to decide what the best logical plan is without causing her any stress. And I have to figure out how to tell my sister I’m bringing a date, more specifically a date she and her husband advised against.

“So it’s just going to be us and then Marsh for Thanksgiving dinner at Jeremy’s house.”

“What about J.C., Jo, and Reed? Are they going home?” I ask hoping by including Jo and J.C. in my question that it won’t cause any suspicion.

“Jo is going home to spend time with her mom, she’s not doing well at all. If I had to guess, I’d say this is probably her last Thanksgiving. I believe J.C. is going home to Georgia and I’m not sure about Reed. Hunter invited him forever ago, but with everything that’s gone on, I don’t know that he’d want to come.”

Hunter and Reed’s friendship has somewhat diminished since he caught Charlie sneaking out of my apartment all those months ago. Although they still talk, it isn’t nearly the bromance it used to be.

I make a mental note to ask Charlie about Thanksgiving when I see him tonight. The thought of seeing him gets me giddy with pent-up excitement that doesn’t go unnoticed by Tess.

“So who’s the reason for that smile?”

“Just a guy I’m kind of seeing,” I say timidly.

“Uh huh, details.” She stops whatever it is she’s doing in the kitchen and comes to sit across from me.

“I just started seeing him, so I don’t want to get my hopes up yet. That was him that called earlier.”

“Oh, awesome, well you’ll have to keep me updated on things with him!”

“I’m sure you’ll meet him sooner or later.”
Or you already have
I silently add on.

I need to talk with him first, figure out how we’re going to play this situation. I know I was the one who insisted on telling my sister right away, but maybe waiting until after the twins have arrived would be a better option.

Is it irrational to think my dating Reed can cause her to lose her shit and go into labor early?
Possibly, but it’s not a chance I want to take.

We finalize our Thanksgiving plans and Hunter arrives home. While the invitation was extended to me for dinner, time had gotten away from me, and I was due to meet Charlie in an hour.

Using study group as an excuse, I head home where I quickly change and freshen up my makeup. Ten minutes after I finish there’s a knock at my door.

I don’t expect to see him standing in my doorway with a bouquet of tie-dyed Gerber daisies—my favorite flowers—wearing jeans, a leather jacket, and one of his beanies.

The sight is enough to make any girl’s panties instantly soaked. Mine included. The man looks like sin in a tall glass leaning against the door frame. He really makes me question all of my morals with the naughty thoughts running through my head.

I rake my eyes from his Converse to those strong, denim-clad thighs then up past the black, thermal shirt and leather jacket, and finally to his face.

His chiseled jaw sprinkled with a five o’clock shadow begs for my lips. His full lips tempt me as he runs his tongue along the bottom one. When I finally pull my line of vision to his eyes, I’m met with green eyes gazing back at me. The gleam in his gives away that not only did he catch me checking him out, but he did a little ogling himself.

I’m rocking my skinny jeans and ankle boots with an oversized, off-the-shoulder, black top. My hair is straightened for once and I’m actually proud of how good my makeup looks tonight.

“Hey,” I whisper.

Why does this feel awkward?

Charlie places a small kiss to my cheek. Even he, the King of Cool, seems nervous.

“You ready to go?” At my nod, we walk out of my apartment.

“Where are we going?” I make small talk on the way down the stairs.

“It’s not where you should be concerned about,” he says cryptically. I glance over to see him with a small smirk, but I still sense a nervousness about him.

“Huh?”

He stops, looking ahead. I follow his line of vision to a beautiful motorcycle in front of us.

“I said it’s the
how
that’s important tonight. You ever rode before?”

I shake my head, unwilling to look away from it.

“I’ll go slow, but I wanted to take you before it gets too cold out. You up for it?”

What I know is a huge smile breaks out across my face as I finally look at him.

“Hell yeah.”

He laughs as he climbs on and hands me a helmet.

“Here, I’ll hold onto your hand while you climb on.” He holds his hand out, waiting.

I walk up beside it, bypass his held out hand, and instead place both of mine on his shoulders, stand on my tip-toes, extend my leg over the bike, and slowly ease my way down to a sitting position. I don’t think Charlie ever realized how experienced of a dancer I am. Ballet was my favorite style.

“You do realize you just made climbing onto a bike one of the sexiest things, right?”

I laugh at his bluntness.

“You ready?”

I give a nod.

Revving the engine, we take off.

It’s amazing, so different from riding in any other fashion. The wind whipping by us is cold but a constant reminder of the nature around us. My arms stay locked around Reed’s waist, not out of fear, but this experience is so captivating I feel the need to hold on tightly out of fear of missing something. His firm stomach beneath my hands serve as a reminder that this is real.

Reed

We drove around for about thirty minutes before I felt her shiver from the cold, so I finally pull into the parking lot of 456 Fish.

Tegan doesn’t know any of the plans for tonight. I mapped out the night for us. We spent previous months together locked away, hidden from the world. Like we were each other’s dirty little secrets. And that isn’t at all how I see Tegan. I never did, but I need to show that to her now.

That discussion I had with Marshall the other day was enlightening. He simply told me that I need someone who’ll stand by me no matter what, and that if I couldn’t see that’s Tegan, then I’m a fool. After leaving his house that day, I thought over everything we talked about, and he’s right. I carry the heavy burden of my childhood around like an ankle weight.

There’s no changing my past, but there
is
changing my future. And that is what my sudden change of heart regarding relationships is. I don’t want to end up a lonely, old, bitter man. And in Tegan, I see someone who truly cares for me. As Marshall said, if I find someone who’ll put up with my shit, I need to fight to keep her.

By noon that afternoon, I had laid out a plan on winning Tegan over. It started with talking to her, which went over pretty well, especially the hot sex we ended up having in the midst of the talking.