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Nibbling my bottom lip, I roll the ball for Freya again, smiling as she bounces across the room to fetch it.
“Right?” Binx presses when my silence goes on a beat too long. “Or is there something I should know about, Tessa? Are you finally going to give my lovesick brother a chance at your heart? Or at least your pussy?”
Choking on my next breath, I’m still laughing when Wes emerges from the bathroom with a quizzical expression on his face. His damp hair hangs over his forehead in a way that makes me want to drag him upstairs for one last quickie before we leave.
Instead, I wave a hand his way, silently assuring him I’m fine, before answering Binx, “I don’t kiss and tell, but…there might be something to that theory.”
“There might be?” She exhales an exasperated breath. “Come on, don’t leave me in suspense! I need all the details so I can brag to Mel about my superior matchmaking skills. I was the one who suggested you two get out of town together. Remember that when you’re picking a maid of honor.”
My cheeks flush, but the thought of walking down an aisle to Wes isn’t as absurd as it probably should be. Still, I’m not ready to share too much with Binx or anyone else. I don’t want to do anything to jinx this.
“We’re headed out the door,” I say. “I’ll text you when we get to the park tonight. Let you know we arrived safely.”
“I don’t care about you arriving safely,” she says, amending quickly, “I mean, I do. Of course, I do. But I want details way more. At the very least, don’t tell any other McGuire the hot gossip before you tell me. Nothing. Not a single word.”
Grabbing Freya’s harness from the entry table, I ask, “Why’s that?”
“You know me, I would never tell everyone in the family about your and Wes’s personal business. But Anya is not nearly as closed-mouthed.”
I frown. “What? Who’s Anya?”
“The new server at The Dirty Taco? The cute redhead Mom adopted as her new surrogate child because she has a soft spot for orphan redheads?” She emits a dubious hum. “I mean, as long as they’re not Tatum when she first moved to town and was trying to hook up with her favorite son. Drew is totally the favorite. Don’t believe anyone who tells you different. Yes, Matty is the genius and they’re proud of him for that, and Christian is objectively pretty enough to be a male model and they like that, too, but Drew is the golden boy. Even Barrett can’t compete. Sure, he’s a doctor, but Drew is squeezing out grandbabies left and right and always knows when to keep his mouth shut.”
“I would agree,” I say, sufficiently familiar with the McGuire family dynamics to feel qualified to weigh in on the subject. “But what does that have to do with Anya? Or me and Wes?”
“Nothing,” Binx says. “That last part was a tangent because I was up all night helping my friend keep a fox out of his chicken coop. His daughter has three pet chickens she’s obsessed with, but we couldn’t get to the hardware store to buy more chicken wire to fix the hole in the pen before it closed, so we had to stand watch over Hilda, Henna, and Hermione all fucking night. I’m exhausted. And I think my hair smells like chicken poop, even though I shampooed it twice.” She sighs. “Yeah, so my brain is garbage, but that doesn’t mean I won’t eventually get to the point. Anyway, Anya waited on Daria and Darcy the day after you left, when Darcy was still upset and crying. She heard all the gory details and, much like my mother, she can’t keep gossip to herself for more than five minutes. So, she told Mom, who told Mel, who told Matty, who told Nora, who told Starling, who told Wren, who told Tatum, and now everyone knows, and Christian is running a pool so the family can gamble on whether you guys are going to come back a couple, mortal enemies, or something in between. It’s a whole thing.”
I sag onto the couch. “Oh God.”
“What?” Wes whispers, pausing on his way up the stairs.
I wave a hand again, but this time it’s an “I’ll explain later” hand. To Binx, I say, “Okay. Well, that’s embarrassing, but fair enough, I guess. That’s what we get for doing something worthy of gossiping about. But aside from the family speculation and associated gambling, things are okay? No one’s seen anything on the cameras around my house?”
“Not a thing,” Binx says. “Aside from a family of raccoons that comes to steal cat food from your neighbor’s house and stops to play in your backyard on their way back to wherever they’re shacking up. They’re super cute.”
I nod. “Good. Hopefully, things will continue to calm down and the worst will have blown over by the time we get back.”
“Fingers crossed,” Binx agrees, before continuing in a wheedling tone, “I mean, that would be for the best since the two of you are developing a serious thing for each other…right?”
I smile. “Goodbye, Binx.”
“Oh, come on! I’ve literally had one, maybe two hours of sleep. I need some exciting news to keep me going through my shift. Being a loan officer is boring enough without being tired and gossip-deprived on top of it. At least tell me if you’re having a good time.”
“I’m having a fantastic time,” I murmur as Wes comes back down the stairs with our bags in hand. I catch his gaze and we both grin. “Absolutely fantastic.”
I end the call just as Binx is launching into another monologue, knowing she’ll forgive me for hanging up on her. Especially if I’m able to give her some juicy gossip to help her win the latest McGuire family pot…
“If we decide to keep dating, are you okay if I tell Binx first? Before we head home?” I ask as Wes crouches in front of me. “Since we put her life in danger before we left, and she’s been such a great help with everything?”
He arches a brow. “Why?”
“Everyone in your family knows what happened between us and they’re placing bets on whether we’ll be an item by the time we get back.”
He rolls his eyes. “Of course, they are. Wouldn’t be my family if they weren’t up in my business before there’s even any business to be up in.”
I smile, brushing his damp hair from his forehead. “I don’t know about that. I’m pretty sure last night was some pretty serious business. The shower, too.”
His eyes flash. “Damned straight.” His hands curl around the backs of my knees, guiding my thighs apart as he comes to kneel between them. “And what do you mean by ‘if we’re still dating,’ woman? Do I need to remind you how good this is? I thought I did a decent job in the shower, but…”
