time in ages, I wanted it. I wanted a family. A wife. A fucking life. I immediately pushed the thought away. I’d made a promise to Brooklyn. To love her and only her. And despite what she thought before she died, I wasn’t a liar. It was like I could feel the guilt twist around my chest. I don’t want a family. I don’t want a wife. I’m fine.
“Do you guys want to grab milkshakes or something to celebrate?” Penny asked. “I know there’s a diner down the street. I could really go for a chocolate milkshake right now. It feels very high school.”
Tanner laughed. “Sounds good to me. Although back in my day milkshakes didn’t…” he cleared his throat. “Sorry, something in my throat. They weren’t popular, I mean.” And then he nudged me in the ribs. Which in Tanner speak meant he had something to tell me. Which meant he’d grilled Penny. And he had answers.
“Yeah, let’s get out of here.” I needed those answers. And I needed to be as far away from this stadium as possible tonight. Because I couldn’t stand here thinking about a possible future without feeling like a monster.
Chapter 6
Friday
“So Tanner has a few ideas about your potential dating prospects,” Penny said.
I choked on my milkshake.
She started talking again, oblivious to the fact that I was going to die a slow painful milkshake death. “And it will be kind of nice to have his help because James doesn’t exactly like us hanging out alone. He’s got it stuck in his head that you want to sleep with me.” She laughed like the thought was ridiculous.
It wasn’t. It really, really wasn’t.
“Don’t worry, I promised him that you don’t have feelings for me like that,” she said. “But he’s being really stubborn about this. You know how he gets a little overprotective sometimes.”
“Oh yeah,” Tanner said, slapping me on the back to help with my choking. “Sorry, I forgot to give you a heads-up. During the game I found out that James knows about Penny helping you find true love.”
Clearly. How the fuck did James find out? What the hell was going on?
“It’s cool,” Tanner said. “We have a solution to work around that. A loophole, if you will.”
I ignored him. “Penny, you promised you wouldn’t tell anyone,” I said.
“Right. Any random person. Or like one of our friends. But I tell James everything. You know that. I don’t know how to keep a secret from him. Besides, we have cameras all over our apartment. He wanted to know why you were there. And don’t look at me like that. Tanner was the one that brought it up at the game. So we’re even. I told my husband and you told your…your Tanner.”
My Tanner? I didn’t have time to digest how gay that sounded. Because James was going to kill me for sneaking around behind his back with his wife. I was having dinner with him and Mason and Rob tomorrow night. Which meant I probably wouldn’t live to see Sunday.
“I’m sorry,” she added. “I really am. James asked and I couldn’t lie. You know I’m a terrible liar.”
She was. But still. Fuck.
Tanner cleared his throat. “Anyway, back to what I was saying. Penny’s going to let James know that I’m helping you find true love too. So it’s no longer an issue of the two of you hanging out.”
If he said “true love” one more time I was going to snap. I’d told him that this stupid dating app thing wasn’t about finding true love. It was about getting to hang out with Penny one on one. Not hanging out with her and Tanner. What was he doing?
Penny took a sip of her milkshake.
And for a second, as her lips wrapped around the straw, I forgot that I was pissed at her. God, I just wanted to feel those lips around my cock. Stop.
“It’s a good thing you did tell Tanner,” Penny said. “He told me he has a whole binder full of potential suitors.” She frowned. “No, that’s not the right word. Suitresses? Maybe?”
Tanner nodded. “Yes, it’s a bit of a dated term, but suitress is the female equivalent to suitor. I’m impressed that you knew that. I haven’t heard the term in years. And I do indeed have a binder full of suitresses.”
I didn’t need his binder full of women. We’d literally just talked about this last night. Did he have severe memory loss or something?
“Mommy?” Scarlett said, yawning awake from her