Page 40 of Force a Date

“Excuse me?”

Okay, so while I love Hudson going at it with my sister, he doesn’t know what he’s getting himself into. She will go on and on continuously until he wants to slam his head against the nearest and hardest surface.

And I want to bring him back alive.

“Norah, relax,” I chime in. “Go back into the kitchen?—”

“Liv is hangin’ out with me and her old man,” Hudson claims flatly, holding her stare in challenge. “I’m sure your mother and you can handle chaos or any world problems when it comes to vegetables by yourselves.”

“Hey, fam,” Sam greets then, blindly walking into the thick tension. “Hudson, my man.” He fist-bumps the man at my side and snags himself a sandwich. “Don’t eat all the turkey, eh?”

“Funny, I was just about to tell your sister the same,” Hudson replies as I’m reaching over his body to grab said turkey sandwich.

With my chest brushing along his, I don’t mean to hover for more than a split second when I glance over at him. “Is that your favorite?”

“No,” he deadpans, searing me with those damn green eyes, and my skin ignites in flames. “I like blondes and blue eyes.”

What the fuck?

My brows click together before I lean back and plant my ass on the couch. Hudson grabs another turkey sandwich on wheat, hands it over to me, and I mindlessly take it.

“Don’t be afraid to do and take what you want, Opie. If you don’t want to go into that kitchen, don’t.”

“I don’t.”

“Then eat and?—”

“Hey, guys, how’s it going?” My body tenses at the new voice that enters the room and my blood rolls to a boil at the sound of Summer’s voice.

Sam really seems to like her, and who the hell knows what she’s already done behind his back?

The thought doesn’t settle well with me at all.

Fuck that she tried to throw herself at Hudson, I’d trip her later down the stairs for that, but Sam…he’s always been supportive and I will always have his back.

“You tell me,” I deadpan. “You come clean last night? I see that you’re still here.”

She frowns. “What?”

“You know, when you decided—” Hudson’s palm falls to my upper thigh and he squeezes, causing my body and the next words that are about to spill off my lips to cease.

I wasn’t going to drop all the details, but I was going to leak a little tidbit about how I hadn’t forgotten.

Hudson’s thumb descends my naked thigh and back up again, attempting to soothe away the tension, but he’s only building it.

Like, I would jump him right the fuck now if I didn’t have to hear him complain later.

Summer shifts her weight, and that’s when I know I got her.

No words required.

“Why don’t you not murder her on your father’s birthday, Opie?” Hudson mutters, gently leaning in to say it in my ear. “If you need me to take you out to get some air?—”

“Making out is prohibited on the couch,” Norah claims evenly and, honestly, I forgot she was idly standing around for a second.

“Why don’t you go bake something, Norah?” I sneer under my breath. “And take the whore with you.”

My sister frowns at me and I jerk my head, giving her the silent sign that Summer is who I’m talking about that she needs to go.

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