Page 62 of Force a Date

It’s clear—for the millionth time—that they want nothing to do with her, and this is my last time going to any large family event without my daughter.

I’m done with them picking and choosing who’s part of the family and who’s not based on whether I’m married or not.

Slowly, Hudson turns around and hits me with a shitty expression and reminder that I’m young as shit, something he doesn’t want to hang out with publicly, and I still don’t think he buys that I’m twenty-three. “I’m not babysitting you tonight.”

“I don’t need babysitting.”

He scans my dress, a lavender purple that slits all the way up to my upper thigh.

Mom was pissed that I didn’t end up wearing the dress she had picked out. Norah was so beyond nervous about the impending nuptials that, if she did notice, I didn’t get bitched at.

“No.”

Fine. I’ll just go home to my big bag of chips and Netflix.

“Where are you going? The VFW hall?”

Hudson’s nostrils flare before jerking his head for us to go, not giving another second to clap back at me. “Let’s go, Opie.”

I snap my fingers as I follow him to the place he parked. “I’m sorry, that’s not wild enough. The bingo hall?”

Hudson spins around and starts toward me like a bull, causing me to hold my breath as he towers over me. “I will spank you in front of these people if you don’t shut up. You’re going home, not at some biker bar in a dress like that.”

My brows clash. “You don’t like my dress?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“Well, what’s wrong with it?”

Hudson’s green eyes descend down my body again and I try not to squirm. His gaze is more powerful than anything I’ve ever experienced in my life. It’s a mixture of feeling like the most beautiful thing in the world and the most obnoxious.

“Your mother allowed you to pick up something that, if sitting at the wrong angle, shows off your pussy?”

This man.

“I know how to sit properly in a dress, Hudson,” I chide back. “And depending on how you look at it, it could be the right angle.”

He grinds his jaw but doesn’t bother prying his disgruntled facade off me as if I’m some petulant child. “I’m not looking at prying guys off you all night.”

“I can handle myself.”

“Yeah.” He starts to twist his body back toward his bike. “Just like you handle your mom.”

I scowl at his widespread back, but he’s not wrong. I’ve allowed my mother to boss me around since I got tits.

He knows my weakness in how my balls haven’t dropped yet when it comes to her and that I’m still struggling with it. That my sister and mom won’t accept my daughter because I’m not married.

Not that he knows that part.

I guess I always wanted to belong but knew I was different. Norah and my mother have such a close relationship that I envy it sometimes. Dad is great, but he doesn’t get all the girl stuff sometimes.

“Let’s go, Op.”

Traipsing slowly behind Hudson, I shut my mouth for the rest of the night and let him take me home.

nineteen

. . .

---