Page 13 of Feel Me

She squeaks when Curran nabs her by the waist and hauls her onto his lap. “But, baby,” he says, curling her fingers to expose her huge engagement ring and the matching wedding band. “Then you would have missed out on all this. Oh, and the hot gorilla sex, too.”

She purses her lips, the affection she has for my brother finding its way into her gaze regardless of the embarrassment painting her cheeks a bright pink. As much as Curran is messing around, he’s crazy about her. It’s obvious by the way his stare welds into hers.

I never expected him to marry so young. I never expected him to marry at all. Like me, he hated what our father did to our mother, and never had a meaningful relationship prior to Tess. But here he is.

Marriage is the last thing that I want, and anything past a second date makes me want to turn tail. Have I ever longed for someone to spend forever with? Yeah. Once. When my sister Wren got engaged. I don’t know why it affected me the way that it did, maybe because she came damn close to losing her chance at forever.

I was there when Evan slipped that ring on her finger. But it’s like as soon as she said yes, I couldn’t keep watching, feeling like I was intruding on something I’m not meant to have.

“What are you thinking about, Deck?” Curran asks.

His hand drifts to Tess’s knee, but both are focused on me. “That marriage isn’t for me,” I answer, my attention darting to the ring on Tess’s hand.

I’m not trying to insult them or what they have, but considering what I said, and who I said it to, I can’t blame them if they’re offended.

The crease along Curran’s brow softens. He knows I don’t mean any disrespect. Thankfully Tess knows it, too. She smiles softly. “No one is saying you have to get married.”

Curran coughs into his hand. “Bullshit.”

Tess laughs. “Okay. Except maybe your mother. But once the baby is born she’ll be distracted and maybe leave you and Seamus alone for a while.”

God, I hope so. For years, every time I was photographed with a woman at an event, Wren would cut out the picture in the paper and send it to Ma, to bust my balls, but mainly to get Ma off her back about marriage. I could have done without the “Do you think she’s the one?” phone calls. But now that Wren’s engaged, Ma doesn’t need any pic of me with a woman on my arm. That huge rock on Wren’s hand has put more pressure on me than any photograph ever has.

It’s strange, for all Papa hurt her, Happily Ever After is still something she wants for us.

Maybe because she was never able to have it.

I tap my fingers against the armrest. “Can I ask you something?” I ask Curran, but don’t wait for him to answer. “What did Mel say to you in the office?”

“When she signed?” he asks. At my nod, he grins. “I asked her if she brought that dress to celebrate your promo to SACU. She denied it, telling me she bought it to show off her boobs.”

So she was telling the truth. I frown like I don’t approve of the conversation. “Boobs? Did you seriously just use that word? What are you, twelve?”

“Well, technically she signed ‘tits’ I think. But Tess says I’m not allowed to say that word because it’s vulgar and demeaning. Unless of course we’re fu?”

“Curran!” she says, burying her face in her hand.

“How the hell did you end up together?” I ask, meaning it. If Tess were anyone else, I wouldn’t swear. But now that she’s officially family and because Curran is being his idiot self, I do. “You’re going to fucking drain the class right out of her.”

“I’m classy,” Curran fires back.

“Of course you are, my beloved,” Tess says, laughing and stroking his jaw. She leans in and presses a kiss against his cheek. “Will you do me a favor and get me a sandwich? I forgot my extra bag of food when I left this morning.”

His hand skims over her growing belly. “Junior hungry?”

She smiles apologetically. “We both are. I don’t think I ate enough at lunch, and it’s going to be a while before I head home and have dinner.”

“Okay,” he says, standing when she slips off his lap. “You want anything, Deck?”

“Thanks, I’m good,” I answer. I start to leave when he does, but Tess’s hand sliding down my arm keeps me in place. Curran catches the motion out of the corner of his eye, clueing in that she wants to speak to me alone.

“What’s up?” I ask as the door closes behind him.

“Declan, it’s none of my business, but you and Melissa . . .”

“You don’t have to worry about me and her,” I assure her, my game face in place. “There’s nothing there.”

“I’m not so sure,” she says.

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