Page 65 of Instant Bond

“I know who you are,” he responded, sounding kind of bored. It was definitely not the kind of reaction I’d expected from him. As much as he seemed to hate me, I was expecting… Something, at least.

“You went to school with Karter, right? And you work with him?”

“That’s right,” he said, with a tone suggesting I was an annoying kid asking him why the sky was blue.

Nerves and anger tangled up in my stomach until I wasn’t sure what exactly would be the best course of action to goad him into admitting something. I wasn’t going to let him play dumb.

“Look, I know everything,” I said. I waited an unreasonable amount of time for some recognition to pop into his eyes, but there was nothing. “Karter does, too,” I added.

“What do you want from me?” He asked, giving me a look like I was a fly he was forbidden from swatting at. “So I had some pictures taken with your boyfriend. Get over it. We don’t all want to wait tables, you know.”

“You did a hell of a lot more than that,” I snapped, at my limit of keeping up the charade. “We know you’re the one who filed the report with CPS, and you didn’t even bother covering your tracks with buying out my apartment.”

He blinked at me like I’d been speaking another language. “What the fuck are you even talking about?” When I didn’t respond, too shocked by his incredible skill in acting, he scoffed and rolled his eyes again. “You know what? Why don’t you go play with the kids and get back to me when you can legally drink.”

I was old enough to legally drink but I wasn’t quick enough to think of a good response as he sailed past me and back over to his little group. After a few moments, some of the people in his little circle glanced back at me, snickering. Great.

I marched back over to Karter, who’d been watching the exchange carefully.

“Did you get anything good?” He murmured softly, eyes flickering to the phone still settled in the pocket of my shirt. I fished it out, turning off the recording app.

“Not exactly,” I admitted. “We can talk about it tonight.”

He gave me a subtle nod, and we let it go for the rest of the night.

When the time came to bob for apples, Ty was more or less a shark in the water. I had no idea how he was so good at it, since as far as I was aware he’d never done it. But he won the game and got a little plastic trophy for his troubles, which we promised him he could display in his room.

Once the night had wound down and people were starting to leave, Farrah and Tracey walked us to Karter’s car.

Farrah thanked us for coming, and it seemed genuine. I thanked her for having us. She gave Karter a look with maybe a drop of sentimentality in it as she clapped him on the shoulder, like she was congratulating him for something.

“You justhaveto bring Ty over for Thanksgiving,” Tracey begged. “We make so much food, there’s plenty to go around. And we would love to see you guys again just as soon as possible.”

“We can do that,” I promised, after glancing over at Karter to make sure he wasn’t obviously protesting. “We’d love to come over,” I revised my statement to make my enthusiasm more obvious.

“We never have holidays with other people!” Ty piped up. He seemed excited by the idea, too. “It’s always just me and Daddy.”

“We haven’t had anyone to spend a holiday with since my parents passed,” I explained.

Tracey’s eyes filled with tears before her arms sprang out from her sides, wrapping me in a tight hug, squeezing a shocked yelp from me. I didn’t have time to squirm before she moved on to Ty, kneeling down to give him a strong squeeze. He laughed, hugging her back. He didn’t have any issues with physical affection.

“You don’t worry about a thing, sugar,” she said, sniffling. “You can come over here and spend any holiday with us you want. Hell, any day of the week.”

“Thanks,” Ty said sincerely, glancing over at me with raised eyebrows like we’d just been awarded some grand, coveted prize.

And on the ride home, while he snoozed in the backseat and Karter kept shooting flirty looks at me from the driver’s seat, I was pretty sure I agreed with him.

KARTER

IT WAS THElast day of November. The wind was sweeping away all the colorful, fallen leaves, and weather forecasts let us know we’d be getting sheets of snow soon.

I’d decided to work from home, because Cameron had stayed home sick for the second day in a row, something I hadn’t seen him do since we’d been together. I could get Ty on and off the bus and take care of whatever was needed around the house so he could rest.

If someone six months ago had told me this was what my life would be, I wouldn’t have believed them. I’d never imagined I could feel so homey and domestic. Meeting Cameron and Ty had completely flipped my perception of my life and the world around me.

And I wasn’t the only one affected. My parents, especially my omega mom, had fallen in love with Ty pretty much instantly. Since Halloween they’d begged us to let them take him out shopping or let him come spend the night so they could play board games and watch movies with him. We’d let them keep him twice this month, and had taken full advantage of our alone time. He’d returned safe and sound each time, with gleeful stories about how they’d made ice cream sundaes, gone to a petting zoo, and built statues out of popsicle sticks.

They’d come to his school play, cheering him on as enthusiastically as Cameron and I. They’d even thought to bring him a bouquet of flowers as congratulations. And Thanksgivingdinner had been lovely and peaceful and perfect. Incorporating Cameron and Ty into my family had been pretty seamless.

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