Page 135 of Manny

“I’m fine, I’m just at the clubhouse.”

My sister has been surprisingly supportive. I never expected her to understand, but I underestimated how much she loves me and wants me to be happy. “And we’re having dinner at the Grill, right? For Lace’s birthday?”

“Yep.”

She sighs. “One day you’ll give me more than one word answers. Gotta run. Give Manny a kiss for me.”

She hangs up before I can reply. I shake my head. “You know all the girls in the club are nuts over this thruple thing we’ve got goin’. It’s like a soap opera every time I see one of ‘em. They always want fuckin’ details.” I narrow my eyes. “Not givin’ anythin’ more than fluffy shit, right?”

Manny laughs. “Your sister is in that chat,” he reminds me. “And ew.”

I check my phone again for the time. “I gotta run.” I point at him. “But don’t think this is over. My dick is hard and now I’ve gotta work on gettin’ it down before I collect the kids after school.”

“Tut tut, better stay outta the kitchen if you can’t handle the heat.” He waggles his eyebrows again and we kiss briefly.

“Such a brat.”

I take off, swapping my sled out for my truck as I collect Eli, Cami and apparently Ella, Hawk and Jas’s kid, who’s hitching a ride to the bakery.

Eli tells me all about what they did in science; he’s exactly like his momma when it comes to smarts. He didn’t get that from me.

“Dad?” He says, climbing out as I take his backpack and sling it over my shoulder.

“Yeah, bud?”

“You know how you and Lace are boyfriend and girlfriend?” Uh, oh, is it too early for the sex education talk?

“Uh, yeah?” It’s not like we’ve kept it a secret, she’s over at our place all the time. We just haven’t kinda gotten into the details of usandManny. A part of me thinks he’s still too young to digest all of that.

“Well, I think Manny likes her, too.”

“He does, huh? How’d you know that?”

He shrugs. “He’s always doing nice things for her.”

“Well, that’s how a man should treat a lady, with respect and kindness.”

“Dad?”

I palm the back of my head. “Yeah?”

“Manny does nice things for you, too. And he hangs with us all the time.”

Fuck, are we that obvious?

“I like him a lot. Is it okay that I like Lace and Manny?”

He shrugs again. “I guess, if it means they both can be around all the time.”

The last thing I want is kids at school giving him a hard time. Then again, kids of the NOLA Rebels tend to be more immune to teasing than most. I can’t think why.

“I think they’d both like that.”

“Cool. Can I have an extra bucket of popcorn Friday night?”

Relief sweeps through me. “I guess?”

He takes off. “Good talk, Dad!”

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