Page 88 of Unlucky You

“Dad’s birthday dinner. It’s tonight.”

“Shit. I forgot. Seven, right?”

“Yep and bring your man.” She smiled smugly. “I already promised Dad he was coming with you.”

“How the hell you making promises on our behalf?”

“Because if I didn’t, you wouldn’t bring him. Love you, see you tonight, and put my name on whatever you got him. You know I’m between blessings right now.” She blew me a kiss and ended the call.

“I’m keeping Raiden this weekend?—”

“I know. You don’t have to?—”

“You wanna let me finish?” His expression was neutral but his posture was still relaxed.

“Yes.”

“I was gonna say I can’t bail on him. But if you want me there and Tali isn’t busy tonight, he can chill here with Raidy while we pull up. It’s just dinner, right?”

I smiled so damn big. “Yes, just dinner. Are you sure?”

“I’m sure about you which by default means everything attached to you. If you’re cool with me meeting your parents, then I’m down. It’s going to happen regardless so I might as well take that shit on the chin now and get it out the way.”

I rolled my eyes, dropped my phone, and climbed into his lap. Once my arms were resting on his shoulders, I leaned closer and brushed my lips over his. “You’re assuming it will be bad.”

“I’m assuming your parents have standards for you which I might not meet. Not that I fucking care, because I told you, I’m in this regardless. But it works a lot better with their blessing. I never want your love to be divided.”

“My love?”

The warmth of his palm met the back of my neck and pulled me into a kiss. The glorious feel of his mouth was addictive but the dominance of his tongue branding me, claiming me, was a warning of how much trouble I was in with this man.

“I’m going to make you love me, Saniya. I want you to fall so fucking hard that the fear of landing terrifies you. But you won’t get hurt because I’ll be there to catch you. So yeah, your love. You’re gonna give me that and I’m going to give you mine.”

“Promises, promises,” I teased.

“I’ll never break them with my son and I’ll never break them with you.”

“Now get dressed so we can head out. I’ll call Tali to see if he can keep Raiden later.”

I went to climb off his lap but his arm eased behind my back and his hand gripped my neck once more, bringing me into a kiss, then he let me go. “Aight, you can go now.”

I rolled my eyes, feeling a warmth pushing throughout my entire body. It wouldn’t take much to make me fall, I was already on a slow descent.

“Daddy,you want me to show you?” I sputtered a laugh at the look Grand shot his son. The innocence in his question didn’t soften the blow. We were on our eighth hole of mini-golf and Grand was in last place. Raiden was kicking both of our asses but at least I wasn’t far behind him.

“I’m good, man.”

Raiden bounced on his toes beside his father with a huge smile on his face. I stood behind them, shaking my head, already knowing how this would end. The course was for kids which meant Grand’s six-one height and wide frame didn’t fit. The clubs were too short and small for his hands and height so he was struggling to make it work, which was why he was doing so terribly. Well that and the fact that he was swinging the miniature club like he was on a full green with eighteen holes and not kid-sized turf.

He lost more balls than I could keep count of and I feared for the other families on the courses.

“Raiden, why don’t you come back here to give your dad some space.”

The deadly glare from Grand that shifted my way had me fighting to hold in another laugh but Raiden came right to me and I gently pulled him back, resting my hands on his shoulders. We both watched in amusement while Grand lined his club up with the ball then swung with more force than necessary. The ball shot into the air and we were all temporarilyhopeful because it was perfectly aligned with the windmill it was approaching but then took a last-minute shift and curved left. It landed in the blue-tinted water.

“What the fuck…” he mumbled and Raiden pushed away from me and hurried to his father. He slipped his hand into Grand’s and smiled proudly.

“You tried your best. It’s okay if you’re not good at golf.”

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