Page 81 of Restrictions

Penelope turns to Vivienne. “Is it okay?”

Vivienne smooths her hand over Baz’s hair. “Of course.” I grab the bags we left at the door and don’t fight Linc when he grabs one of them, even though I want to.

I’m trying my best not to cause any drama. I’m older now. I’m not going to have a huge outburst. I can control myself.

We all follow Linc and Penelope down the stairs of their massive beach house which has an exterior that’s mostly made up of glass and flashy as hell. When we reach the first bedroom, Baz’s eyes widen as he looks around.

The room is painted dark blue with a small twin bed and Spiderman sheets and comforter. It’s all decorated in superhero and baseball stuff. An odd combination but not if you know Baz.

Which I’m surprised they do.

“Is this my room?”

Vivienne looks at Penelope in awe at the sound of Baz’s question, and Penelope looks down at him, her head tilted to the side with love in her eyes. “Of course. I know the last time you visited, our home wasn’t exactly kid-friendly, and Linc and I knew we had to fix that.”

She looks over at him, a big smile on both of their faces. Linc nods and walks over to a large wooden toybox that has Baz’s name burned into it. “Look at all this stuff waiting for you to play with, buddy.”

Baz runs over and grabs what appears to be brand-new toys out of it, immediately in his element.

Vivienne is beaming as she watches him, her heart, no doubt, full as she turns to look at Penelope and Linc. “You guys didn’t have to do that. But it’s so kind.”

“Please.” Penelope waves her off. “We wanted to. I’m sorry we didn’t have it ready last time you were here. Things have been kind of crazy.”

Vivienne looks nervously over at me, almost like she’s afraid to be too nice to them in some sort of solidarity to me. Which is so not what I want. She looks back at Baz with a smile on her pretty face. “This is great. Thank you. Baz, can you say thank you?”

He runs to us with an airplane in hand, making it fly all the way over. “Thank you!”

Linc kneels down, getting eye level with him. “You’re here for two days. It’s all about you, little man. What do you want to do first?”

“Swim!”

Of fucking course. Kid has an indoor pool, but he chooses swimming.

Penelope and Linc share a look as he stands. “I’m all for it,” Linc says with a smile, and Penelope looks to Viv for her input.

“Is that okay?”

Vivienne nods. “Of course. I packed our suits.”

“I’m gonna pass.” I situate my bag on my shoulder and turn to Linc. “Where am I staying?”

He looks at Viv. “We have a room connected to this one for you.” Then he looks at me. “And then there’s one more down here or one more upstairs. Mom and Tony are staying on the main level.”

“I’ll take the one down here.”

He already knew that as he leads me to the room across from the two Viv and Baz will be staying in.

I take a shower, washing the trip off me after they all head out to the pool. When I come out of the bathroom with one of the fluffy white bath towels wrapped around my waist, my sister is sitting on the bed, legs crossed at the ankles, and posture straight.

“Lola? What the fuck? What if I was naked?”

She rolls her eyes and turns away from me, shielding her eyes. “We’re related.”

“I’m not fucking twelve anymore.”

She laughs as I quickly grab a pair of jeans and pull them on under the towel as she stares at the opposite wall. I fasten the jeans and grab a polo shirt, pulling it on and walking in front of her, my hair still wet. “What are you doing? Shouldn’t you be swimming?”

“Nah, I wanted to talk to you.”

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