Page 84 of Walking Red Flag

“What is?” Nastya asked as she came up behind me and leaned her head on my shoulder. “Holy wow.”

My thoughts exactly.

“Your fake husband is…endowed,” Brecken said. “You should just go ahead and test it out for authenticity sake. I mean, if someone asks you if your husband’s dick is big, you should definitely be able to tell them that it is.”

“Right,” I said as I watched the sweat drip down Cutter’s chest and into the band of his sweatpants.

“Is anyone impressed with how well he jumps rope?” Maven asked.

“I’m impressed. He hasn’t missed a single jump in five minutes,” Brecken said. “And he’s doing all that fancy footwork. No wonder he’s in such good shape. Do you think he’s been doing that the entire time?”

“I know he went to run, because he passed me as I pulled onto the road,” Nastya said. “He was running really fast, too.”

“What are y’all looking at?”

I looked over, my cheeks flushing when I saw who’d entered the room.

Keely, Cutter’s sister.

“Uhh,” I hesitated.

She walked to the window and grimaced. “Did you know that Cutter used to be chubby?”

I blinked and turned so that I could see her and the view outside clearly.

“I’m sorry, but what?” I asked.

Cutter had taken our conversation about “getting it out of the way” to heart, and had invited everyone over to my house this morning for breakfast before I’d even woken up.

He’d sent out a group text to his family. Then tagged my phone and sent one out to mine, including himself in the text message.

He’d then ordered food and had it delivered, consisting of everything left at Maven’s bakery so she had no reason not to attend, and didn’t tell me about it until my—our—doorbell started to ring.

I’d gotten myself out of bed just as the fourth ding had sounded.

I’d gotten up to find Maven and Auden, as well as their three kids. Nastya and Haze, with their kids. Brecken, Shasha and Rosie, minus Vivi who’d stayed with Dima the night before at his place. Keely and Chevy. With Dima and Vivi taking a rain check because apparently Vivi had a play date that she wasn’t willing to miss.

I’d stared at all but two of my family—old and new—in the kitchen snacking on Maven’s food before turning around and heading back into the bedroom to get dressed, though I’d left his Cowboys shirt on, and slipped into a pair of leggings.

By the time I’d gotten back, Cutter had told them everything, and I came back with them all acting like one big happy family, with no one surprised in the least that I’d gotten married to a man I’d met a week ago.

Which led us to now, sufficiently full, and playing games and talking for the last three hours.

The men had all dispersed, leaving us women to chatter while the kids had continued to play around us.

Cutter hadn’t left, though.

He’d stayed in the yard and worked out, using my gym that I’d put in, but never used.

Now he was jumping rope in a pair of gray sweatpants, and I was dying.

I didn’t think it was possible to want more sex, but there I was, wanting—no, needing—it.

I shifted in my seat, thinking that I could get the ache to get back under control, and realized it wasn’t gonna happen.

Sitting up, I said, “I’m going to run outside really quick, be right back.”

There were some knowing looks, and Keely made an “eww” face, but none of them stopped me from going into the garage and coming to a stop in the middle of my garage gym to get a better view.

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