Page 51 of Don't Leave Me

“Hey, I'm not mad. I was just really caught off guard.” I cup her face, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

“You’re not mad at me?” She whispers.

“Never. Though now I'm a little worried I'm going to lose you sooner than I expected.”

“Even if I move home, I don’t want us to break up. I'm willing to wait until one of us could move permanently.”

“I'm not making you move, Soph. Look at this place.” I motion to Mulberry Lane. “Who wouldn’t want to live here?”

Her childhood home along with her pseudo-uncles’ homes forms a large circle. In the center is a swimming pool and I don’t even know what else. I can't see any of it from here, but Sophia’s always spoken about it like it’s an oasis.

Wes started building homes on the outer circle for his kids and I'm sure some of the others will want the same.

“But unless you want to move, we can't be together long term,” she whispers, dropping her gaze to my chest.

“Don’t worry about that right now. Let’s take things slow and we can make decisions when we need to. I'm not letting you go, Soph. You have no reason to stress about us. Got it?” I stare into her beautiful eyes and smile when she nods her head. “Good. Let’s go inside so I can meet your family.”

Chapter 23

Sophia

"I like this guy.” Cody’s grinning from ear to ear. Him and Pecker have hit it off and are having a great time. Mostly at Jax’s expense, but Jax doesn’t mind no matter how much he scowls.

He’s always been a good sport and loves it when people can joke around and bust his balls. He can’t handle anyone who’s serious all the time.

“That’s only because he has your jersey.” Jax rolls his eyes. “If he had mine, you’d like him a lot less.”

“Are you saying you don’t love me?” Pecker bats his eye lashes.

“I'm pretty sure I have a man crush on you. If you move here, you can replace Cody as my best friend since he’s so mean to me.” Jax flips off Cody, making him laugh even harder.

“Well, Soph, I'm not sure you could’ve found a more perfect boyfriend.” Mom smiles from her spot on the couch, cuddled up with Dad.

“I still can't get over how similar Peck and Wyatt look. It’s eerie. They look like they could be related.” Kennedy shakes her head.

“I love that. Then you can't find him attractive because that’s admitting your son is attractive.” Blake grins.

“My son is attractive.” She scowls at him.

“Yeah, but not in a Mrs. Robinson way.”

“Stop it!” Mom giggles. “I hate when people say that! Wes, can we change our last name?”

“No, baby. We’re not changing our last name because of some movie.”

Pecker pulls his phone out of his pocket and declines a video chat with Sydney. I wonder if it’s something important. She knows he’s meeting my family today; I can't imagine she’d call unless there was a reason.

“Just wait until Kendra meets him,” Mom warns, making everyone laugh. Kendra is one of our pseudo-aunts and she loves flirting with people on Jax, Cody, and Wyatt’s teams. It doesn’t bother Uncle Nick one bit, I think he actually finds it entertaining how uncomfortable the guys get.

Pecker silences another call from Sydney and my brows pull together. Something must be going on.

“I think you should answer it. Just make sure nothing is wrong.”

“No, it’s fine. We’re with your family.” Pecker brushes off my concern. I know he’s worried about my family liking him, but they’re not going to get upset over this.

“Answer it. Family always comes first and she’s the only family you have,” Wyatt pipes up. “We’d all answer even if we were in the same position as you.”

“I’ll take it outside then.” He goes to stand, but I tug on his arm.

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