Page 105 of Returning to Everton

“Alright, alright! Calm down y’all. You know there’s plenty of me to go around,” she tells them suggestively and they immediately stop their pretend fight. Rowe smiles then walks up to me, wraps her arm around my waist, and lays her head on my shoulder. I wrap my arm around her and squeeze her into my side.

“You’re evil,” I whisper to her then kiss the top of her head. She snuggles into my side and we walk inside, Kayden holding the door for us.

Ayden walks around us to the hostess. “Reservation for Carrington,” he announces.

“Yes, I have five in that party. Is that correct?” The hostess asks while checking Ayden out.

“That’s correct. Taking our girlfriend to a nice lunch,” he retorts indignantly and her eyes bulge. Then she notices Rowe in my arms and gives her a calculating look.

“Yourgirlfriend?” she asks. “As in all of yours?”

“That’s right,” I defend. “You got a problem with that?” I snap. “Maybe I’ll have a word with your manager and let him know how you’re treating your customers.”

Her face turns red at that and she sputters out an apology. “Right this way,” she walks us to our table and we take seats surrounding Rowen. “Bryce will be your waiter. He’ll be right with you,” she says before quickly making her escape as the guys all give her evil looks.

We look at our menus while we wait. “Well, we obviously have to order a cheese fondue to start. What kind of cheese do you want, Rowe?” I ask.

“Hmmm, the Quattro Formaggio sounds good. It’s got a bunch of different cheeses I can’t pronounce and white wine. That sounds like a winner to me,” she chuckles.

We all laugh at her assessment of what makes good fondue. “Alright, baby we’ll get that to start,” I agree.

“Hi, I’m Bryce and I’ll be your server today. Can I start you off with something to drink?” Our server interrupts my menu browsing. How did he sneak up on me? I look up to tell him what I want to drink and see it’s that asshole kid from the bakery this morning.

Rowen puts her hand on my thigh and squeezes it in warning before I can say anything. Then she looks at Ayden across the table and gives him a warning look. “Hi Bryce, I’ll have a Love Martini please,” Rowe replies sweetly. She needs to watch it. She’s going to get the poor boy in trouble.

“Penis Licker!” Bryce’s face turns bright red and I bite my lips to stop from laughing. The boy tries to clear his throat. “I mean... okay, penis licker!”

Ayden, who was also biting his lips together holding back his laugh, is turning purple. Kayden and Nate are looking at us like we’ve lost our minds. Or they were, until our waiter shouted penis licker again. Now they’re giving us knowing looks and trying not to laugh themselves. We get through the rest of us ordering our drinks and the cheese fondue without further incident and the kid runs off to put our order in.

“Alright which one of you spelled that poor boy and why?” Nate demands once he’s out of earshot.

Ayden and I finally lose it and bust out laughing, so Rowen has to tell them the story. Oh god. I wipe a tear away as Rowe recounts our morning game, making Nate and Kayden laugh at our ridiculous answers. Then she gets to the part we’re all waiting for, but she’s not telling it right, so I interrupt her.

“Okay, hold up. Let me tell you what happened,” I stop her, and she rolls her eyes at me as I go on to tell them whatreallyhappened. “So, needless to say, Ayden and I both decided he needed a little reminder not to be a dick and to leave a woman alone when she tells him she’s not interested.”

“So, now he shouts penis licker when?” Kayden asks for clarification.

“Every time he thinks about Rowen,” Ayden smiles big as he tells his brother what he did to this douche.

Kayden nods his head in respect to Ayden’s brilliance. “And you did what to his apple fritter?” he asks me.

“I made it shrink his penis,” I smile smugly.

Nate and Kayden attempt to smother their laughter as we see penis licker… I mean Bryce, coming. He sets down our drinks and asks if we’re ready to order. He is valiantly trying to avoid looking at Rowe. I wonder if he’s figured out we’re the reason he keeps shouting penis licker. The guys all order, then he finally gets to Rowen.

He looks at her and opens his mouth to ask for her order, I’m sure, but what comes out is, “Penis licker!”

Rowen just sighs and tells him what she wants to eat then he scampers off. We all laugh while Rowen continues to scowl at us. “Oh, don’t look at us like that, Sugar. You know it’s funny,” I tease her.

“Is he going to do that every time he sees me? Because if so, this is going to be a long lunch,” she complains.

I smirk and shake my head. “No, sweetheart. Not every time heseesyou. Every time hethinksabout you,” I clarify, even though wejustexplained that to Nate and Kayden. She’s got a lot on her mind so it’s understandable she wasn’t exactly paying attention. Just then we hear a ruckus in the back, followed by “Penis licker!” The guys and I chuckle. “Guess he hasn’t figured it out yet,” I shrug.

A waitress walks over carrying our cheese fondue. “Here’s your appetizer. I’m Meghan. I’ll be taking over for Bryce,” she says with a smile.

“What happened to Bryce?” Kayden asks her.

She looks at him and smiles even bigger than she already was. “He’s having some problems and was sent home,” she informs him.

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