Page 163 of Scandalous

Aurora sways from side to side and smiles weakly. “Dad.”

“Who’s this?” He eyes me.

“Ezra Morgan, Aurora’s boyfriend.”

Letting go of Aurora’s hand, I step forward to shake his. Only instead of shaking mine, he sidesteps me and grabs a glass of water off the counter. Grinding my teeth, I turn back to my girl and rest my hand on her back.

This isn’t about me.

“You two won’t be sharing a bed under my roof.”

Aurora scoffs as she crosses her arms. “Then I guess it’s a good thing we won’t be staying here then, isn’t it?”

“Now let’s calm down, everyone. We don’t need to be airing family laundry with a guest present now, do we?” Nicole scolds lightly.

“Yes, ma’am,” Aurora mumbles.

We haven’t even been here for an hour and I’m ready to leave. This trip is going to be fantastic.

* * *

Turning, I push off the wall and guide myself through the water. My body starts to fatigue after swimming for so long. Reaching the wall on the other side of the pool, I come up for air. Standing, I run a hand over my face, wiping away the water.

“How long have you guys been out here?” I ask as I see Liam and Drake.

“I just got out here.” Drake shrugs.

Liam’s reclined in one of the pool chairs. “Eh, about ten minutes. Did you get a good workout in?”

Pushing myself up, I get out of the pool and sit on the edge with my feet in the water. “Yeah, I decided to try and beat the heat.”

Drake chuckles. “How’d that work out for you?”

“Better than I thought.” I smirk. “What time is it?”

Drake looks at his watch. “It’s ten a.m.”

“It’s noon in Iowa. The funeral should be over by now,” Liam says as he bounces his leg. “I hate that we didn’t go with her.”

“I don’t like it either, but I get it. We would have overwhelmed her family,” Drake reminds him as he holds out a bottle of water to me.

Getting out of the pool, I walk toward them and take the water. “Thanks. Have either of them texted us yet?”

I open the bottle and take a drink as the guys shake their heads. Liam is an anxious mess. He just wants Aurora and Ezra back home with us. We’ve gotten so used to being with each other that it’s silent without them. Drake is trying to play it cool, but with the furrow in his brow, it’s obvious that he’s trying to remain calm.

“Their plane tickets back are for tomorrow, right?”

“Yeah, they fly in late in the afternoon. One of us is supposed to pick them up,” Drake says as he rubs his jaw.

Liam scoffs. “You mean you get to pick them up since you’re the only one with an American driver’s license.”

“Okay, let’s do something for them. Something nice for them to come home to.” I nod, trying to brainstorm. “We could make them a nice dinner or something.”

Liam shoots up with a smile on his face. “Yes! And we can video it all so that way, if she needs content, she can use it. Or hell, she logged into the app on my tablet the other day and never signed out. We can just post it for her.”

Drake holds out his hand, stopping this runaway train before it even gets started. “I agree that making them a nice meal would be nice. But let’s not post anything on her shit without her knowledge. While Ror is laid back, I don’t know how she would take that.”

“Fine.” Liam sighs dramatically as he flops back in his chair.

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