Page 32 of Crossing the Red Line
“Jesus…” Knox groaned.“This is the girl…and your married?”
Lorelai let out a little giggle as Knox ran his hands over his face in shock.
“It’s not good, Lorelai, it’s the boss’s daughter…Jesus.We can’t afford to lose Lucas,” Knox grunted.
I glanced down at Ella and winked while Knox started pacing the kitchen floor.
“What’s the problem?”Dylan questioned, leaning up against the counter, pulling Aurora in front of him as he rested his hands on her small baby bump.
“Larson is going to go postal when he finds out.Remember what happened over the locker room incident?We almost lost him then.What do you think he’s going to do when he finds this out?We need a plan, and we need a plan now!”
It was then I laughed.I’d never seen Knox this panicked before.Normally, he was a go-with-the-flow kind of guy.Clay stood there, his arms crossed across his chest, not saying a word.
“Larson won’t say anything.He already knows,” I said as Knox spun around and looked me directly in the eyes.“Ella and I used to date, years ago.”
“Why didn’t you tell us?”
“Better to watch your ass panic.”I chuckled.
“Oh fuck off,” Knox gritted.
I frowned.“What the hell is the matter with you?”I questioned, as Dylan and Clay looked over at Knox in shock.
We all waited as Knox glanced at all of us.“It’s Peyton, my mom emailed me.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”Lorelai questioned, looking concerned.
“Didn’t want to talk about it.”He shrugged.
It was then Clay cleared his throat and mentioned that he forgot something in the car, and before we could say anything, he’d bolted from the condo.
“I need to go out there on our next days off.”Knox added, “I just don’t have the bandwidth to deal with it right now, and then this news just catapulted me I guess.”
“Oh, honey,” Lorelai said, moving over to where he stood.“Whatever it is, I’ll help you deal with it,” she assured him, placing a kiss on his lips.
“Sorry, dude, didn’t mean to rain on your parade,” Knox said, fist bumping me.
“No worries.It would be impossible for anything to piss me off.”
“Are you happy?”Aurora asked, looking over at Ella.
She rested her head on my chest and smiled.“Very.”
“Well, you look better, and you’ve returned to your normal self.Lorelai and I were just saying that to one another yesterday at work.”She smiled.“We figured things got sorted.”
“So, when did this happen?”Dylan questioned.
“It was Vegas, wasn’t it?”Knox asked.
I nodded.“It was.The best fucking trip to Vegas I’ve ever had.”
It was then the door opened, and Clay came in.I noticed he had nothing with him and said nothing.Something was going on with him.I just hadn’t had the time to figure out what it was.
Aurora and Lorelai came over and hugged Ella, followed by Clay, Dylan, and then finally Knox.
“Welcome to the family, darlin’,” Clay said.
“Yeah, if this ass doesn’t treat you right, just come to me,” Dylan said, hugging her next, then smacking me across the abs.
