“Oh, so that’s how you want to play, huh?” He grabs me around the waist and swings me around before I can make my escape. “You’re going down.”
He’s holding me with one arm and takes my dish towel and snaps it at my butt. We’re both laughing, and I snort followed with a hiccup. Tate chuckles and leans down for a kiss. His tongue sweeps against mine and I melt.
A soft clap sounds from the doorway of the kitchen, his grandma. She winks at us and says, “Young love. You’ll have beautiful babies.”
I don’t want to crush the old woman’s soul, so I smile weakly. We’ve not been datin
g long enough for any of that heavy stuff.
Tate looks to me then back at her. “One day.” He smiles as though he really does want that—babies with me…someday.
I get such a weird feeling when it comes out of his mouth, like maybe I do want that too someday, with him.
“Once Tate goes into the NFL, you will have a beautiful wedding, and at least six kids. That’s what I’m predicting.”
I feel my face pale and bile creeps up my throat.
“Although, from what you said, about once you have kids, you’ll be big as a house, you should stop eating so much. That metabolism will slow down.” She walks away.
“Six, did she just say six kids?” I try to breathe, and it’s not working.
“Calm down, Amaya,” Tate says, trying to soothe me.
“Three, max. Four, only if I get twins, but never more than that. Oh my god, I would die. I like kids, sure, but six? I’d rather throw myself at a moving car on the highway. Hell, I’d rather kiss Keith again. Six kids?!” I squeak out the last word, panting hard.
Tate chuckles. “Baby, first, what did I say about even thinking of kissing other guys? Especially that fuckhead? Second, I’m with you on the kid’s thing. Six is way too many, we don’t need a sports team. And she’s also right, we’ll have beautiful babies.”
I am seriously swooning over my guy.
He’s kind of perfect.
**
What a crazy night. Maybe I’m not the only one that has a crazy mother, scratch that, Tate has two crazy moms. Tate took me home and kissed me goodbye saying he’ll call me later. He got a text from Bucky saying Big Tex was trashing a bar and was totally blitzed. I got the impression it was brutal. I hope it wasn’t something to do with Courtney.
I sit on my bed and scroll to find Dad’s number and hit dial.
“Happy Thanksgiving, baby girl,” Dad greets me.
“Hey, big guy, same to you. Listen, I want to ask you something.”
“Is everything okay? Do you need to come home earlier than planned?” He asks, almost panicking.
“Oh no, nothing like that, I promise. It’s just, I was wondering if I could bring someone home with me?” I chew on my lip waiting for his response. I’ve never brought a guy home for Christmas. My parents met Keith but nothing formal really. I was usually catering to his parents and making appearances for them.
“Boyfriend?” He asks gruffly.
“Yes,” I whisper.
“If you want him here, then that’s fine. He better not be anything like that asshole you were with before.” My dad hated Keith from the moment they met. I think he’ll really like Tate, at least, I hope.
I smile, I love when my dad gets protective of me. “He’s not, trust me, he’s so much better.”
“Sounds like you really like this guy.”
“He’s great. I think you’ll like him too. Just make sure Mom behaves.”
He laughs. “I’ll do my best.”