Elouise
“Beckett, what are-”my eyes move past Beckett’s broad shoulders and lock on my brother. I don’t hide my groan of annoyance, “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“Hey, sis,” James’ tone is just as disgruntled as I feel, but I don’t know what he has to complain about. I’m the one who’s morning is being interrupted by my entire freaking family.
“Hey, brother,” I say with fake cheeriness, “Why are you here?”
“Why is this asshole in your house?” he nods towards Beckett.
“Asshole?” Beckett mimics the word, and I don’t have to look at him to know he’s smirking, “You used to like me just fine.”
James sneers, “That was before you were fucking my sister.”
I tense.
I mean, he’s not wrong, but the way he says it makes it sound so degrading. Like Beckett is taking advantage of me, rather than this being a mutual decision between adults.
Beckett must not like James’s words any more than I do because he takes a step towards James. “We can be adults about this, or we can go outside and talk.” He bites off the verb and I get the distinct impression he doesn’t actually mean talking. “Either way, you don’t say shit like that to Elouise.”
Tension simmers between them and James looks like he wants to take a swing at Beckett.
“Guys,” I lay my hand on Beckett’s forearm, my fingertips pressing into his bare skin. “Play nice.”
Mom calls out from the kitchen asking where we went, and I send a pointed look at James. But he’s just glaring down to where I’m touching Beckett’s arm. And when I look up at Beckett, I see he’s glaring right back at James.
I tighten my grip, “Please.”
Beckett’s shoulders lose some of their tension and he turns his head until he’s looking down at me, “Alright, Smoky.”
“Thank you,” my smile is genuine, because even if this whole situation is immensely fucked up, I like that he’s standing up for me.
I see him bending down, I know what he’s going to do, and I don’t make any effort to stop him as he presses his mouth gently to mine.
“Aww, come on!” James complains at our show of affection.
I feel Beckett’s lips curl into a smile against my own, and I hold up a middle finger towards my brother.
Beckett breaks the kiss and hooks an arm around my shoulders.
Before he can turn us around, I smile at my brother, “That’ll teach you to barge into my house.”
Laughing, Beckett guides us back into the kitchen.
My dad looks up from his current batch of pancakes and addresses Beckett, “Everything okay out there, son?”
“Son?” James almost shouts as he enters behind us, “He’s not your son, I am.”
The sound of surprise that Mom makes at James’s entrance is all the confirmation I need to know they didn’t plan this. She’s terrible at pretending.
“What are you doing here?” Mom shrieks, pulling James in for a hug.
“Hey Mom,” he hugs her back and even though I’m annoyed at all of them for just showing up, it’s nice to see everyone together. “You told me you were coming into town, figured I’d surprise you.” His eyes raise over the top of Mom’s head and narrow on me, “I think we all got a surprise today.”
Rolling my eyes, I pull out a chair and sit at the table next to Beckett.
I finished setting the table before I went to check on Beckett in the hallway, so now we’re just waiting on Dad to wrap up.
“Sit, sit,” Mom waves James towards the table as she grabs another setting for him.