Then He Happened (The Spearman Family #2)

by Claudia Y. Burgoa

The rawness of this moment shreds my gut, and I am left questioning everything. Wondering what I’m supposed to do now?

As she saunters away, I watch her luscious curves. My gaze stops when I spot a table close to the bar where an older couple is getting ready to leave. He’s helping her with her coat. I wonder how long they’ve been together. If they’ve always been this happy. If they ever ripped each other apart so bad they didn’t come back together quite the same way.

Her eyes crinkle. This is the part where she says something charming and I think, hey, maybe she’s something special. Until I’m on a bed somewhere balls deep in her tight pussy wondering what I should have for lunch tomorrow. When did sex get so tedious?

Because of course he would. Obviously, they live in a movie where the side character, me, doesn’t mind awkwardly standing there while they swap spit.

So what if sometimes I wonder what it’d be like to find a woman who makes me grin like an idiot, the way Em does with Jack?

She shakes her head. “I think I might be your birthday let down, babe.” “Why?” I deflate.

Camilla is the definition of a germaphobe. There was a stint in college where she’d only let me touch her stuff after using pre-sanitized hand sanitizer.

“Meow!” he complains and wriggles out of my arms.

I hate weddings and the whole concept of marriage. It’s just a dumb way to attach yourself to another person who will let you down one way or another.

There’s no fucking way I’ll gamble on love again. I glance at them and repeat inside my head, never again.

Then again, she loves pretending to be fragile so everyone would do anything for her. I swear she just bats her eyelashes and everyone is at her feet asking what she needs.

So maybe things are meant to suck.

I swallow a laugh.

I feel laughter bubbling up in me and realize fuck, I must be too.

She laughs like a songbird. “Sure.”

Masculine nose, sensual mouth, strong, chiseled jaw with a pair of high cheekbones framing those warm brown eyes that keep staring at me when he thinks nobody is watching.

“I can help with some of the expenses,” Jason offers. Seriously, you have no idea what you’re getting into, buddy, I think. But I only glare at him. “Within reason,” he corrects.

“Put on good music?” He says incredulously. “Yeah, you’re welcome.”

Mellencamp’s music was about trying your best and stumbling through life, not always getting your way, but surviving.” “See?” he says. “Underdog through and through.”

Maybe I should be the one organizing a destination wedding. Only a few guests. No children. Oops, sorry, Charlie. You can’t join us.

“Oh, that's a good idea,” he says, and I finally notice his wicked smile.

She laughs. Like seriously laughs for about a minute like I just said the funniest, most amazing joke in the history of jokes.

“Sure, throw your kid brother under the bus,” he says. “Better you than me.”

“And they say I’m the cynic of this family,” I respond, resigned that this asshole isn’t going to help me.

Sometimes I catch myself holding my breath when she watches me. She gets this look on her face sometimes like she’s waiting for me to spill my guts. I feel as if she can read my mind and even touch my soul with her sweet gaze.

How can I avoid her if she just saunters into my domain looking all hot with those skinny jeans and the loose white blouse?

Eileen smiles at me. She swipes some foam off the top of her latte, lapping it up with a moan. She moans a little louder when she takes her first sip. That’s it, she’s trying to kill me. She not only looks beautiful today, but those noises she’s making are making me think all kinds

I can’t be bedding some chick I’ll be seeing at the next family reunion.

Yep, I can safely say this woman is going to be the death of me if I don’t raise my walls.

“It’s not beer,” Eileen says, and then she does it again. Another long moan as she takes the first bite of her pancakes. Fuck. If she sounds like that while eating, how does she sound when she’s making love? My dick threatens to break a few rules.

I stare at her like a teenager crushing for the first time. Be strong, Spearman.

It starts with fun and games but at the end, one of us will be waiting for something that’ll never happened. Hell if I’ll let that happen to me again.

No, but where do the luxury cars come from? Last Saturday was a Ferrari. Then, on Sunday a Bugatti, and today we’re riding in a fancy Audi which model I’ve never seen before. Now he has this place set within short notice. Who are you?

I love his bashfulness.

“Oh, bar food,” I say excitedly. “Sure, that’s like my comfort food.” “What?” He does a double take. His brows crease. It makes me want to smooth out his face with my thumb.

Jason gets this goofy grin every so often. Like he has no idea what he’s doing, but he’s just so excited about something. It’s adorable. It makes me excited to be around him and whatever’s making him so happy.

I smile, going along with his ruse. He’s doing such a great job of playing dumb.

They all scream “Eileen’s so cool and thoughtful she doesn’t realize how cool she is.”

As she walks away my eyes trail after her. Her curly hair bounces as her hips sway languidly toward the kitchen.

“Your cat has no problem with me and my snobbery.”

“Yes, but he also thinks you, and everything else in this apartment, is a couch,” she says, bursting my bubble. I glare at the cat. I thought we became fast friends.

That we’re friends, or that I haven’t built tall enough walls to avoid the attraction that continues to grow between us. I should just leave.

He squeezes my hand every so often. Somehow, that reminds me to breathe.

Maybe she is doing that Charlie-thing where she projects what she’s really scared of onto something more trivial.

“Marek is with her,” he reminds me while he’s looking toward Charlie’s hospital room. “Only one person can stay. Let’s go home.”

“Let me take care of you for a change,” he offers and extends his hand. “For once, let someone else worry about the weight of the world. Take a leap of faith and begin by believing that you can change the way you live your life.”

Jason nods as he puts on his turn signal.

It’s not

our normal, companionable silence. He wants to say something; I fucking know he does. Every so often he’ll look over in my direction, mouth opening hesitantly before snapping shut... again, and again, and again

Greta reaches over the coffee table to squeeze my hand. Her mouth smiles, but it never reaches her eyes. That’s been happening a lot more lately.