“It’s not my money.”
She shifts in her seat to look at me. “Did you get lost in here when you were a kid? I mean, in all seriousness, does this place come with a tour guide or a map?”
Pulling into one of the six covered garages, I laugh at her silliness. Yeah, we’re mega-rich, but I couldn’t care less about the money. As far as I’m concerned, none of it belongs to me.
“How about I give you a tour of my bedroom?” I lean across the center console to give her a quick kiss. “I have a really big bed you should check out.”
“Your bedroom must be more like an apartment than an actual room,” she quips.
“Nah, there’s only a bathroom, kitchen, and a butler who tucks me into bed.”
Her eyebrows rise and then she shakes her head.
“I’m joking, you know. I have my own bathroom and a few other rooms that are mine…”
She smiles so wide it reaches up to her clear blue eyes. “But you don’t have a butler?”
“No, we have one. His name is Francis. If you’re lucky, he’ll let you call him Frank. He’s kinda old- fashioned.”
She leans back against the leather chair and chuckles. “You’re serious?”
I nod, stripping off my seatbelt. “Yep. My mom grew up with live-in staff. She doesn’t know how to do normal mom stuff.”
“Okay,” she says, dragging out her words. “Now, be a gentleman and come open my door for me. Or do you expect Francis to do that for you?”
Laughing, I shake my head and slide out of my Escalade. “No, that’s all me. You beat me to it.”
After my mom and Chloe give Taylor a tour of the house, they enter the living room where I was instructed to wait with my dad. My mom and sister are thrilled that I’m dating Taylor. They thought I would end up hooking up with puck bunnies and fucking off for the rest of my twenties.
Before Taylor stumbled into my life, that was the plan. I never thought I would find anyone I could confide in like I did with her. Most women would have laughed when I confessed my secret.
Taylor plops down on the couch next to me, and I slide my arm across the back of her neck. She cuddles up next to me, the heat from her body spreading warmth down my thigh. Because it’s Easter, Taylor insisted she dress up for the occasion. Wearing a long yellow sundress that scoops low enough for me to see down her top, and I can’t stop staring at her.
“Drake,” Chloe says, snapping me out of my Taylor induced haze. “Do you mind if we use your love life for inspiration for our next book?”
“Huh?” Confused, I snap my head in her direction. “What? No… What are you talking about?”
Chloe gathers her dark hair in her hands and rakes her fingers through it. “Taylor told us about how you guys met. Mom wants to use your story in one of our books.”
What the fuck? I can’t believe Taylor told her about how we met.
“Enemies to lovers romances are super hot,” she adds.
“We were never enemies,” I counter.
“You weren’t exactly friends either,” Chloe points out.
For my sake, I hope Taylor omitted certain details of our relationship. My family doesn’t need to know every detail of my life. I don’t even tell my teammates about Taylor and me. It’s nobody’s business but ours.
“She just didn’t like me all that much at first,” I admit.
“Can you blame her?” Chloe snorts. “You were such a bonehead.”
“What did you tell them?” I whisper the words against Taylor’s earlobe, and she squirms in my arms.
“Nothing major,” she says in a hushed tone. “Don’t worry.”
“But at least you redeemed yourself,” Chloe says with a smile. “You’re not a total lost cause.”
“My baby knows how to treat a woman,” my mom interjects. “He learned it from me.”
“You mean from me,” my dad says.
She turns to look at my dad, facing off with him. They share an intense moment before she turns to look at me. “Your father is a good cookie. I suppose some of his good qualities rubbed off on you.”
My dad hugs her hard against his chest. She’s tiny compared to him, his large body covering most of hers until he releases her from one of his death grips.
“Your mother likes to use real-life inspiration for her books,” my dad says. “But she’s not prying into either of your lives to do it.”
Mom scrunches her nose at him.
She tried to do the same thing to my dad when they were dating. He eventually caved and let her use some of his life in her books. Years into their relationship, he even let her write a book about his dark past in a biography, which helped a lot of people who were struggling with similar issues.