Page 77 of The Intimacy of Control

I was envious of the mother they had, even though I hadn’t met her yet. The way River had fiercely come to defend his brother proved how deeply he loved Forrest and that he wasn’t afraid to stand up for his family. I admired it.

Turning in my seat, I faced Forrest but couldn’t bring myself to make eye contact with him. “I’ve met River. He came to the bar after I broke things off with you.”

Forrest immediately scrunched his nose and furrowed his eyebrows. “Oh no. Did he yell at you?”

I winced. “Yeah, he did. He called me a coward and yelled at me and even threatened me, but that wasn’t what got me to pull my head out of my ass. He told me you’d been crying.”

“Well, that’s fucking embarrassing.”

“No. No, he said he’d never seen you cry before, and that got me. That made me think about everything. He told me to go back to you, and I did because the idea of you crying made my chest hurt so fucking bad. I realized I didn’t want to think about the future because it didn’t have you in it, and that didn’t seem like a good future to me.” I shook my head. “I ran off, went to Crew and Price’s house of all things, talked to them, and got my head on straight. River made me realize how fucking stupid I was being. But I’m still a little scared that he might punch me. And that he hates me.”

When I finally looked up, Forrest was smiling. Fucking smiling. It was as endearing as it was concerning. “That’s really fucking sweet of you.”

I rolled my eyes, scoffing. “This is not a sweet thing. I’m being serious.”

“I know that. But I can’t help that everything you told me was super sweet and cute and means that you really do love me.” He reached across the console, taking my hand in his. “I love you, Jackson. They’re going to love you, too. River can’t punch to save his fucking life, so I’m confident that you’re safe. He won’t hate you, either. He was playing big, mean little brother, and when we walk in, you’re going to see just how mean he is to me, too. We’re together now, and that’s all that matters.”

“Do you really think it’ll all be okay?”

“I do.”

I squeezed his hand back, slowly starting to accept it. Unfortunately for both of us, my mind had other plans and brought up one core issue I’d almost forgotten about. Almost. Squeezing my eyes closed, I groaned. “Oh, my god. You’re about to bring your forty-year-old boyfriend in to meet your mom. Holy fuck.”

Forrest didn’t say anything for a second, but when he did, he sounded absolutely exasperated. “Not this again. I thought we hashed the whole age thing out already.”

“How could we have? Hashing it out would mean resolving it, and there’s no resolving this.”

“I thought you liked being called my boyfriend.”

He got me there. “I do! I do like being called your boyfriend.”

“Then what’s the issue, baby?” He took my hand, pressing a kiss to the back of it. “They both already know how old you are. We had a whole moment about it.”

A whole moment? What does that even mean? “That doesn’t sound good.”

“Baby. Stop. River made fun of me for a minute, but Mamá simply asked if I was happy with you. That was enough for her.”

I frowned.

“Don’t pout at me.” It wasn’t a pout, but whatever. “The best thing to do is go in. You’ll see that there was nothing to worry about. You can’t see it if we never go in, though. Plus, we’ve been sitting here for a while. River might come running out.”

He had a point, and I hated it. “Okay, fine. Fine. Let’s go.”

With a gorgeous grin, he kissed my hand one more time. “Good boy.”

Did he really have to say that and make me blush and feel warm and fuzzy all over? I would never be able to say no to him because of that. Never.

I let him go in front of me, watching as he seemed to bounce on his heels the entire way to the front door. I was expecting him to knock for some reason, so it shocked me a little when he simply opened the door and walked right in. It shocked me enough that I didn’t move to walk in with him at first. He had to turn around and wave me inside.

I took a deep breath, preparing myself for pure hatred to be thrown my way, then finally stepped over the threshold. Forrest closed the door behind us and grabbed my hand, leading me down the short hallway. The first thing I noticed was how fucking good it smelled inside. Whatever his mom was cooking, I knew it was going to taste amazing.

To the left was an opening to the living room where his mom and River were sitting. Forrest let go of my hand, rounding the corner to them. “Mami, it smells so good.” He leaned down, giving her a hug.

She patted his back gently. “Yes, lunch should be ready in a minute.”

“What up, fartwad.” River hit his arm. Fartwad… That was a new one.

Forrest stepped back, furrowing his eyebrows. “Fartwad is your name, asswipe.”