You're It: A Forbidden, Dad's Best Friend, Laser Tag Romance by Cleo White

Author:Cleo White [White, Cleo]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-04-18T00:00:00+00:00

“Darling, your aura is so faded.” Raven’s mother Penny sighs, smoothing my hair out of my face, her brow creased in worry. “Have you been practicing your self-care? Going to yoga?”

She’s an acupuncturist, and the most maternal person I’ve ever met. Her wife, Julia, is a sociology professor at the local liberal arts college, and they still live in the same cozy bungalow where Raven and her brother grew up. There are paintings from local artists covering every inch of the walls, and the rooms smell like incense and the lavender Penny grows in her garden.

Unlike my parents, who divorced before I could speak in complete sentences, Penny and Julia Cho-Hopkins seem to genuinely like each other, and so do their adult kids. The entire family goes on vacations together and has dinner every Sunday night. When someone graduates or gets a promotion, they throw a party to celebrate. When Raven’s brother, Kai, broke both wrists snowboarding, they all rushed to the hospital. They’re here now, giving up their entire day to clean a laser tag arena for their daughter’s childhood best friend.

I love them.

“Trying to,” I assure her, smiling halfheartedly.

Penny is unconvinced. “You need to nurture yourself, Savvy. Physically, emotionally, sexually⁠—”

Behind us, there’s a loud choking noise, and I turn to see Dar with a bottle of water held loosely in his hand, a bright-red face, and a dark stain spreading down the front of his shirt.

I raise my eyebrows at him, trying not to laugh at his deer-in-headlights look.

“Sorry.” He shakes his head. Ignoring all the eyes on him, he marches toward the door while muttering about getting a fresh shirt from his car.

“What,” demands Julia the moment he’s gone, “is going on there?”

It’s my turn to choke, and, judging by the heat that’s rushing to my face, I’m pretty sure my face is just as red as his was. “What do you mean?” I squeak.

“Leave her alone, mom,” says Raven firmly, even as she glowers at me behind her mother’s back.

“There’s a vibe,” Jonah adds unhelpfully. Raven elbows him in the ribs.

Are we that obvious? They couldn’t have seen him touching me.

“So, I think we have everything we need!” I chirp, determinately cheerful as I pull away from Penny to examine the pile of cleaning stuff we set up on a folding table. “This is really amazing of you guys to help with all this. Thank you again. We’ll order pizza in a few hours for lunch.”

“Of course, sweetheart.” Julia kisses my cheek as she passes, heading for the arena with a trash bag and rubber gloves in hand. Her wife follows, and suddenly, I’m alone with my best friend and her boyfriend.

The last few weeks have been hectic. We’ve texted a bit, but I haven’t told her anything about what’s been happening with Dar. How could I when even I don’t understand it?

Those excuses aren’t likely to hold up with Raven, though.

“Okay, what the hell?” she demands, craning her neck to make sure Dar isn’t returning. “You guys looked ready to make out in the car when you pulled up.

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