Tate
Saturday morning, I awoke to an empty bed and sat up. "Flash?"
There was no response, so I grabbed my phone and saw that he’d sent a text.
Flash: Downstairs. Co down when you wake up.
I smiled, taking a few extra minutes to properly wash off the makeup I had on the night before. With my face freshly moisturized, I pulled my hair into a cute braid, then dressed in yoga pants and a T-shirt, and headed downstairs.
I heard chatter and laughing in the kitchen, so I made my way toward the sound, and found Hatch and Maisie standing with Flash at the island. I started toward him but before I could take a step, the woman standing next to Maisie turned, and I froze.
"Hey, baby," Flash said.
I an, I think that’s what he said.
I couldn’t actually process much of what he was saying, you know, on account of the fact I was staring into the face of mother fucking lody Morgan.
She...her...my total complete and utter idol, was less than three feet from .
Smiling at .
"Tate?" Flash called.
It was like an echo in my head. And then there were bees. Oh my god, they were buzzing. So much buzzing.
But all I could do was stare at lody.
Lordy, she was pretty. Her perfectly styled blonde hair was piled on top of her head in a ssy bun, only nothing about it was ssy. She wore skintight jeans and knee-high boots that were obviously made for her, and she had on a black denim jacket over a low-cut T-shirt. She was perfectly perfect in every way. A walking fashion icon who looked like she’d just stepped out of the pages of a magazine.
"I think you broke her," Flash said with a chuckle.
It wasn’t until I felt his hand on my waist that the bees in my head stopped their buzzing and I was brought back to reality, blinking up at Flash.
"There you are," he said, smiling gently. "You okay?"
"It’s weird. I thought I saw lody Morgan in front of ," I breathed out, letting out a nervous giggle.
Flash grinned. "Take a deep breath and smile, Tate."
"Nope, I’m good pretending I’m not in yoga pants, no makeup, and my hair all funky as I stand three feet from lody fucking Morgan." I whispered, the lody fucking Morgan part, lest she know I was talking about her, of course. God forbid the woman see just how incredibly awkward her number one fan was. I gripped Flash’s cut before jabbing my finger into his chest. "Later, when we’re alone, you and I are going to have a conversation, complete with slides that will contain graphs and pie charts, about how to give your woman so advance notice when royalty cos to visit. Capisce?"
"Graphs and pie charts?"
"Yes. And you can bet your ass there will be a test," I warned. "Got it?"
Flash grinned slowly. "Got it."
I squeezed my eyes shut and took a deep breath before pasting on what I hoped was a confident and sincere smile and turned to face lody. "Hi, I’m Tate."
"Hi, I’m lody."
"Yes, of course you are. You’re lody Morgan. And of course you know that, because you’re lody Morgan and I can’t stop saying lody Morgan and you’re my queen." And then I curtsied. "Why can’t I stop saying lody Morgan?" I waved my hand behind and begged, "Flash, help stop saying words."
Flash chuckled. "lody, my woman’s a big fan—"
I drove my heel into his boot, only managing to bruise my heel.
"I an, she’s your biggest fan," he corrected.
lody grinned. "It’s always wonderful to et one of my loyal subjects."
"Oh my god," I squeaked out, still mortified by my behavior.
"In all seriousness, Tate, Train’ll tell you I’m far from royalty. I spend more ti on the back of his bike than the royal coach these days. Just think of as one of your club sisters."
"Sisters." I let out an inelegant snort. "Right."
"No, seriously." lody pulled up her pant leg. "I just got a burn on my calf because I hadn’t quite figured out how to get off the bike right."
Just then, Train walked in shaking his head. "Told you to mind those pipes, baby."
Hatch glared at Train. "You let your woman get burned?"
"No, Train was right. It was my fault," lody rushed to explain. "I didn’t wait for him to help . I was excited and hopped off on the wrong side."
Hatch sighed. "Well, it’s a lesson you only have to learn once, but Train still shoulda taken more care."
"Yeah, I should have," Train agreed, sliding his hand around lody’s waist, and kissing her temple.
"Or, I could have listened to my man who tried to warn ." She grimaced up at him, but he winked at her which seed to defuse the tension in the room.
While all of that had been going on, I’d buried myself in Flash’s chest, attempting to hide behind his cut in an effort to disappear.
He leaned down and whispered, "Baby, you’re fine. Just be yourself."
I pinched his side in response.
"Ow," he hissed. "What the hell was that for?"
"Being myself is not the way to go here, bub," I hiss-pered. "Obviously."
Flash wrapped both his arms around and squeezed gently. "Jesus, you’re funny when you’re discombobulated. You want breakfast?"
"In a minute." I wrapped my arms around his waist and shook my head. "I’m not done hiding."
"Baby, she’s one of us now," Flash whispered. "You’ve got nothing to hide from."
I glared up at him and said for his ears only, "She is a fucking queen, Mr. Wallace. You will show so respect."
Flash responded by dropping his head back and laughing. "I’m gonna make you a cup of coffee before you implode."
I sighed. "I’ll allow it."
He kissed gently, then released and made his way to the coffee pot.
"Tate!"
I turned to find Poppy rushing into the kitchen and it gave the perfect excuse to pull myself together and focus on sothing other than my awkwardness. I grabbed her hand and led her back out of the room, pulling her down the hall.
"What’s wrong?" she asked.
"I just made a total fool of myself," I whispered. "I need a second to reset."
She smiled. "I bet you’re being way too hard on yourself."
"Um, no, pretty sure I’m not," I retorted, adding in a whisper, "I curtsied to her, Poppy."
"What the fuck now?"
Dropping my face into my hands I shook my head as Poppy chuckled and wrapped her arms around . "Co on, honey, you’re fine. lody probably took it all in stride."
"Baby," Flash breathed out, pulling away from his sister and cupping my face. "What are you doing out here? Co back into the kitchen."
"Seriously, honey," Poppy said. "Pull up those big girl panties and join the fun. You’re the president’s daughter-in-law." She leaned in and whispered, "She should be curtsying to you."
I let out a snort-laugh, falling against Flash as he kissed my temple. "Yeah, you’re probably right. I’m sure I’m overreactin—"
lody stepped into the hallway just as I gathered my courage. "Oh, sorry, I was just looking for the bathroom."
I waved my hands in the air like a deranged magician’s assistant. "Allow to escort you to the facilities."
lody laughed. "Oh my god, you’re so funny."
Yeah, that’s it, I’m funny. Not criminally insane or restraining order worthy.
"Two doors down on the left," Poppy said, putting out of my misery. The second lody was out of sight, Poppy settled her hands on my shoulders. "I take it back. What the hell is wrong with you?"
"Right?" I cried. "Oh my god! I can’t function!"
"Enough," Flash growled, turning on his sister. "You need to back the fuck up, sissy. Tate is fine. Stop telling her she’s not."
"She didn’t an it that way," I argued.
"I really didn’t," Poppy confird.
"She was teasing."
"I really was," Poppy said.
"Well, you can quit," Flash snapped, sliding his hand around my waist.
"Sorry, Tate," Poppy rushed to say.
"There’s nothing to apologize for," I said in exasperation. "Honey, seriously, your sister was just busting my chops. It’s all good."
Flash’s glare turned into more of a frown as he gave a squeeze and sighed. "I made you coffee."
Poppy mouthed, "Sorry," as we made our way back into the kitchen, and I responded with a smile.
By the ti lody walked back into the kitchen, I had busied myself enough with drinking coffee, eating breakfast, then helping with clean up, I’d managed to mostly block out the fact that lody was my supre ruler and shoved the bees back in their hive.
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