Chapter Thirty One

Aspen

"Guys!" I yell, when they don't notice Raleigh and I have entered the room. Still unable to get their attention, I bring my fingers to my mouth and whistle *loudly*. That definitely gets their attention, because they immediately stop, and turn to Raleigh and me with slightly embarrassed and very guilty looks on their faces.
"Shit!" Lincoln says, throwing his pillow onto the floor and scrambling around the couch to make his way to Raleigh. With a silly smile on his face, the same one that I saw there the night before, he stops in front of her, muttering an awkward, "Hey."
"Hi," Raleigh breathes the single word out, then giggles, and it is this tinkling sound that you can help but find adorable, she motions to the chaotic mess that is now the game room, "looks like you guys were having fun."
"Yeah," Lincoln says, scratching at the back of his head, which I have to assume is a nervous habit that I'd never noticed before, "Sorry about that."
"We were trying to distract him." Jackson says, looking from me to Raleigh and then back to me, shrugs his shoulders, and then continues, a smirk gracing his handsome face, "it may have gotten a tiny bit out of control. But, only just a bit."
"Only," I snort, walking further into the room, towards my boyfriend and wrapping my arms around his waist.
"I missed you," he mutters, leaning down to peck me on the lips.
"Oh, knock it off you two." Jackson says, throwing a pillow at our heads, and rolls his eyes, clearly not in the mood for our PDA, "You were away from each other for less than five minutes."
"And in that short amount of time," Boston says, looking down at me with a love-struck look on his face, "I missed her."
A knock sounds at the door and Boston and I quickly jump away from one another. "Hey guys," mom says poking her head in, glancing around at all of us "pizza just arrived, you ready for our first family night?"
Raleigh looks from me and Boston, and the distance that is now between us, to mom, and then at each of the boys, before turning her very clearly confused face back to my mom. With a shake of her head, as if to brush off the awkwardness, she smiles brightly, wraps her arm around Lincoln's waist, and responds to my mom, breaking the awkward moment, "Did you say pizza?"
That causes everyone to laugh and gets us all moving, following my mom as we make our way from the game room and up the stairs. The smell of pizza permeates the air and makes my stomach growl.
"Someone is hungry," Boston remarks, a naughty look in his eyes.
"*Absolutely starving*," I say, and then pop up on my toes, sneaking a quick kiss on Boston's cheek before anyone has a chance to notice.
"So, kids," Collin says, as we all filter into the dining room. Upon noticing we have someone new amongst the lot of us, he finishes wiping his hands off and then sticks his right hand out towards Raleigh, "Oh, um...Hi. I'm Collin, the boy’s dad, and please don't hold that against me," he says, chuckling.
"Nice to meet you, Sir," she says, wasting no time shaking his hand in return, "and, dang it! Where's the fun in that? I was totally going to blame you for Lincoln being such a—"
"How about we have a seat and enjoy this *amazing* pizza, huh? I'm absolutely famished," Lincoln says, interrupting Raleigh, and pulling out her chair.
"I was going to say nice guy, but maybe I should rethink that assessment." She says snarkily, winking at him while wearing a cheeky smile.
"It's lovely to have you, Raleigh," Mom says, as she begins passing out paper plates. smiling kindly at Raleigh, she continues, and I pray that she doesn't introduce herself as my mom, "I'm Ashlynn."
"It's nice to meet you, Ashlynn." Raleigh says around a bite of pizza and covering her mouth, "So, what game are we playing?"
That question prompts an argument about which game we should play first, which seems to go on for the better part of half an hour, as Boston and Lincoln argue over whether *Cards Against Humanity* or *SmartAss* is a better game.
"Boys, boys!" I say interrupting, taking the lead, and pulling my personal childhood favorite out of the stack, "I'm solving this argument right now, we're playing *Twister*. That is unless you guys are too chicken. Anyone too scared that they aren't as *limber* as they once were?" I taunt, taking the box and running to the living room, Jackson chasing after me, telling me that he's going to show me who's more limber.
If I knew that he totally wasn't into me, I would think that he was flirting, and I'm both surprised and relieved that it wasn't Boston who'd said it because there is no way that he would have been able to say it without giving something away and causing our parents to start asking questions that we aren't ready to answer just yet.
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"Left hand, yellow!" Mom says, raising her left hand that is currently holding a near-empty wine glass and giggling.
"I hate you," Lincoln growls, glaring at me from between his legs as he reaches his left hand towards one of the yellow circles, twisting himself into even more of a pretzel.
"You do not," I say, groaning when mom calls out, "right foot, blue."
"Oh, fuck!" Boston groans, stretching his leg through both mine and Lincoln's legs to reach an open blue circle.
"Boston!" His dad snaps, getting on to him, "Language!"
"*Crap*," he says, putting emphasis on the word, "but it feels like my ball sack is about to rip apart, and I'm sure my future *wife* would like to have kids." As he says this, he glances over at me, and then quickly back to the mat when Mom calls out the next play.
"Left foot, red." As she says this, she kicks up her left foot, the action causes her to fall back and her wine glass tips, spilling her wine all over the front of her, "Oh, shoot!" she giggles, "now I'm all sticky."
Her words cause Boston to snort, which draws my attention and I have no doubt that I know what he's thinking. *I'd like to get you all sticky* is basically written all over his face, his eyes smoldering with desire.
"I'm out!" Boston calls out as his twisted legs cause him to lose his balance and fall forward. As he goes down, he grabs between his legs to hide his likely very obvious hard-on.
Lincoln and I, being the only two left while Dallas, Jackson, Raleigh, Collin, Mom, and now Boston sit around the living room, each perched in different areas of the room, watching and taking bets on who will be the first to either give or fall.
"You're going down!" Lincoln declares as he slips his left foot across the mat, basically doing the splits. Unfortunately for me, my short legs have me actually doing the splits, hovering just barely above the plastic covering the carpet, but Lincoln's long legs make the stretch appear much easier, and unfortunately for him, he doesn't have the flexibility that I have.
"Oh, we're going to see who's going doing. But, it won’t me be." I tell him, feeling pretty confident in my statement.
"Right hand, green!" Mom squeals, getting way too into the game, as the wine has clearly gone to her head.
"Are you ready to give in yet, Lincoln?" I taunt, snickering as I say, "Are *your* balls hurting from your compromising position?"
"You wish!" He says an edge of what sounds like pain eking into his voice.
"I wouldn't want you to hurt yourself." I tell him condescendingly, although I really don't want him to, "go ahead and give in. I won't make fun of you, or judge you," I tell him, and then mutter under my breath, "too much."
"I heard that," he tells me. The boy has dang bat ears.
"Left hand, red," Collin calls, taking the spinner away from my cackling mom. The sight of her alone is almost enough to make me fall over with laughter. *Almost.* "Right foot, green," Collin says, after the little spinner stops moving, causing a groan to leave both Lincoln and my throats, as well as from who I'm pretty sure was Boston.
Now I'm positioned like I’m doing a crab walk, my back facing the mat and Lincoln is opposite of me. Unfortunately, this position puts his face right in my crotch. He gives me an almost embarrassed grin and then glances over at Boston, who does not look happy at all to have my pussy in his brother’s face, covered or not.
*Please call something that will get us out of this position,* I plead as Collin calls out the next play.
"Left hand, yellow," he says.
"Shit." Lincoln growls, at the same time that I mutter, *damnit* under my breath, now also glancing over at a brooding Boston, pleading with him to not be mad, it's just a game after all.
Suddenly, Lincoln falls, "I'm out!" he announces and releases a breath that he'd obviously been holding.
*Does my vagina smell or something?* I think, looking at him questioningly, *I just might have to follow up on that one later.*