The Bet by Max Monroe
Sophie
I clap and cheer along with the rest of Jude’s family while his niece Lexi stands in the middle of the stage and waves toward us. With blond hair and big blue eyes, she is downright delightful.
And when I glance around the crowd that’s on their feet, I realize just how many people have come out to support this little lady. It’s heartwarming, to say the least. Part of my crazy “I do” dreams always involved having this kind of crowd at my back. A loud, boisterous, unencumbered family of wildly loving people—the kind of people who drop their other plans to come watch your kid in a math competition at school.
The woman standing at the podium smiles down at the large crowd that is here to cheer on Lexi, her eyes crinkling with amusement, and gestures for everyone to take their seats so she can announce the next student.
Both Jude and I sit back down, and he reaches out to wrap his arm around my shoulders, his fingers gently running along the bare skin of my arm.
Several people glance in our direction, his sister, a lady who I’m pretty sure is his mom, and three incredibly attractive men who share enough of the same traits as Jude to lead me to believe they’re his brothers—Ty, Flynn, and Remy.
Frankly, they appear just as curious, just as confused, about me showing up with Jude as I feel about Jude bringing me. I mean, he brought me to his niece’s school function knowing full well that all of his family would be here.
This isn’t Jude’s style. At all.
He’s Mr. Sexy Good Time. The man who sends me text messages with secret meetups that always lead to insanely hot sex. He’s the man who gets me to let loose and be spontaneous and not fixate on things like long-term commitment and marriage and having babies someday.
He’s not a meet-the-family kind of guy. Or at least, he wasn’t that kind of guy.
Was Julie right? Are we starting to become something more than just wild hookups and hot sex?
A war of emotions spurs within me. One part of me is excited and hopeful. But another part of me feels panicky over having any kind of hope. The point of spending time with Jude Winslow wasn’t to catch feelings. It was to have fun without fixating on the future or where the future would take me.
And I can’t decide if it’s a good or bad thing that hopefulness is beginning to grow inside my heart.
“Just so you know, my niece is a fucking genius,” Jude whispers into my ear, and I blink out of my thoughts to meet his handsome face. “She’s going to crush every kid on that stage.”
I can’t not grin at his enthusiasm or his pride. And when I watch the way he looks up at the stage, his focus purely on Lexi, it does nothing to suppress the rose of hope that’s started to bloom inside me. If anything, it’s only making it flourish more.
A lot more.
Two servers from Marco’s steakhouse—the restaurant Jude’s mom was adamant about having Lexi’s after-competition celebration at—step up to our table and start handing everyone a dinner menu, along with their drink order.
Once they give us the spiel on the specials and leave the table to give us some time to decide, Jude stands up from his chair and lifts his fresh drink in the air. “I’d like to propose a toast to our little Lexi for kicking some serious as…butt at her Mathletes competition.”
A peal of giggles leaves Lexi’s lips as she grins up at her uncle. “You were going to say a bad word, weren’t you, Uncle Jude?”
“I was,” Jude answers and eyes her knowingly. “But how about we ignore that and focus on the fact that you’re awesome and we’re all so proud of you?”
“I second that!” Wendy, Jude’s mom, chimes in and lifts her glass in the air.
Everyone else at the table—all three of Jude’s brothers, his sister Winnie and her husband Wes, and a woman whose name I still don’t know who has jet-black hair and appears to be with Ty—along with me, join in on the toast, holding our glasses in the air and congratulating Lexi on winning her competition.
The girl did great; there’s no doubt about that. She squashed her competitors like a shoe smashing a couple of tiny ants on the sidewalk. Hell, ninety percent of the questions she answered, I didn’t even understand.
When Jude said she’s a fucking genius, he wasn’t wrong. His niece’s brain is an incredible thing. It’s almost scary that she’s this smart and only in elementary school. Watch out, world once she’s a full-blown adult.
“So, Sophie, tell me a little about yourself,” Jude’s sister prompts and props her elbows on the table, fully invested in whatever I have to say. “With the way you were cheering for my daughter, I’m certain you’re a blast. Plus, you can somehow tolerate Jude, which is a miracle in and of itself.”
Jude chokes on a laugh beside me. “You say that like I’m some kind of lunatic, sis.”
“Because you are,” Winnie retorts with pursed lips. But then, her attention is back on my face, ready for me to spill the tea about myself.
“Well…I’m twenty-eight. I run an event planning business. I have two sisters, one of whom is my identical twin, Belle. And, yeah, I don’t know. That’s about it, I guess.” I shrug and take a sip of my iced tea. “I’m kind of devastatingly boring when I think about it.”
“Now, that’s not true,” Jude chimes in, and when I look over at him, his eyes spark with the kind of mischievousness that I’ve come to know as trouble. “You love things like playing Texas Hold’em and the Girl Scouts, and you always tell the best damn prison stories.”
My eyes might as well be flying saucers when those words leave his lips, but Jude’s mouth just keeps chugging along, his lips far too amused with what he’s currently telling his sister about me.
“You’re fun to grab a drink with at The Champagne Bar. Have a great sense of fashion. So much so that a lot of people would probably want to steal your clothes,” he says and wraps his arm around the back of my chair, squeezing my shoulders playfully. “Honestly, sis, she’s outright lying. Soph is the opposite of boring.”
I take a long blink and move my gaze back to Winnie. The furrow in her brow says it all and spurs the need for me to explain.
“I hope you realize that half of the things he just said are total crap.”
“Oh, I know.” Her laugh makes her neck elongate in the most elegant way. “Trust me, I have over three decades’ worth of experience with this jackwagon. But I’m thrilled that he now has you to call him out on his bullshit. It’s a relief, to be honest.”
Jude just grins, and when Winnie’s focus gets pulled to the other end of the table, I reach out and discreetly pinch my fingers into the meat of his muscular thigh.
Ouch, he mouths, and his fingers find their way into the sensitive spot just below my armpit that he knows makes me giggle.
Which I do, and then, I shove him away from me before we cause a scene. Or I piss my pants. Or both.
“Stop being crazy,” I whisper toward him. “Or else you’re going to make me look crazy in front of your family.”
His arm is back around my shoulders again, and he leans over to whisper into my ear, “Oh, baby, you have nothing to worry about because everyone at this table is fucking nuts. Especially,” he adds and nods purposefully toward his three brothers, who sit a few seats down. “Those bastards right there.”
“You got something to say, bro?” Ty retorts with narrowed but teasing eyes. “Because if you’ve got beef, I have no problems settling it promptly.”
“Hey now, boys,” Jude’s mom announces on a sigh. “If you make a scene at my favorite steakhouse in this city, I won’t hesitate to make you pay.”
“Make us pay?” Ty questions through a jokester’s smile. “What’s that mean, Ma?”
“It means you don’t want to know.”
“Uh oh, Wendy is getting pisssssed, Ty,” Jude comments on a chuckle. “You better shut your trap.”
“When I said boys, I meant both of you,” Wendy snaps back, and when she meets my eyes, an exasperated but happy smile lifts her mouth. “Sophie, I’m sorry my sons are idiots. We’ll all understand if you decide to leave Jude before they even bring the food.”
Ty bursts into laughter.
Remy and Flynn just grin from over their menus.
And Jude coughs out a laugh. “Damn, Ma. That was harsh.”
But she just blows him a kiss in response. “Love you, honey.”
It’s all pretty damn hilarious, and the more time I spend with Jude’s family, the more I find myself happy to be with them.
They’re fun, that’s for sure. And they never seem to stop cutting up on one another. Never stop teasing and joking and just…laughing. When the Winslow family is together, laughter is never in short supply.
In a way, it kind of reminds me of my own family and how close-knit we are. My parents might be in Miami and my sister Katelynn might not always be around because of her busy life, but when we’re together, we’re thicker than thieves.
And I’m surprised with how well I get along with all of them. His sister Winnie and his brother-in-law Wes are so laid-back and easy to talk to.
His mom and Ty are a hoot. Remy is chill, but welcoming.
And Flynn is nice, even though I don’t miss the way his eyes observe me closely. His perceptiveness is a little disconcerting, to be honest. It’s like he knows more than what’s on the surface.
Like how you’ve caught feelings?
I wish I could deny it, but I can’t. I have caught feelings. And your eyes are already starting to get filled with ideas of weddings and marriage and babies.