Lock You Down (Rivers Brothers 2)

"From the rich? To distribute it?" Marley asked, clearly idealistic.

"He's not fucking Robin Hood, Marley," Calvin shot at her.

"You're an asshole," she snapped back.

"Now children..." Krissy said, but there wasn't even a hint of authority in her voice. If anything, she seemed to enjoy their banter.

"How about you two go make everyone some coffee before your parents get here?" Reagan tried, a little more stern, making the two of them hop to, whisper fighting the whole way across the room.

"I give it... six more months," Krissy said when they were out of earshot.

"Six months for what?" I asked.

"Until they realize all that animosity is actually misplaced attraction."

"Not every situation is a rom-com come to life, Krissy," Reagan said, shaking her head, but she was smiling softly when she saw Marley hip-check Calvin so hard that the spoonful of sugar fell out of his hand, clattering onto the door table.

"Oh, let me have my fun. Besides, what is wrong with rom-coms? Everyone loves a stern and ambitious Katherine Heigl sort of character finding a charming and laid-back Mr. McDreamy sort of character who--"

"Twenty-five states have no laws in place determining how old a child must be to marry, resulting in over thirteen thousand child marriages in the US last year," a voice called out from behind the cubby.

"What... the fuck was that?" I asked, shooting Reagan a lowered-brow look.

"That," Marley volunteered, handing me a coffee that looked more milk than actual coffee, but it was the thought that counted, I guess, "was Harvey."

"Harvey?" I repeated.

"Whenever one of us spouts off anything he thinks of as pop-culture and shallow, he yells some depressing fact about the state of the world back at us," Marley explained.

"It's not a bad idea," I said, shrugging.

"He's not going to work here, is he?" Marley asked about me, clearly not one for worrying about offending people.

"I, ah, no. I mean," Reagan stammered, at a loss. Since she had told her staff I was in advertising.

"We haven't exactly worked out the kinks yet," I jumped in to save her, my words of choice getting a saucy sly smile from Krissy. "That's... what we are doing tonight," I added, just dig, dig, digging my hole deeper. As if shit wasn't complicated enough already.

"It is important to iron out those... kinks," Krissy agreed, holding back a smile.

"What? What's so funny?" Marley asked, looking between the mismatch of amused and embarrassed adults around her.

"Kinks," Calvin schooled her in that condescending-ass voice of his. When he just got a blank look from the girl, he rolled his eyes and plugged on. "Kinks. Like fucking. Christ. That innocent shit is annoying."

"Or just honest," Marley said, squaring her shoulders, lifting her chin, refusing to be embarrassed about inexperience. It was a look the Mallick women would clap over if they saw it. It was a look they wanted their daughters to have. "Anyway," she said, crossing her arms over her chest, looking me square in the eye, "I hope you decide not to work here. As you can see, we are full-up on curmudgeons."

With that, she plowed past us, making a bee-line for the stairs that led downward.

"She's... temperamental," Krissy told me.

"Like a fucking bomb," Calvin agreed, moving past me to follow down the steps as well. Whether it was to fight some more with the girl or make amends, or to simply meet his parents coming to pick him up was anyone's guess.

"How old are they?" I asked, turning back to Krissy and Reagan.

"Um... Marley is sixteen. Calvin is almost eighteen, though," Reagan said. "That was why I picked him out of the group the police and school had, even though he and Marley hate each other, and she was already on the team. I wanted to make sure we could try to give him a little direction before he became legal. He's, ah, a bit headstrong."

"A bit?" I asked. "I think my mom would have cut out my tongue if I cursed like that around adults at that age. Or any age," I admitted.

"Calvin's dad is, well, let's just say that when kids turn out that angry, there is usually a reason," Reagan said carefully. "He's actually mellowed out a lot since he's started here. And he's smart. The school told us he was close to flunking all his classes, but he's a smart kid. He could be acing everything if he applied himself. I think I might actually hire him on once he's done with the mandatory stuff. My parents have always offered help with student loans for employees if they give back two years after they graduate. We can give him the head start his father doesn't seem... inclined to."

"That's a big heart you got there," I said because it seemed true.

"And let me guess, you think that's a flaw," she said, glancing away.