The only answer I had as to why that was, was that she was Katy. The chick who at a first glance I’d thought was cute, but I’d been too focused on life and what was going on with my friends. First there was Tabby’s thing, then there was Jose’s thing, then there was Rose’s thing, and after that I was helping Raoul’s brother Garrett get settled in Piersville. Add in my family and brothers, hanging out with the guys, narrating, and it didn’t seem like a lot but it was.
Moving in next door had been a move I definitely wasn’t regretting now as my tongue brushed along the side of hers and she mewled into my mouth.
Yeah, I was fucking happy, and I really wanted to see where this was going.
I was careful not to push her too fast, so we stuck to making out, but we didn’t separate once, not even when I picked her up and put her in my lap to do it.
When her phone started making a noise, that’s when we pulled away from each other, and I watched as she slowly opened her eyes and looked up at me hazily.
“Your phone’s going, baby,” I whispered, seeing it taking time for the fog to clear and for her to get her bearings back, and loving every second.
She jerked and looked down at it, only now noticing that the alarm was going off on it. “Holy cramoly, how long did we make out for? The last time I looked I had forty-nine minutes left.”
Not wanting to be a smart ass but figuring it was prudent, I pointed out the truth. “Forty-nine minutes then.”
She looked back up at me, rolled her eyes, and then just tipped herself off my legs and saunter-limped back through to Elodie’s room.
Turns out the Tylenol helped, and her fever was dropping which was a relief. That said, it was an unspoken agreement between us that we would continue checking her temperature every hour, which is what we did until it was time for Katy to get ready to go to my parents' house.
I loved getting to play with Elodie and watch her inquisitive mind guide her through her toys after she woke up. And I have to say, I seriously fucking loved getting to make out with Katy before she woke up from her nap. Both Crew girls had something about them that sucker punched me in different ways, and they didn’t even have to do anything big for it to happen.
Maybe peace was overrated? Maybe Crew mayhem was where it was at, because I was starting to look forward to getting it whenever I could.TenKatyWaking up the next morning, I rolled onto my back and stared up at the ceiling, remembering everything that had happened yesterday. The chat, Elodie not feeling well, the kissing, more of the kissing, the drive to Jarrod’s with his hand holding mine resting on his thigh, the feeling of the muscles in his thigh shifting as he worked the pedal, the meal at his parents…
Jesus, the meal at his parents.
We’d arrived after my parents did, so they were already introduced, happy and relaxed when we got there. That lasted all of five minutes until Major and Ammon arrived with Maude, who was surprisingly well behaved until after beer number two when she told Gloria she would kill to do her hair.
So, while Jarrod’s dad Dolf manned the BBQ and turned the jerk chicken, Maude worked on her hair even though Mom and I had tried to talk her out of it. Just as Dolf was plating the chicken on a platter, they walked back into the room and everyone just stopped and stared. I wasn’t kidding when I said Maude liked big hair, and holy shit did Gloria have big hair after she was done with it. It looked like she’d teased, ratted, lifted, sprayed and fluffed it out until she had an actual beehive on her head.
Seeing it, Dolf almost dropped the platter. Bond – who had been chomping on a stolen piece of something called ‘festival’ – choked and Dad had to pat him on the back. Canon dropped his bottle of beer on the patio. Reid let out a yelped “holy shit”. And Jarrod muttered, “Fucking hell.”
Gloria, though, she loved it and asked Maude to come back to do it again. Major and Ammon were both standing facing the fence in the Klines backyard, their shoulders shaking as they laughed quietly, and Mom was glaring at Dad like it was his fault because it was his mother.
Me? I buried my face in Elodie’s neck and started praying for some sort of time portal like the chick in The Witcher could conjure up. Now would be a great time for me to start tossing coins for a Witcher. In fact, I had a bunch of ones, five fives, and three tens in my wallet, too, I would throw those at him along with the coins, pass him my credit cards, and beg him to save me.