“I like that,” Dale mused. “Let me tell you about the time Parker scarred me as a kid when I caught him playing with his sword...”SeventeenAriana“Here,” Beau said, thrusting a tampon at me. “I knew I had one in there.”
How she could find anything in her purse was an enigma, but I was thanking all that was holy she’d found one for me. Normally I was prepared, but distractions undoubtedly led to mistakes like this, and you could say I’d been distracted recently. It would be an understatement, but you could say it.
Before I could thank her, though, the door to the office opened behind me. I’ll never be able to understand why I did it, but as soon as I heard my brother’s voice, I threw the tampon back at her. Almost like it played out in slow motion, she reached up to catch it, her expression horrified, and bobbled it a couple of times.
On the last tap of her hand, the long package spun and landed under her tank in the space made by her cleavage, leaving half of it poking out.
“Uh, is this a bad time?” Tate asked as I spun around to smile at the doorway. Behind him stood Levi, Gramps, and Parker, all of them looking sympathetically at poor Beau.
“Nope. I’m just going to...” she trailed off and then plucked the tampon out. “Uh, bathroom. Damn periods, never know when those gushers—" she stopped and looked at me horrified. “I mean suckers, are going to arrive. Got to just plug it up and—”
A groan and whimper sounded from deeper in the hallway, and, almost like it reminded them they’d had a reason for coming here, all the men stood up straighter.
“We had a surprise for you,” Gramps sighed, rubbing his face with both hands. “Ah shit, this poor guy just can’t catch a break!”
Levi moved away from us, and I heard him hissing at someone to “man the fuck up.”
Then it clicked.
“It’s Cole, isn’t it?”
One by one, they all nodded slowly. Yup, my cousin who had menophobia—a phobia of menstruation—was here.
Slow footsteps made their way closer to the door and, as they stepped aside, a pale looking Cole walked into the office.
With a weak wave, he smiled at both of us.
“Surprise?”
I absolutely adored my cousin. Granted, I loved all of them, but Cole was the one I was closest to, followed by Tom. He had a heart of gold, was the biggest dork without meaning to be, and he just made the world a better place through his existence alone. And his wife and kids were exactly the same.
Speaking of....
“Is Ebru with you? Did you bring the kids?”
“No, Louis broke his arm a couple weeks ago doing... uh, something,” he fidgeted. “Ebru kept them at home because he keeps bumping it.”
“How did he break it?”
Gramps snorted while Cole looked up at the ceiling.
“The dipshit put the kids' mattresses on the stairs and was showing them how to surf down it while Ebru was out. Louis took a running start and shot off like a rocket into the wall at the bend in the staircase halfway down.”
“Holy shit!” I gasped, seeing Cole wince.
“That’s not the best bit. No, it took three of Piersville Fire Department to remove him from the wall. The kid’s arm was all broken, and he’s yelling how he wanted to go again.”
Before Cole could defend himself—not that it was possible—there was a clattering tapping noise, and Sadie came storming in.
“I don’t want to hear any more about it, period!” she snapped, making Cole’s face go pale again. Stopping in the room, she pulled out a tampon and held it up to me. “I knew it had to be something like this, so I went hunting, and I found one.”
Walking weakly around us, Cole sat down heavily in the chair behind the desk. This time, Sadie and I winced and with good reason.
“Sadie, this is Cole. Cole, Sadie,” I introduced.
“Nice to meet you, Cole. Oh, wait, this is your cousin,” she snapped her fingers. “The one who’s... oh,” she drawled, her eyes moving to the tampon she was still holding in the air. “You know, I thought the stories were just you being silly, but now that I see how pale you are,” she said as she gestured at him with the tampon, making him sink deeper into the chair and gulp. “Phobias are strange, aren’t they? My mate has a phobia of blood, like a big one. One spec of blood and he’s—" the whole time she’d been talking, she’d continued to wave the tampon until it looked like Cole was going to faint. So, leaning in, I grabbed her arm to stop her. “Oh, you need this. Sorry, here you go.”
Then, glancing at Cole, she tried to slip it to me, like no one around us had a clue it existed.