Unwritten (Woodlands 5)

“Sexual relations between people classed as being too closely related to marry each other,” the mechanical voice recites.

Rudd frowns. “Does that mean cousins are out? Because I did cousins at Ian’s family reunion last summer.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Ian says, giving up any pretense that we’re going to finish this hand. “I never had any family reunion.”

“Sure you did,” Rudd replies, sliding into the booth next to Ian. “Last summer at Festival Park, you were there with Berry and bunch of other folks. There was a shit ton of people and someone made this awesome lemon meringue pie.” He rubs his belly. “Never thought I liked lemon until I had that shit. Anyway, these two brunettes invited me back to their room at the Holiday Inn. Your cousins.”

“Dude, that wasn’t my family. It was Founder’s Day. Berry and I were just hanging out in the park.” Ian’s face is red with laughter.

“Well, who the fuck did I go to bed with then?”

Ian lays his head down on the table, howling. It might’ve been his laughter or Rudd beating Ian around the head with the now-empty muffin box that wakes Davis up from his nap.

The sound of the pocket door sliding open an

d heavy boots on the tile signal his arrival. I don’t need to glance over my shoulder to know that his sister’s still in the back. An electrical charge shoots up my spine every time she’s within ten feet of me, and my Landry radar hasn’t gone off all afternoon.

Surreptitiously, I flip over my phone to see if she’s answered the text I sent an hour ago. Nothing.

Across from me, Ian tears up again. This time laughing at my expense instead of Rudd’s.

“Asshole,” I mutter under my breath, but the significance of my actions isn’t lost on me. I can’t remember the last time I was anxious to hear from a girl, particularly one I wasn’t sleeping with.

“Landry sick?” I ask, giving up any pretense of not caring.

“Nah,” Davis says without any more explanation. “I’m hungry. What’re we eating?” He leans against the counter.

“Muffin,” Rudd replies, only it comes out more like “mmmffnnn” because his mouth is full of the baked treat.

“There’s another box of donuts in the cabinet above the sink,” I tell Davis before repeating, “Landry sick?”

Davis doesn’t answer because his mouth is stuffed with half a donut. I’m forced to wait impatiently, squeezing the cards in my hands so tightly that they begin to crease. Ian frowns as he pulls them out of my grip.

“Landry?” I prompt when Davis opens his mouth to shove the rest of the donut in.

He pauses. “May got access to the internet again, and they’re working on some project. Dunno what it’s all about. When she gets involved in that shit, she loses track of time.”

“It’s been four hours.”

He cocks his head and studies me. “You keeping track?”

I resist the urge to fiddle with my phone. “Just making sure she’s still happy to be with us. After all, didn’t you say that if she bailed, you were gone, too?” Technically, the threat was that he’d leave if one of us laid our filthy hands on her.

He presses his lips together, as if slightly embarrassed I’m calling him out on the whole blackmail thing, and then gives an abrupt nod. “She’s fine. If she needs something, she’s a big girl and can use her mouth.”

That conjures up all sorts of dirty thoughts. Like her mouth opening wide around my dick. Or her mouth running over my abs. Or her lips tugging on the piercing through my left nip. Fuck, I’d settle for just her mouth on mine.

Rudd opens his mouth to probably say the same damn things I’m thinking, but I don’t want to hear it. I give him a not today, fucker look at he sits back, confused but silent.

I’m pathetic. I’m ready to throw down with my bandmate over a girl I haven’t even laid a finger on. I flip my phone over. Still nothing.

Davis grabs a gallon of milk from the refrigerator. “Heard you have some of your crew coming to the Austin show tonight.”

“Yep. A couple of my roommates are from Texas so they’re flying down to see the show and then driving to see their families.” I suspect, although no one has said it outright, that Noah wants to introduce his girlfriend, Grace, to his dad. Grace is the kind of girl who would want that before she walked down the aisle, and Noah’s been trying to drag Grace to the altar since he first arrived in town.

Before, I didn’t really get his devotion. Grace was some girl he wrote letters to while deployed in the Marines. When he separated from the military, he thought he had to make himself worthy of her before he parked his boots under her bed. He didn’t come to her immediately, making her wait. When he finally did show his face, she was pissed off and this time, it was his turn to cool his heels until she came around.

I find myself understanding them both better now. Waiting sucks balls and so does wanting.