Skin Deep (Skin Deep #1)

“No, I don’t mind! The more the merrier!” Mom beamed at Jackson, and the way she smiled made me wonder if she’d been sneaking sips from the liquor cabinet this morning. She’s been known to do that. Usually that results in her dancing around everywhere with her lips pursed, bent halfway over, side-stepping back and forth, all the while yelling, ‘Put in Billy Squire! C’mon!’ Sheesh. Mothers.

Allie bounced over to Brandon, but came to a dead stop when she got an up close look at Jackson. “Whoa!” she whispered. I noticed Brandon looking at her funny, but Hayden tugged on my hand and I turned my attention to her.

“We gots lots of yummy stuffs for breakfas’. We hafta wait ‘til you got here wif’ you friends. Can we eat now?”

Without waiting for my answer, she pulled away from me and grabbed one of Luke’s and Jackson’s hands in each of hers and led them to the table.

My sisters and I helped my mom carry the food to the table and we all sat down to eat. Everything was going as I imagined it would. It was chaos, everybody reaching for food, talking over one another. Dad wasn’t saying much, just eyeballing Luke every once in a while. Mom and Jenna were discussing new curtains for Jenna’s kitchen, Allie and Leah were staring at the guys, Noah, Jarrod and Hayden were all engrossed in their food, and Calland was playing twenty questions with Luke.

When Calland said, “So, Luke, what are your intentions toward my sister?” I slapped my hands down on the table and hollered, “Enough!” I glared at Calland and he just shrugged at me, smirking. My glare transferred to my father when I saw him sneak a high-five to my brother. Ugh!

Fortunately, the rest of breakfast passed without incident, and, after helping my mom clean up again, we all piled back into Luke’s car. As he backed down the drive, I asked him to drop me off at my house.

“Why?” he asked.

“Well, because I’ve got some things I need to do at my house, I have to work tomorrow, and you will want to spend some time with Jackson while he’s here.”

Without asking anyone else, Luke answered, “We’ll just hang out at your house until you’re done and then we’ll go back out to mine. You can stay tonight and I’ll drop you off at work in the morning.”

I looked at him in disbelief before glancing in the backseat, sure that Brandon and Jackson would have something to say about it. Both of them just shrugged at me. I closed my eyes, my head falling back against the headrest. I don’t know why I bother.

We pulled up at my house and I unlocked the door. All three of the guys brushed past me and headed in different directions. Luke plopped down on the couch and commandeered the tv remote, Brandon started methodically going from room to room, checking my place out, and Jackson headed to the kitchen. I followed him, curious to see what he was doing. Without a care in the world, he popped his head into my freezer and then my fridge, rummaging around.

“Jackson?” I asked, laughing.

“Hmm?” he replied, not bothering to remove his head from the fridge.

“What are you doing? You cant be hungry, we just ate!”

He backed out of the fridge, his arms holding lunchmeat, cheese, and other sandwich fixings. “Yes, I can. I just had one plate of food. I’m starving, wasting away to nothing!” He stuck his lip out pitifully and whined, “Feed me, Emma, please?”

I rolled my eyes at him, telling him that he could have had more than one plate of food at my parent’s house before grabbing the food from his arms, putting it on the counter so I could grab the bread and make his sandwich. As soon as I had the bread in my hands, he walked out of the kitchen towards the living room, hollering over his shoulder, “mustard and mayo, please! I couldn’t find any lettuce but if you have any, I want that too!”

Shaking my head, I went to the fridge and pulled out the bag of shredded lettuce I had in the crisper drawer. Before I made his sandwich, I popped my head around the corner to the living room to ask Luke and Brandon, who apparently had finished wandering my house, if they wanted something too. Surprisingly (to me, at least) they did. Even more surprising, Luke got up off the couch, leaving Brandon and Jackson to fight over the remote, and followed me into the kitchen to help.

We made sandwiches and Luke carried them into the living room for them while I put everything away and started some laundry. I unloaded the clean dishes from the dishwasher, and then loaded the few dirty ones I had sitting in the sink. Then I swept the floor and was about to mop when the handle was pulled out of my hand.

I looked up in surprise and saw Brandon there holding the mop and pointing me towards the living room. I started that way when I heard my vacuum turn on. I walked in to see Jackson sweeping the floor, but Luke wasn’t in the room. I walked down the hall until I found him in the bathroom, where he was wiping down the sink and putting away my hair stuff and makeup. He looked so cute that I snuck up behind him and wrapped my arms around his waist, pressing myself to his back. I felt him start, but he recovered quickly and turned in my arms, hugging me tight and kissing my lips softly.

“Why are you guys cleaning my house for me?” I asked him in between kisses.

“You said you wanted to get some stuff done, so we’re helping. Cuts down on the time between now and when I can get inside you again.”

I gasped, his words making me tingle in crazy places.

“What else do you want done, sugar?”

“I just need to do another load of laundry and pack up my clothes for tomorrow. Is that okay?” I asked.

He nodded. “Yeah, but couldn’t you just load up your laundry and take it to my house?”

He made it a question and the look on his face was so cute I couldn’t resist. “Okay. I’ll do that.”

I couldn’t help but return his grin as he kissed me one more time before pushing me away, saying, “What are you waiting for then, woman? Get your shit, lets go!” He swatted me on my ass as I turned.

Laughing, I walked away from him and packed up my overnight bag with everything I’d need to get ready for work the next day. Then I took my wet clothes out of the washer and threw them in the basket to take with me to dry, and tossed my other load to be washed into another basket. I didn’t have a chance to even reach for one to carry it to the car before the guys came in, grabbed my stuff, and loaded it for me.

Hmm. A girl could get used to this!

My cell phone rang in my pocket and I dug it out to see that Allie was calling me.

“Hey, Al!”

“Well, someone’s in a good mood,” she drawled.

“I’m surrounded by hot guys that are cleaning my house. Who wouldn’t be?” I asked her, my glee evident in my voice.

“You’re shitting me, right?” Allie sounded incredulous.

“Nope! Well, they were cleaning, but now we’re gonna head back over to Luke and

Brandon’s house.”

“What are you guys gonna do then?” she asked me.

“I’m not sure. I was thinking about taking stuff with me to cook dinner over there for them as a thank you for cleaning my house today,” I replied.

“Ooh, what are you cooking?” she asked.

I could almost hear Allie salivating through the phone. “I’m not sure, I was thinking maybe tequila lime chicken with some Spanish rice or maybe stuffed manicotti? What do you think they’d like better?”