Chalk Dirty to Me (Madd CrossFit 3)

I had all night, but I wanted to spend that night with his sister. Not him.

“You can bring Cannel,” Shine informed me.

I snorted. “I was going to bring her anyway.”

Shine chuckled. “Sometimes women aren’t allowed in certain places.”

“Sometimes those women aren’t your sister,” Cannel heard, having heard Shine’s words from how close we now were.

I leaned down and pressed a kiss to her mouth, humming in enjoyment before pulling back and saying, “What time?”

“Did you just kiss my sister?” Shine asked. “That’s seriously gross.”

“It’s seriously none of your business,” Cannel called. “You should really turn your phone down. I can hear your entire conversation.”

I chuckled and confirmed with Shine that I’d be there around six, then hung up the phone.

“One of the girls dropped it right before they left, and the volume as well as the brightness are stuck in perpetual loud and bright mode. I don’t know how to fix it,” I admitted. “Speaking of the girls…they want me to meet them at the Grand Canyon next week to go for a hike. Do you have any time off next week?”

Her eyes widened. “You want me to meet your nieces?”

I nodded. “I do.”

“But what if they don’t like me?” she asked.

I rolled my eyes. “There’s no way in hell they won’t like you. You look like a Barbie, minus the large boobs. They’ll be your best friend if you let them braid your hair.”

Cannel grinned and reached for the bag that I was holding, then patted the seat beside her as she all but collapsed down into her seat.

I took the seat next to her as she started to dig in, taking a sip of the coffee first before spreading the food out in front of us.

“Then on that note, I have four days off next week. Are we flying or are we driving?” she wondered.

“Flying,” I answered. “Or we won’t get there with any time to do anything other than turn around.”

She moaned as she took another sip of coffee, then smiled. “I needed this. How’d you know?”

I shook my head. “I didn’t know you needed it. I’ve been dealing with Brianna all morning. I just needed to see your face.”

Her smile was sweet as she bumped me with her shoulder. “What’s Brianna’s story, anyway?”

I told her everything I knew about Brianna, ending with what I’d found out about why she’d left her husband.

“Oh, man,” she said. “I had a feeling there was more to the story of her leaving, but I hadn’t expected she did those kinds of things.”

I hadn’t, either.

In fact, when I’d learned them, at first, I hadn’t been able to match up the crimes with the face.

Brianna just didn’t seem like that kind of person.

But then I’d met Cannel, decided that I didn’t find Brianna anywhere near as attractive as I did the person sitting beside me, and Brianna got her first taste of rejection.

After that revelation…she wasn’t the same person, and I now saw what the others saw.

“What happened to have you back here eating by yourself?” I asked curiously. “Is this your every day?”

She and I both started to eat, talking in low tones about why she ate alone—nobody wanted to eat with her.

Then we got to talking about her brothers.

“Why do you think they want me to come over?” I asked curiously.

I’d already met their parents—I loved them.

I had a feeling that Cannel was going to like mine as well.

This was suiting up to be a great start—everyone liking each other.

It was hard when your family didn’t like your significant other. It was as if you had to choose one over the other.

How did I know that?

It definitely wasn’t my own personal experience.

It was my sister, Nivea. My sister who met someone, decided that she didn’t like being bogged down with little kids, and left.

Which wasn’t like her at all mostly because she would’ve rather had those kids because they meant money each month that she didn’t have to work for.

Money that would, indeed, help her out.

Money that she decided she didn’t need any longer when she met someone that all of us hated—my parents, myself, and the girls. There wasn’t one interesting thing about Tom Cordon that we found appealing. And I was glad that, after a short battle for the girls, they decided to move away.

“What’s got that look on your face?” Cannel asked, pressing her hand to my throat.

I felt the flush start to climb up my neck at the feel of her touching me.

“My sister,” I said. “And…”

My phone rang again in my pocket. “Speak of the devils.”

I pulled my phone out of my pocket and rolled my eyes at my nieces’ use of FaceTime.

“If I don’t take this, they’ll just keep calling until I do,” I apologized as I hit ‘accept’ and waited for the seizure show to start.