7. Chapter 7
Chapter 7
I awoke on a soft bed to the scent of bacon frying. The growl of my stomach forced my reluctant eyelids to creep open, and I was temporarily disoriented.
This isn’t my room.
The walls were an eggshell white, and the cushy duvet that was slung down around my waist was sky blue. Yesterday’s events flooded my brain, and I rolled onto my back and smiled at the ceiling.
I was in Texas, and that made me happier than I could even explain. Not that I’d ever had any desire to move to the Lone Star State; I’d been perfectly happy in Pennsylvania. Until I wasn’t.
No, my excitement had less to do with my specific location and everything to do with the fact that I was finally exerting my independence.
Checking my phone, I saw that it was after nine. A yawn pulled my mouth open wide, and I sat up and clicked on my text messages. My father had messaged an hour ago and asked me to call him when I woke up. I’d texted him last night to let him know I arrived safely, but I guessed he wanted to hear my voice .
After using the restroom and brushing my teeth, I sat cross-legged on the bed and called him.
“Mal! How’s your first morning as a Texan going? Have you learned to say y’all yet?”
I laughed at his silliness. “Everything is fine. I just woke up a few minutes ago. How are y’all?” I asked, emphasizing the last word for his benefit.
“I’m good. Your mother is refusing to get out of bed.”
The guilt crept in, despite my feelings toward her, and the apology slipped from my lips before I could think twice. “I’m sorry. I just—”
“Don’t apologize, honey. You’re not doing anything wrong. You’re grown and pursuing your dreams. Nothing to feel sorry about.”
“Thanks, Daddy,” I said softly.
“I spoke with Cam. He said there was an issue at his house, and you’re having to stay with a friend of his? Is everything okay there, or do I need to send you money for a hotel?”
I thought about it before replying. Hawk had startled me at first with his imposing size and dark demeanor, but when he smiled, he looked completely different. That’s why I went into teasing mode to make him smile even more.
“Yes, Bella decided to flush her stuffed animal down the toilet, and no, I’m fine here. Cam and Shiloh’s friend is nice. We watched Lone Wolf McQuade .”
“Ah! A Chuck Norris fan. I like the guy already. Did you tell him any of your jokes?”
“I did, and I’m pretty sure he was thoroughly entertained. ”
My father laughed loudly. “I’m sure he was. Your mother always said your gift was dancing, but I think your gift is making other people smile. You’re a little ray of sunshine, baby.”
Swallowing down the choking sensation that was threatening to make me cry, I cleared my throat. “Thank you, Dad. That’s the best compliment I could ask for.” The man could be a bit gruff but never with me.
“I mean it, Mal. Look, I need to run. I’m headed over to the construction office for a bit.”
“On a Saturday? You really should take it easy and not work on the weekends,” I told him, worried as always about his health.
“Bah! Taking it easy is for wimps,” he groused. “Besides, I’m not doing much. Just meeting with Nolan about some restructuring, that’s all.”
“Okay, Dad. I hope it all goes well.” An idea struck me. “Why don’t you take Mama out for dinner tonight? Since you’re back, and you two have the house all to yourself now, you deserve some time together.” And maybe it will distract her from worrying about me being gone.
“I might just do that. I’m probably already getting on her nerves, so maybe a nice steak dinner will keep me in her good graces.”
“All right. Love you.”
“Love you too, sweetheart.”
After hanging up, I threw on my fuzzy pink bathrobe over my sleep shirt and shorts. It felt a little stuffy, despite the air conditioning, and I made a mental note to buy something lighter to wear for bumming around the house .
“Hey,” I said, entering the kitchen to find Hawk frying bacon—just as my nose had suspected. “Damn, I’m not sure how much you think I’m going to eat, but I think I’m offended.”
The big man smirked over his shoulder at me as he removed two slices of fried meat from the pan and added them to the gigantic stack already draining on the white platter.
“Cam, Shiloh, and Bella are on the way over,” he said in explanation of the bacon mound. “Have you ever seen Bella eat? She can put away some groceries for such a tiny little thing.”
“No, I’ve never met her in person, actually. Shiloh has been letting her FaceTime with me so she’d be familiar with me by the time I arrived.”
“Seriously, I think the kid has a hollow leg or something.”
“What can I do to help?”
“Uh, you can put the biscuits in.” He nodded toward a baking pan with large mounds of round dough on it. “The oven is already preheated.”
“Did you make these?” I asked, the surprise coloring my words as I picked up the pan and slid it into the warm oven.
“Nope, they’re the canned kind. I’m not completely helpless in the kitchen, but I suck at baking.” He gestured toward a digital timer beside the stainless steel refrigerator. “Fifteen minutes.”
I pressed the numbers and then leaned with my back against the gray granite countertop. “My job is done. What else?”
He shrugged giant shoulders, making his dark-blue T-shirt strain around his muscles. “I guess you can get the butter and jelly out of the fridge. ”
While I attended to those tasks, I asked, “So you’re not a baker, huh?”
“No, but I’m a master of bacon.” He picked up a piece and held it out toward me. Taking it, I bit into the perfectly crispy, salty deliciousness.
“Mmm,” I groaned, “you are indeed the conqueror of cured meats.”
“You know, ever since I was a young boy, that was my goal in life,” he joked, and I let out a snicker.
“Well, you can rest easy because you nailed it. I thought Cam said one of you guys could bake really well.”
“That would be Bode. Also known as The Muffin Man.”
“The Muffin Man?” I asked in a deep voice.
Hawk immediately squealed, “The Muffin Man!” and we both busted out laughing.
“I can see you’re well versed in Shrek .”
“Yeah, I used to watch it with Carrie when she was little. The muffin man lines were her favorite, but she always made me do the one with the high voice. It made her laugh like a tiny maniac.”
My heart melted a little. This big, hard man had a softness inside him when it came to kids. I noticed it when he spoke of Bella too.
“Who is Carrie?” I’d heard the name but there were so many kids in this extended family.
“That’s Blaire and Axel’s oldest daughter.”
My mind whirled through my internal database of people Cam had talked about. Of course I knew of Axel Broxton. The man was a football god who played for the Fort Worth Wranglers. And Blaire was his wife, an orthopedic surgeon, if I was remembering correctly .
“Blaire is Bode’s sister?”
Hawk whipped eggs in a bowl before pouring them into a hot skillet. “No, she’s Shark’s, but we all adopted her as our sister when we first met her.”
“Just one big, happy family,” I commented, and the big man nodded as he scrambled the eggs.
“A bunch of pains in my ass.” That came out as a grunt, but I could hear the affection behind his words.
He finished the eggs about the time the biscuits were done, and we carried the food to the attached dining room.
“I don’t know where the hell Cam and Shy are. They should be here by now.”
“Maybe Bella set their house on fire, and they’re waiting for the firefighters to get there.”
Hawk snorted. “Wouldn’t put it past the little toot.” His face shifted toward the front of the house, eyes narrowing in concentration. “I think they’re here.”
I had no idea what he was talking about. I didn’t hear any—
DING DONG.
“How did you do that?” I asked, and he chuckled.
“Sweetheart, I could hear a mouse fart in a jet engine.”
A squeal erupted from my lips as I sprinted to the front door. Slinging it open, I was immediately engulfed by my cousin’s strong arms. As I wrapped my legs around him, he spun us in circles.
“So good to see you, Marshmallori!”
I pressed my cheek against his and hugged him tightly. “Good to see you too, Camel Toe! ”
Hawk snorted from behind me. “Camel Toe. That’s a good one. Gonna have to use that.”
“Great,” Cam drawled sarcastically as he lowered me to my feet.
Shiloh passed their daughter to him and tugged me into her warm, welcoming arms. “We’re so happy you’re here. Your cousin has been dying to see you. Bella too.”
She released me, and I turned to the little one who was clapping happily at all the excitement. She looked exactly like Cam, bright blue eyes set in a perfect face. Her hair was dark and curly like his, though he wore his short, and hers was fashioned into two space buns on the sides of her head.
The kid was absolutely adorable.
“Hi, Bella,” I said in a gentle voice, holding out my hands. “Would it be okay if I hold—” I was halted when the kid launched herself at me, and I caught her with a laugh. I should’ve known she wouldn’t be shy.
As we hugged, I swayed us back and forth, taking in her sweet, cotton candy scent. “Youse so pretty, Mallori,” she said, taking my face between her chubby palms and studying me.
“You are too, Bella.”
She turned wide eyes to her father and batted her inch-long lashes. “Daddy, can I have blondie hair too? Like Mallori?”
Cam brushed the backs of his fingers down her plump, rosy cheek. “I don’t think so, Little Angel. You’re perfect just the way you are.”
Bella’s bottom lip rolled out in the saddest little pout. “But Daddyyy!”
A low rumble rolled up from Hawk’s chest, and he growled, “No whining at Uncle Hawk’s house. ”
My eyes rounded in shock. Cam is seriously going to punch this fool , I thought, but my cousin surprised me further by laughing.
Bella did grabby hands toward the big man, and Hawk took her with a gentleness belying his size. The toddler went nose to nose with him and growled right back.
“Rawwwwr! Youse a grump face.”
“Youse a nerd face,” he retorted before kissing her nose. “I made you bacon.”
“Yay!” she shrieked, doing a little wiggle move until he set her down. Bella grabbed his index finger, dragging him toward the dining room, and he followed along like a puppy.
“Wow. Okay,” I breathed, earning me a grin from Cam.
“Don’t worry about Hawk. He’s a growly bastard, but he’d rather peel his own eyeballs than hurt a kid.”
“Thanks for that visual,” I complained, scrunching my nose.
He wrapped one arm around me and the other around his wife before leading us toward the dining room.
“Bella adores Hawk. Last week, she told me he’s her brother.”
“We’re thinking of adopting him,” Shy said smartly, and Cam nodded.
“That’s not a bad idea. Maybe we could claim him on our tax returns.”
“Oh hell, Cam. I left the bags by the door,” Shiloh fretted. “I don’t want everything to melt.”
“On it,” he replied, kissing his wife’s temple and backtracking to get whatever they had brought with them.
Breakfast with my family had my heart swelling inside my chest. Cam was hilarious as ever, Shiloh was a sweetheart, and Bella… well, that kid was a charmer through and through. Precocious and intelligent, she kept us all entertained the entire meal. It was hard to believe she wasn’t quite two yet.
Hawk was quiet, speaking when spoken to, but mostly remaining silent. His dark eyes took in everything though. He seemed like the kind of guy who didn’t miss much.
Cam leaned back in his chair, toying with Shiloh’s caramel-brown hair as he patted his flat stomach. “We brought dessert,” he told us, wiggling his eyebrows. “We’re making ice cream sundaes.”
Bella almost fell out of her chair in excitement, and I couldn’t lie; I was pretty thrilled myself. “I’ve never had a sundae before,” I announced, rubbing my hands together.
Three pairs of stunned adult eyes fell on me, making me feel like a freak. Even Bella looked at me like I was speaking a foreign language.
“What?” I asked with a shrug and a halfhearted laugh. “I wasn’t allowed to have sweets as a kid because of dance. Not exactly good for the figure, you know? ”
Cam’s ears turned bright red, and his blue eyes narrowed. “That’s fu—”
Shiloh wrapped a firm hand around his bicep and interrupted him. “That’s okay, Mal. You don’t have to eat any if you don’t want to.”
“No, I want to,” I assured her, feeling my own face heat with embarrassment. “I’ve had sugar-free frozen yogurt a couple times, and it was really good.” That sounded lame even to my own ears.
I noticed Hawk’s hands clenched into fists on the table, but he relaxed them and exhaled a long breath. “You’re in for a treat then. The real thing is even better. And you know who is an expert on building the finest ice cream sundae you could ever imagine?”
Bella pressed her rosy little lips together and raised her hand. “It’s me!” she finally blurted, and we all laughed, the tension easing around the table. “I can hep you, Mallori. We gotta use lotsa sprinkles.”
The kid wasn’t exaggerating. My very first sundae was at least fifty percent sprinkles. Bella chose strawberry ice cream with strawberry syrup, and every inch of it was covered with a rainbow of nonpareils. I ate it greedily, savoring every delicious, creamy bite.
“That was so yummy, Bella. Thank you for helping me,” I said to the little girl on my lap.
She beamed up at me before rubbing her sticky face all over the front of my robe.
“Bella! Good grief, child. You made a mess all over Mallori’s clothes,” Shiloh cried, jumping up to grab a wet cloth.
“I sorry,” the toddler told me, giving me the puppy dog eyes as her mom began swiping at the fuzzy material over my chest.
“It’s fine. I can just throw it in the wash. I was planning to get a thinner one anyway. I seriously underestimated the heat down here in Texas.”
“Shopping?” Shiloh’s eyebrows lifted in interest.
“You want to come? I don’t know where the closest stores are.” Plus, I’d love to spend more time with Cam’s wife.
“Yes!” she said eagerly, turning her attention to cleaning her daughter’s face before mirroring my thoughts. “It will give us a chance to get to know each other when we’re not behind a phone screen.”
She lifted the freshly cleaned child and plopped her in Cam’s lap. Before she could say a word, he nodded as if reading her mind. “On duty, ma’am.” Then he pressed his nose into his daughter’s hair and closed his eyes, as if inhaling her sweet scent. “You want to hang with me and Uncle Hawk, Little Angel? We can go to the park.”
“Great,” Shiloh said. “I’ll call Bristol.”
“Aw damn,” Hawk groaned. He patted my shoulder with a large hand, his eyes sympathetic. “Good luck, Mal. Hope you survive.”
What the hell?