9. Chapter 9
Chapter 9
The humid air was filled with the blended sounds of birds chirping in the oak trees and the high squeals of children playing.
“I’m surprised there aren’t more folks out here today,” I commented, looking around at the handful of people in the park.
“Too fucking hot for most,” Tank said, swiping a bead of sweat from his neck.
Cam leaned against the back of the brightly painted bench and stretched his long legs out in front of him. Tank was beside him, and I was reclining against the thick trunk of a tree.
“It’s important for kids to get some sunshine. Get their heads out of their devices and enjoy the fresh air for a while,” Cam commented, his blue eyes firmly on the two little girls who were taking turns on a twirly yellow slide. This park had a toddler section, all the play equipment appropriately sized for the little ones.
“Does that guy look creepy?” Tank asked, nodding toward an older man sitting on a nearby bench with his face buried in a John Grisham novel.
“Yeah. Yeah, he does,” Cam mused, squinting in that direction. “What the hell is he doing here anyway? He’s not with a kid. ”
I restrained myself from rolling my eyes. “He’s reading. In a public park.”
“I don’t know,” Tank mused. “He’s wearing those creepy Jeffrey Dahmer glasses. Definitely suspicious.”
Cam straightened and rubbed his hands up and down his royal-blue Bermuda shorts. “Maybe we should go talk to him.”
I laid a hand on his arm to stop him from rising. “Guys, don’t get crazy. He’s just an old man at the park. Probably has a nagging wife at home and wanted to get out of the house.”
“Or he could be here to kidnap children,” Cam noted, his lips tightening.
“Just settle down. If he makes a move, we’re on it,” I assured him.
I couldn’t even imagine being a parent. These two were constantly on the lookout for people trying to steal their kids. Fucking paranoid, but I guessed I understood. There were a lot of shitty people in the world. We were all fully aware of how the world worked from our time spent in the military.
And after what happened to Shiloh, I couldn’t really fault Cam for his constant state of worry.
He pulled his eyes from the man he’d been eyeballing and returned his focus to the little ones. “Thanks for letting Mal stay with you, Hawk. I hope she hasn’t been a bother.”
“Nah, she’s fine. We watched McQuade last night.”
Cam laughed. “I should have known you two would get along. We used to take family vacations together, and she would make me and Collin watch Chuck Norris films all the time. Her dad got her hooked on them. ”
The girls ran up then, both sweaty and smiling. “Can we go play at the splash pad, Daddy? Pretty please?” Bella cajoled.
“Sounds like a plan.” He turned to Tank. “Did Amelia wear her swimsuit?”
“Yep,” the big guy said, rising and picking up his daughter.
We walked to the other side of the park, and the dads helped the girls take off their T-shirts and shorts. They both wore pink swimsuits underneath, Bella’s a polka dot bikini and Amelia’s a cute floral one-piece with ruffles on the bottom.
“Have fun, girls. We’ll be right here,” Cam said, pointing to a bench a few feet away. “And don’t run.”
Amelia and Bella took off at a sprint anyway, and their fathers let out a collective sigh.
“I’ve been meaning to ask you, what was the deal with the ice cream today? Did Mallori really say she’s never eaten real ice cream?”
Tank’s head jerked back in surprise, and Cam nodded, his jaw clenched. “I’m sure it was her fucking mother, Karen. She’s a tyrant. She made everything in the kid’s life about dance. We barely even got to see her after she turned about seven. Instead of family holidays, she was always at a competition or something.”
“And how old is Mallori now?” Tank asked.
“Ummm, let’s see. I’m thirty-eight so that would make her twenty-four.”
“I thought she just graduated from college,” I wondered.
“She did, but she didn’t go straight to college after high school. She traveled Europe to dance for a couple years.”
“Well, I’m glad she moved here,” Tank said. “It doesn’t sound like she had a very healthy home life. ”
“Yeah, she needed to get away from Karen. I hate that she can’t stay with us right now. Dad’s construction company is having to rip up all the flooring on that side of the house. It needed to be replaced anyway, but I wasn’t planning to do it until the fall.”
“I would offer to let her stay at our house, but Gram’s staying with us right now,” Tank told us. “They’re adding phase two at Country Acres, and she’s moving in there, but construction is behind. She was only supposed to be with us for a week, but something in the new building didn’t meet code. So now all the stuff from her old apartment is in our house. It’s a fucking mess.”
“Mallori is fine at my place. I’ll look after her until she can move into your place, Cam.”
“I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck, discomfort evident on his face. “Could you maybe, you know… tone down your activities while she’s there? I know that’s asking a lot.”
“Whatever could you mean?” I asked innocently, tilting my head to the side.
He blew out an exasperated breath. “You know what I mean, Hawk.”
“Ahhh, so, no bringing randos home and making them scream while Mallori is in the house?”
He glared at me while Tank snickered. “Yes. That. It should only be about a week. Think you could hold off being a psycho for that long?”
“I’ll do my best.”
Tank’s eyes flitted back and forth between us. “Aren’t you going to have the other talk? ”
“The one where I threaten to cut off Hawk’s dick if it gets anywhere near my cousin?” He lifts an eyebrow at me. “No, I think he’s aware.”
I raised both hands and shook my head. I wasn’t a man who was easily scared, but Camden Fitz was the deadliest person I knew. I’d never want to get on his bad side.
“That’s the last thing you need to worry about. I like my women more… seasoned.”
Tank snorted. “Is that what we’re calling it now?”
“Yup,” I said, tugging my sweaty shirt away from my body.
“Daddy, come play wiff us,” Amelia called from beneath a daisy-shaped water feature that was shooting a spray high in the air, raining tiny droplets down onto the ground.
Tank stood and stripped off his shirt, tossing it onto the bench. Cam and I looked at each other and shrugged before doing the same. “Let’s get wet, boys,” I hollered before jogging over to the play area and scooping up Amelia.
Holding her out in front of me, airplane-style, I let the water spurting up from a small hole in the ground hit her in the belly as she giggled like a little maniac. After handing her off to Tank, I did the same with Bella before moving to stand under a giant bucket that tipped over every few seconds to drench anyone standing beneath it.
Damn, that felt good. The temperature on this steamy day in early June was over a hundred degrees, and I took a few steps forward and slicked my dark, wet hair back, away from my face.
When I opened my eyes, they locked with a set of brown ones from across the splash pad. A woman was standing at the edge, near a little boy of about three as he hopped over the dancing water that popped up randomly from a series of holes in the ground.
She directed a smile my way and twirled a dark ringlet around one finger as her gaze lowered to my tattoos and scars. When she looked back up at me, her tongue slid suggestively over her plump lips. She might as well have had a neon sign on her forehead that read, Really fucking available. Insert dick below.
The woman was wearing tiny denim cutoff shorts and a black bikini top. It looked damn good on her, and I knew all I’d have to do would be walk over, act like a total dick, and I’d be deep in her ass before you could say anal kink.
The old adage “ You catch more flies with honey than vinegar” never rang true for me. I guessed I gave off those bad boy vibes so many women were attracted to.
Hmmm. The woman was hot, and I wouldn’t mind getting my—
Cam’s gaze met mine, and I remembered that I had a houseguest and was supposed to be toning my shit down. So I turned my back on the woman and jogged over to play with the little princesses. We stayed another thirty minutes until Amelia and Bella began to get whiny.
“Time for N-A-P-S,” Tank spelled, and Cam nodded. They scooped up their daughters while I gathered the discarded clothes, and we began walking the short distance to Tank’s house. Both girls were asleep by the time we arrived, and the woman at the park was completely forgotten.