Chapter 7
7
Grayson Hawk
Walking up to the house I’m met with Hayes and Fed who seem to be having some kind of debate over the best kind of donut, jelly filled or not. This place is always full of crazy topics, wild pranks, and chaos.
Just as we reach the entrance to the station the door opens and out steps Rose.
She’s already smiling I’m sure because of the guys inside, but when she sees the three of us, it only grows wider.
“My sweet boys.” She reaches out to hug each of us. She is so small that we practically have to go to our knees to do so, but for Rose we’d each do about anything. She is always taking care of us in one sense or another.
“I brought fresh, sweet, and warm Cinnabons,” she announces.
“Rose I thought we had a talk about your obsession with my buns?” I say it low but not so low that everyone around me can’t hear. I pretend to shy away from her, making Rose laugh.
“Oh boy.” She pokes my side. Then in true Rose fashion she adds, “It’s not only your buns that keep me hanging around the house.” Then she winks and moves around us.
“By the way, I made some homemade doggie treats too, for our Oscar. Don’t give him more than a couple a shift. I wrote that on the bag.”
And with that she offers us a wave as she continues down the drive and across the street to her sweet little house with the rocking chairs on her front porch. There were still two chairs there, she never removed her husband’s after he passed. There are times I’ve seen her sitting outside, talking away like he was still beside her.
Hayes pulls open the door and the three of us step inside, offer side hugs to those men that were on shift before us and who are now heading home.
The closer we get to the kitchen the louder those familiar voices get. My brothers, the ones I serve with on every call, are gathered around the island in the middle. There in the center is not one but three tin pans of Cinnabons. Rose never shorts us, because with these guys she knows nothing goes to waste.
“Rose,” Hollywood says around a mouth full as he points to the yummy goodness in the pans. “If she was forty years younger, I think I’d marry the woman.”
There isn’t a man in this place that doesn’t love Rose. Hell, Cap even gives her a portion of our monthly allowance for food to go toward the abundant amounts she supplies us. She never asks, in fact sometimes she tries to decline. But the truth is she has become a big part of Station 47. She even has an honorary badge we all went in together to have made.
I don’t have any living grandparents but the moment I met Rose I felt a connection.
I bypass the counter and go straight for the coffee pot as a yawn hits me. Usually, I spend the prior night before shift sleeping solidly, but last night I couldn’t sleep for shit.
“Late night?” Atta asks and I turn around leaning my back to the edge of the countertop and take a moment to breathe in the coffee aroma. Sipping the hot liquid I glance over and offer a nod.
“Yep, but not for the reason you are thinking.”
It’s no secret around the place that I’ve lived a life of variety. Most of them have witnessed my wild nights and sometimes even wilder mornings.
I made the mistake of calling Fed one morning because I had a major clinger and I needed an escape plan. Silas used that shit against me for days, weeks even. Hell to this day the assholes drag in Missy the Home-taker into every single situation they can.
But come on, I woke up after a random hookup to the smell of coffee and bacon filtrating throughout my apartment. I thought to myself, okay I can eat breakfast with her, I mean it’s my place after all and the food was right there. But breakfast led to lunch and a fucking pie being baked. She started cleaning my apartment and throwing out shit she didn’t think I needed. I was in panic mode, because she wasn’t fucking leaving. Then she started talking about what she should make us for dinner before we settled in for a movie before bed and I hit the panic button.
Twenty minutes later, Fed showed up at my door with Marchy and Brax. Of course they played it out for about an hour. Missy thought she was being introduced to a couple of my friends and was over the moon. Had no idea I’d brought home a nutcase. Who thinks that going home with a guy from the bar means you are moving into his place by morning?
Right when I thought I was seconds from moving my shit there was a knock on the door, and Missy was up before I had the chance to move. Three women entered, all wearing lingerie and I’d recognized them immediately.
It took about ten minutes for Missy to get offended telling me were over like we’d somehow entered a committed relationship overnight and stormed out of my place.
The second the door slammed the three women stopped dancing and the guys started laughing. Then Sammie, Melanie, and Rita got dressed and the six of us went out for pizza and ended up at Ruby’s for drinks. The entire bar knew about my disaster one-night stand within the hour. Another hour and the entire bar serenaded me with “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do.”
To this day I’m still paying for that fucked up night and next day.
“So you didn’t take home another woman that tried to take over your home life after one night?”
“There were four, though one of them I think was underage, and the other is my cousin.”
I glance at Atticus, then notice how quiet the room got so I scan over the kitchen. Most had stopped talking, some even stopped chewing as they all stared at me.
“Dude.” Hollywood wrinkled up his nose in disgust.
“Do you seriously have no boundaries?” Myles asks, looking slightly ill.
“I can’t get you out of this mess,” Fed announces, throwing his hands up in the air like he’s finally given up.
“Ah come on, guys,” I set my coffee down and faked a shiver. “You’re all dicks!”
No one said anything, though Cooper was smirking because they all knew I would never mess around with an underage girl or my cousin for that matter.
“My neighbor had some kind of girls’ night and Scarlett was there, plus there is a teen that lives there too. I think they were purposely trying to torture me with loud music and laughter all night long.”
“And you never tried to join them?”
“No, I tried to sleep,” I clarify “At one point there was banging on the wall so I moved out to the living room but that didn’t help. I texted Scar and asked them to keep it down at one point. But the only response I got back was why should we keep it down over here when we are forced to hear your continuous sexcapades and the squealing girls you decide to bring home on your nights off.”
A few of the guys chuckled.
“Wait.” Marchy steps forward holding up his hand for everyone to hush. “Are you telling me that you may or may not share a bedroom wall with a teenage girl and that said girl may have been forced to overhear your hookups?”
I only nod, not trying to hide the shame I feel.
“I’ve seen some of the women you’ve taken home and I gotta say you owe that kid a major apology. Hell you may have to buy her a fucking car by the time it’s over.”
He wasn’t joking. My stomach has been in knots since Scarlett brought it to my attention.
The conversation carries on for a bit, them all using my disastrous situation as another way to hassle me. Only this time I do nothing to attempt to stop them.