3. Kristin
3
KRISTIN
“ S o, do you want to tell me what that was about?” Chase asked as he eyed me suspiciously from the driver’s seat.
We were on our way to poker night at Maddie and Luca’s. Chase had graciously offered to lend me his truck. Steve would drag my car to his house to either fix her up or send her to car heaven. More like hell in this case...
I felt bad that Chase would be without his truck, but he insisted. He kept going on about how he loved to drive around in his unmarked cruiser, scaring the shit out of people when they realized they were being tailed by a cop. But I knew he was just trying to make me feel better.
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
“I’m talking about Dreamboat Willie back there,” Chase shot back, wiggling his eyebrows. “What’s his deal?”
“Um, Will is just a guest at the inn,” I said. “I met him while I was working today. He was leaving about the same time I was and saw me pop the hood. Came over to offer me a ride.”
Chase’s jaw flared, and I rolled my eyes .
Steve and Chase still treated me like the petrified twenty-year-old girl they first met five years ago. They were there when I showed up in the middle of the night to care for my four younger siblings. Both men helped stabilize my world after my parents turned it upside down. Ever since that day, they had done their best to look after me. It was sweet, and I wouldn’t have survived without them. But they could be a bit much at times.
Steve was quietly overbearing, and Chase was the loud, smothering type. Thanks to the two of them, I hadn’t had a date in four years. And the one date I did go on shortly after I moved in with the kids?
Well, let’s just say that date went down in a blaze of glory, landed in a ripe pile of garbage, and exploded into a dumpster fire of Chernobyl proportions.
Apparently, living in a trailer park with four kids and no money didn’t exactly make me a hot commodity.
Steve and Chase didn’t need to be my lifeguards in the dating pool. I was perfectly capable of scaring away potential suitors just fine.
“Just a guest, huh?” Chase shifted his hands on the wheel as we rounded the bay toward Maddie and Luca’s house. “ Just a guest would have asked if you were okay and then left.” He cut me a glance. “He wouldn’t have puffed out his chest and introduced himself when I rolled up.”
I glared at him. “I was in his room to clean for, like, ten minutes. We made awkward small talk, that’s all.”
“Whatever you say, kid.”
I closed my eyes and leaned my head against the seat. The gentle road rumble was soothing.
“Kris— ”
Someone was shaking me.
I snapped up, looking around frantically. “Hm? Wha?—”
Chase was standing with the passenger door wide open. We were parked in Maddie’s driveway. “You dozed off.”
Fuck. I needed a nap. I rubbed my eyes and unlatched my seatbelt. “Sorry.”
He draped his arm around my shoulders, and we made our way around the side of the house to the downstairs entrance of Luca’s man cave.
“It’s okay to ask for help, Kris,” Chase said in a kind voice.
I knew he meant well, but that didn’t mean I liked it.
Monday poker nights were the best part of the week. Everyone piled into Maddie and Luca’s basement, gorged themselves on pizza and drinks, and alternated between smack talking and catching up on local gossip.
“What are y’all talking about?” Chase asked as the two of us stepped inside.
Maddie, Hannah Jane, Mel, Erica, and Bridget sat crowded together on the couch, giggling like schoolgirls.
“Lip fillers,” Hannah Jane sing-songed, flashing the screen of her phone where a photo of a social media influencer filled the screen.
The poor woman’s face was puffed up like she had eaten a jellyfish. She was trendy looking, even with the allergic reaction, but I didn’t have a clue who she was. I couldn’t even remember the last time I’d looked at social media.
Luca walked by, depositing a beer into Chase’s hand and a fruity pink cocktail in mine.
Chase grinned. “Lip fillers, huh? That’s what the ladies like to call my dick.”
Luca and Chase high-fived while Maddie and Mel burst into a fit of laughter and nearly rolled off the couch, clutching their stomachs .
Erica crossed her legs, wiping the tears out of her eyes. “Warn a girl! Y’all know I can’t laugh without peeing a little now.”
Bridget’s mouth gaped open.
“You kiss Layla with that mouth?” I asked playfully.
Chase winked. “Hell yeah, I do.”
Layla Mousavi, a nurse at the hospital, and Chase had been seeing each other on and off ever since they hit it off at the bar.
Ever since that night, things between him and Bridget had been awkward. Their flirtationship had come to a screeching halt. It was probably for the best, though, given that Bridget was happily cohabitating with Kyle Kingsley.
Until Chase actually moved on, the rest of us had to walk on eggshells around them.
Steve shoved Maddie down further on the couch and patted the space between him and the armrest. “Take a load off, kid.”
I plopped down next to him and scowled. Kid.
It wasn’t a secret that I barely fit in with the group. I was a good six years younger than the rest of the poker club. Hell, Luca and Isaac had more than a decade on me.
My mind drifted back to Will Solomon as I sipped on my pink drink. There were flecks of gray in his light brown hair. It was hot in a silver fox kind of way. The lines at the corners of his eyes crinkled every time he smiled. They were warm and comforting.
“Earth to Kristin … hello?” It was Erica calling my name.
I snapped back to the present. “Hm? What?” All eyes were on me. “Do you need me to take Aly?”
Steve chuckled. “Aly is with Heather’s mom tonight,” he said wistfully.
Erica had a great relationship with Steve’s late wife’s mom. Aly even called her Grandma Evy.
“Let me guess,” Chase said, smirking as he snagged a slice of pizza from one of the boxes. “Thinking about Just a Guest ?”
I glared at him .
Maddie tapped her fingertips together like a mad scientist. “Ooooh! Does Kris finally have something juicy to tell?”
“No!” I snapped as if I was scolding a puppy, then shot Chase a dirty look.
Bridget had a wicked smile on her face. “I think we’re going to need details about this Just a Guest. ”
Hannah Jane knocked back the rest of her drink and slammed the glass down. “Finally!” she shouted. “You’ve had this coming since you bragged about seeing security camera footage of me running through the inn in a bathrobe. Spill, sister.”
Luckily, Isaac strolled in, saving me from the inquisition. He leaned in and planted a sloppy kiss on Hannah’s mouth. “Sorry I’m late, Princess.”
“Good flight?” Hannah asked. She let Isaac take her spot on the couch, then settled in his lap.
“A little weather, but not bad,” Isaac said, his hand resting on Hannah Jane’s hip.
She leaned back and smiled, pressing her lips against his temple.
A bolt of jealousy zipped through me like lightning. I gritted my teeth and sucked down the last bits of my drink.
“Want another?” Luca asked, gesturing toward my empty glass.
I shook my head. “No, I need to switch to water.” There was no way I was going to drive home anything less than sober.
Maddie and Mel went about setting up the poker table while the rest of us picked up plates and cups. We could be a rowdy bunch, but we were mostly civilized.
Steve took a stack of paper plates out of Erica’s hand and whispered something in her ear that made her giggle.
I dusted some crumbs off the couch and caught a glimpse of Maddie and Luca exchanging heated looks across the room. I needed a machete to cut through the sexual tension in the room.
Most days, it didn’t cross my mind just how long it had been since I felt any sort of intimacy with anyone. My dry spell was looking dustier than the desert in a drought. By the time I crashed on the couch at night, I was too exhausted to dabble in self-service pleasure.
I played through two rounds of poker before my groggy eyes got the best of me. It was nice to be a part of adult conversation, but I couldn’t relax when I knew that it would be back to the grind as soon as I left.
Wash, rinse, repeat.
Steve promised to look at my car first thing in the morning, and Chase caught a ride home with Hannah Jane and Isaac.
The tall headlights of Chase’s truck nearly beamed straight across the roof of my single-wide. The screen door screeched open, and Logan sulked on the sagging front step. His shoulders dropped when I hopped down from the driver’s seat and slammed the door.
“Thought you were Chase,” he grumbled. “Where’s your car?”
I sighed and yanked my bag out of the back seat. I was grateful that Chase had a spare vehicle that could fit the five of us. It was tight, but it was better than nothing. “The car crapped out on me when I was leaving work to go to Maddie’s house. Chase picked me up and loaned me the truck until Steve can get my car running again.”
“The car’s a piece of shit,” Logan mumbled as he scuffed his toe against the door frame.
I locked the truck and walked inside before the mosquitoes ate me up. “Logan, I?—”
“I know, I know … you’re tired. You don’t have the capacity to put up with us tonight.” He dragged his feet through the combination living room, kitchen, and dining room.
It wasn’t big enough for one of those rooms, much less all three.
“I’m going to bed,” he grunted .
“Logan, I was going to say thank you for holding down the fort tonight.”
He stopped in his tracks.
Logan had more on his shoulders than any seventeen-year-old should. He and Kylie were twelve and ten when our parents were arrested. Back then, they had a pretty good grasp of what had happened. Now they knew every disgusting, dirty detail. Hunter was seven at the time, and we did our best to shield him from the ugliness.
Thanks to the small-town rumor mill, it didn’t take long before he caught up.
Sweet Zoey was the only one who remained untouched, but I knew it wouldn’t stay that way forever. It would actually surprise me if she learned how to read before she learned about drug trafficking.
Logan stuffed his hands in the pockets of his sweatpants. They used to be Steve’s. Logan was growing through clothes faster than I could find them at the Goodwill. Thankfully, Erica had dropped off a box of Steve’s things that he couldn’t fit in anymore. I guess that’s what happened when he started working out like a maniac and went from looking like mild-mannered Bruce Banner to being built like The Hulk.
“Hunter did his homework. Kylie helped Zo brush her teeth, then Ky hid in her room all night.”
Sounded about right.
Hunter. That kid had a gentle spirit and a sharp mind. It would take him far in life. Unfortunately, it also meant that he got picked on at school.
Kylie was sixteen and lacked parental guidance. I tried. Dammit, I tried hard, but meaningless platitudes were the best I could offer. It’ll get better, and all boys are terrible at sixteen.
And then there was Logan. He flip-flopped between being a rebel without a cause and being the man of the house. I couldn’t blame him.
He should have been worrying about things like having a girlfriend, making the football team, or what colleges he was going to apply to. Instead, he spent his after-school hours with the door to his bedroom door shut, drowning out the chaos of life with heavy metal and video games.
That was all thanks to the poker club. They smothered the kids with presents for Christmas and birthdays.
“How was school?” I asked, keeping my voice low as I pulled my pillow and blanket out of the woven basket I kept beside the couch.
Logan shrugged. “Fine.”
I flipped open the trunk that tripled as a makeshift coffee table and my dresser, and pulled out a pair of pajamas. Really it was just an old shirt and gym shorts. “Did anything good happen?”
He huffed. “Nothing ever does.”
“You wanna talk about why I got a call from the school telling me I needed to come in for another meeting about your grades?”
“Nope.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. Logan was a smart kid. Five years ago, he was getting awards in math and science. Now, he was failing across the board.
I sighed softly. I loved my siblings, but I hated being a parent to them. “We’ll discuss it this weekend. I’m giving you a week to come up with a plan and prove to me you can get your act together.”
He scoffed. “Or what?”
He had me there. We had nothing I could ground him from, and there wasn’t excess for me to use as a reward. I looked around our home. Most people wouldn’t consider a single-wide in a run-down trailer park a suitable house, but it was ours, and it had to be enough.
“Or you won’t graduate,” I said firmly. It was a useless threat. He had made it clear he wanted to drop out on many occasions. I think I would have preferred that argument. Unfortunately, he just didn’t have it in him to argue with me about it tonight.
Instead, Logan slunk down the short hallway and opened the door to the boys’ bedroom.
“Night, Lo. I love you,” I said hopefully.
“Love you, Krissy,” he muttered.
I ducked into the bathroom and slipped into my shorts and t-shirt, brushed my teeth, and splashed some water on my face. My skincare routine—a washcloth and generic bar soap—would have sent Hannah Jane into a maelstrom had she known.
I poked my head into Zoey and Kylie’s room.
Zoey was curled up in her tiny toddler bed, sound asleep. I pressed a kiss to her head and pulled the blanket back over her. Floppy, her beloved stuffed bunny, was on the floor beside her. I picked him up and tucked him in her tiny arms.
Kylie was in bed, but her eyes were open.
“Need anything?” I asked in a whisper.
She shook her head.
“Love you, Ky.”
“Night, Kris.”
Kylie was less forthcoming with I love you’s than even Logan was. Then again, I didn’t blame her. She’d grown accustomed to people disappointing her, and it was just easier if she didn’t get attached.
Kylie and I were peas in a pod that way.
The light in the boy’s room was still on, so I knocked softly before letting myself in. “Y’all good?”
Logan’s eyes barely flitted up from his phone.
Hunter looked up from his book. “Can we go to the library tomorrow? I’m almost out.”
The kid was a voracious reader. Lately, he had been hooked on a series about a teenage boy recruited to be a spy for MI6. I had fiction writers to thank for Hunter’s optimism. Books gave him an escape from reality, and I would do everything in my power to keep him hungry for more.
I smiled sadly. “I have to work tomorrow, but we’ll go soon.”
Lights off and doors locked, I went back to the living room and crashed on the couch. I barely had the blanket over me before my mind went black.