11. Kai
Chapter 11
Kai
I lost myself in work for the rest of the week. Sully had a list of shit jobs, and I took every single one, so I didn’t have to face the fact that I was fucking things up with Lexi.
I hadn’t meant to pass out in my truck the night of our fight that wasn’t a fight. It seemed to be exactly what she expected from me, which pissed me off all the more. Because she wasn’t wrong.
I didn’t have the balls to go back, either.
I blasted my music in my headphones and plowed through the backbreaking work, but Rip’s words played on a loop.
Was I really running from Indigo Valley? And more importantly, something real with Lexi?
A roll of liner hit me in the back. I turned to see Cash with his hands on his hips, sweat dripping off his face. I silenced the music.
“You trying to outdo all of us, man?”
“Maybe you’re just too old.”
Cash narrowed his eyes at me. “You got a devil on your back? Or think if you work faster, you can get out of here.”
“What the fuck is with everyone saying that?” I flipped my headphones off, letting them fall to the grass. “Maybe I’m just focused.”
Cash lifted the hem of his shirt to wipe off his face. “Since when? You’re always looking for an exit.”
“You any different?” I stalked toward him, happy to get some of the tension out of my body. “Pretty sure Sully had to call you in for help, too. At least I answered the SOS first.”
“I was in Vancouver, asshat. I got here within a week.”
“Just saying, you were just as gone as I was.”
“Yeah, but I was on a three-month job. I actually have a house here in the valley. You couch surf or crash at the farmhouse when you come back and can’t wait to leave. Sully needs us around. It’s not just about the stupid video of Sully. Now we have actual jobs that keep coming.”
The weight of it sat on my shoulders. “Don’t you think I know that?”
“Then what the hell is your problem?”
“It’s not about this.” I waved around the backyard porch project. “This, I like doing.” Saying it aloud took off one of the boulders on my shoulders. I’d gone all over the continent, learning how to do just about everything under the sun. I had a purpose here, if I wanted it.
I bent at the waist, the heat of the day finally denting the chaos of my thoughts.
“Hey.” Cash ran over to the cooler and returned with a water. “I knew you were pushing too hard. It’s freaking 97o and it’s not even June yet.”
Annoyed at myself, I sat down on the grass and took a long pull on the bottle.
Cash sat beside me. “This isn’t about being home, is it?”
I sighed. “Not all of it.” I looked around at the manicured grass and kid junk lined up along the bushes. This could be my yard with Lex. Our kid junk. Or our pool full of blow-up animals and floaties. “Shit.” I flopped onto my back.
“I mean, we can’t go from working to sunbathing, jackass.”
I laughed, then sat up and finished my bottle. “I’m in love with Lexi.”
“Oh.” Cash cackled. “That’s your problem? A girl?”
“Not just any girl. She makes me want more.”
“It’s called growing up. What does Wyatt say?”
I averted my gaze.
Cash glanced over at where Wyatt was pouring cement into the posts for the deck. “Yeah, I’d fix that up and with the quickness.”
Wyatt knew me too well. As much as my brothers, if not more. “He’s going to kill me.”
“Luckily, we don’t have sisters. Not sure if I’d be cool with anyone touching her, let alone you.”
“Gee, thanks.”
Cash grinned and pushed me over. “Kidding. Mostly.” He got up and held out a hand to me.
I let him pull me up and got back to work.
When four o’clock rolled around and we were cleaning up, I finally got up the nerve to talk to my best friend. If I wanted to actually make things work with Lex, I needed to go to him first. Cash glanced from me to Wyatt with a frown. I waved him off. He shrugged and I crossed the lawn to Wyatt.
He was smiling at his phone when I caught up to him.
“Hey, Wyatt, hold up.”
He glanced up, his smile fading. “You done avoiding me?”
I cracked my knuckles then shoved my hands in my pockets. “What were you smiling about?”
“Just not going to answer my question?”
I sighed. “Why I’m over here.”
He stuffed his phone in his back pocket and crossed his arms, saying nothing.
“Me and Lex are?—”
The swing came out of nowhere and put me on my ass.
Wyatt loomed over me, his hands still fisted.
“Fuck, Wy, I didn’t even say anything.”
“You’re fucking my sister.”
I rolled onto my knees and got up, holding my arm up against another swing before I could get to my feet. “Wait, wait.”
“She’s been snippy all week and you go missing. Connecting the dots is damn easy with that guilty look on your face.”
I wiggled my jaw. Wyatt had a hammer for a fist. “It started out like that.” I took a quick step back as he stiffened. “Her choice, not mine.”
“Yeah, right.”
“Look, you don’t want the details, and I sure as hell don’t want to give them to you.”
“I’m going to fucking kill you. All the women in this town and you go for my sister? She’s not like your usual girls who know the score.”
“I know.” I held up my hands in surrender. “I know, Wyatt. I knew it the first time I—” I cut myself off and ducked when another swing came my way. My best friend might not like confrontations in words, but he’d always been good with his fists.
“The first time I saw her, not the rest. Hold up.” I dodged again, but only barely. “Wyatt, I’m in love with her!”
The swing came again, this time I took it, and my back slammed into the post and I was pretty sure my brains rattled. Possibly out of my ears. The next one bloodied my lip, but I didn’t duck. Wyatt’s eyes were dark with fury.
“You can pummel me all you want, but it’s true.” When he swung again, I caught his fist and pushed him back. “It’s true.”
“You’re not taking her on some joy ride of the US because you think you’re in love with her. She isn’t made for that life.”
“I don’t want that.” I ducked under his arm and moved back to the wider part of the lawn before he pinned me into the shed. Wyatt had some inches on me and a good deal of muscle.
“Worse, she’s not a fuck and run?—”
“Wyatt! I love her and want to stay.”
He lowered his fists. “What?”
I licked the corner of my mouth with a wince. “Fuck, your hand is a hammer.”
“Power is in the arm.” He shook his head. “That’s not the point. What do you mean you’re staying?”
“That’s the point you’re stuck on? Not me and Lex?”
“My sister is awesome. And I’ve caught how you look at her. I just always trusted that you knew better.”
“Ouch.”
Wyatt sighed and rubbed his face with his hands. “I already love you like a brother, Kai. But I also know you better than anyone and you can’t stay in one spot. You’ll hurt her.”
“I never had a reason to stay.”
“Shit.” He paced away from me, then back. Then did another loop. “Dammit, Kai. You’ll get bored and hurt her.”
“You underestimate your sister, asshole. Cut it out.”
His hands fisted again.
“This time, I will punch you back. She’s worth everything, including forever.”
Wyatt sagged. “I know how it feels.”
My eyebrows shot up.
“You’ve been MIA.” He raked his fingers through his hair. “Nicole and I are together.”
I frowned. “Nicole who?”
“Buxton.” My face must have shown my confusion. “Lexi’s best friend.”
“Oh. Really?”
“Yeah. Long story. I’ll buy you a beer and tell you about it. Think you’ll need an extra one to put on that lip.”
“Asshole.”
Wyatt grinned.
“So, we’re good?” I wiggled my jaw again.
“Guess we’ll see. You’re still not good enough for her, but I get what it feels like to be nuts about a girl. I just don’t want to think about it being my sister.”
“Now I just gotta convince your sister.”
He laughed. “You like living dangerously.”
“If you weren’t cool with it, I’d have stayed away. Period.”
“You really do love her.”
“Yeah, I do.”
“Ain’t that some shit. I’m happy to have you back. Just not in my house.”
I laughed. “That I can handle.”