Chapter 5 Ash
When Jett told me the girls were at the house, I’d been surprised but said nothing. Gray grunted, but with a look my way, he said nothing either. When Jett told us on the walk to the house that Quinn had told Red everything, I knew I hadn’t hidden my shock.
Gray cursed once but remained silent; however, his pace picked up as he hurried home to her.
Home to her.
Jett wasn’t slow in picking up his pace, and pretty soon they were both ahead of me on the walk home.
It was Monday evening, and I was still hurting from last night’s horrible sleep.
I’d received a text from Onyx earlier to tell me he had fixed my living situation.
I had been hoping someone would tell me I’d been moved completely, but Jett had told me at the start of practice that I had a new bed.
The way he had said it caused me to look at him and wait for more, but he had merely frowned and said nothing further. I couldn’t help but feel that I was public enemy number one. I didn’t know why, and I was fed up with always being the last to know.
“What the fuck’s the problem now?” I muttered as I caught up with them. Gray didn’t acknowledge me, and Jett looked to his brother first before he mumbled something under his breath.
“What? Now we don’t speak?” I asked them, my temper rising as they walked beside me.
Jett finally spoke when the house was in front of us. “You changed the whole apartment?”
“I did what now?” I asked him curiously. “I just wanted a new bed.”
“Yeah, you got what you asked for,” Gray muttered as he jogged up the front steps to the house.
Well, what the fuck was that supposed to mean?
Jett took the stairs two at a time to the top level, and I followed them, wondering what in hell’s name was going on now.
Quinn sat in the middle of Gray’s bed, and her eyes were sad when she turned to look at him.
Without a word, his hand was out, and she took the offered palm, letting him pull her off the bed and into his body as he wrapped his arms around her.
Ava sat on the couch with Red beside her.
Jett perched on the end of the sofa as he tilted his woman’s face up to meet his and kissed her in greeting.
Red was looking at me, and I hesitated before I slowly closed the bedroom door.
“What?” I asked her as her eyes narrowed infinitesimally at me. “What? I didn’t do anything!” The fact that I had jumped straight onto the defensive pissed me off.
“My apartment has been completely overhauled,” Red said to me waspishly.
“It’s just a bed, Red.” I grunted as I took the only seat left in the room at Gray’s desk. “It’s not even your bed.”
“It’s more than the bed,” Ava interrupted whatever retort Red was going to give me. “Half the kitchen cupboards are gone, there’s a huge fridge, huge sofa, huge TV. . . ”
“I got a new TV?” I asked enthusiastically. “Sweet.” I looked at Red, whose hand was over her mouth, and I cocked my head as I studied her. “Why are you mad about a TV?”
“They’re coming in the morning to put in a wet room,” Quinn spoke for the first time, and I turned to see her also watching me with judgment.
“What’s a wet room?” I asked.
“A shower room,” Ava piped up. “Only the whole floor’s the drain.”
“Nice, now I’ll at least be able to shower.” I nodded appreciatively as I looked around them. “Seriously, what’s the problem?”
“You can’t refurbish my apartment,” Red said to me through gritted teeth.
“Well, technically, I didn’t.”
She shot to her feet and took a step toward me in temper. “You may not have ordered anything, but you told your brother!”
“Actually,” Jett spoke up, “I, uh, that was me.” His eyes widened as the redheaded she-demon turned to him. “I only asked for a bed.”
“Did you call Onyx?” Gray asked me as Quinn retook her place on the center of his bed.
“Nope.” I popped the P just to annoy him. It worked. “You all forgetting your brother is on the school board and has access to all the information in the system? Including housing floor plans?”
I took no satisfaction from the guilty look that Jett and Gray exchanged.
Quinn was looking at Mia, but it wasn’t with guilt; it was more “I told you so.” What had she told her?
Had Quinn defended me? “It’s real nice how all of a sudden I’m the fucking bastard.
” Jerking my thumb at Gray, I continued, “Isn’t one enough? ”
Jett grunted out a laugh, but Gray merely flipped me off, and I returned his one-finger salute with two of my own.
“So that’s what all the grief’s for? Onyx remodeled some of your furniture?” I looked between Red and Ava. “You shitting me?”
“It’s just a lot,” Ava spoke up as she reached over to grab Red’s hand and tug her back down onto the couch.
“Okay.” Shaking my head, I looked away from them all. Christ almighty, how would they ever deal with a real problem?
“That’s it?” Red demanded. “Okay?”
“Jesus fuck, what more do you want? You don’t even own the fucking stuff that was replaced. It belongs to the dorm, a dorm you don’t own. Fuck me, this is not a fucking problem.”
“It’s a problem to me,” she told me angrily.
“Okay, well, your complaint’s been noted. Now, can we move the fuck on?” I glared at my two cousins. “Fuck, we have actual problems to deal with.”
“Maybe we need to calm down?” Quinn suggested quietly. “Have some food?”
“I could eat,” Gray said as he rubbed his stomach. “Actually, I’m ravenous.”
“Me too,” Jett piped up as he stood, pulling Ava with him. “Kitchen?”
“I can eat at home,” Mia said as she rose too.
Ava turned to her even as she looked over at me, her eyes wide.
Fuck . . . my . . . life.
“I’d like to eat here,” I told her in what I hoped was a congenial tone.
“Good for you,” Red snapped.
“Mia,” Ava murmured to her, and I could see Red struggle as her eyes flicked to Quinn’s, and then I saw the fight leave her.
“Sorry,” she mumbled as she pulled her hair over her shoulder.
“We get it,” Quinn said softly. “It’s a lot.”
Red’s angry gaze met mine, and I know I reacted with surprise. “He is. He’s a lot,” Red agreed. “But you all keep telling me it’s temporary.”
She walked past me, out the door, and headed down the stairs. Ava patted my arm as she passed me, and Quinn dipped her head so as not to meet my eyes as she followed.
Turning to my cousins, I looked at them as they stood there smirking.
“What?” I asked them.
“You are in such deep shit,” Jett said with glee before he hurried after the girls, calling out food requests. I turned to Gray, who was watching me.
Gray shook his head slowly. “When she finds out you knew what was happening, she’ll explode.”
I almost denied it again, but Gray knew me too well, so instead I smiled widely at my cousin. “But man, what a show it will be.” I was laughing as I headed down to the kitchen and heard my cousin’s rueful chuckle as he followed me.
The others were already gathered in the kitchen, with Quinn and Ava both crowding the fridge, and I could hear them discussing the meal plans that Quinn had for us as part of her assignment.
I watched Red watch them both as she pointedly ignored me and Gray coming into the living area.
I caught Jett’s eye as I approached, and he shook his head once in warning to leave the firecracker alone.
With an eye roll, I took a seat on one of the stools as I waited to hear what Quinn was serving me for dinner.
I was hungry. I wanted pasta, and I knew without a doubt that Gray would want chicken.
Quinn must have been open to telepathic thoughts this evening as she popped her head out of the fridge to look at the three of us, her eyes narrowed as she thought.
“Pesto chicken and spaghetti?” she suggested.
All three of us nodded, but I saw Red bite her lip, and remembering how she did that when I was fucking her caused my dick to stir.
“Um, salad?” Red asked tentatively with a look at Ava, who was already nodding.
“Yup, got you covered, MeeMoo,” Ava replied as she closed the fridge door with her foot, armed with multiple salad items. I watched Red nod appreciatively.
Running my gaze over Red, I took in her figure.
The girl had no spare weight. She was slender, with nice tits and a bubble butt that I’d appreciated the times I’d fucked her from behind.
Red caught me looking and glared my way, to which I naturally winked in response.
I saw her bite the smile back as she turned from me, even though she shook her head.
Catching Gray’s eye, I saw his look and felt the old familiar bond we shared.
Sure, he was Jett’s twin, but Gray and I had been close growing up, and when Jett would say that Quinn was his best friend, I knew that Gray was mine.
Which is why his being in love . . . lust?
. . . with Quinn hit me like a ton of bricks.
I’d never even suspected it. Much like when Quinn floored me all those years ago, when she had told me that either she or I would have cheated eventually, Gray being in love with her for all those years was equally as astonishing to me.
He was my cousin. Family. But more importantly, he was my best friend. And because of that, he knew that I was struggling, and being who he was, he was willing to let me come to terms with them in my own time, or not at all.
It was the latter that scared me. Gray was cold to the point of arctic at times.
I needed the contrary grumpy asshole in my life.
By my side. I wasn’t willing to lose him, but at the moment, I wasn’t ready to act like nothing happened either.
Sure, it’d been two years since Quinn dumped my ass, and in truth, I was basically over it.
It sucked balls to know someone had cheated on you; the hurt and the betrayal were real.
Then you find out a few months later that she’d miscarried, and even with the hardest heart, I couldn’t stop hurting for her.