Chapter 24 Game of Telephone
Calder
“Hey, guys!” Everly’s voice peals through FaceTime on my phone as Wyatt drives us all back to Fletcher Mountain after a particularly
grueling day on the job site.
“Hey, Evie-girl,” I call back over my brothers’ greetings.
“How’s it going?” she asks, her eyes bright and cheery as I hold the phone up to show her to everyone.
“Great. How’s it going for you?” Wyatt replies, not taking his eyes off the road.
“I’m amazing!” She pulls a silly face as I look at her a little closer, clocking the heavier makeup and hooded eyes.
I glance at my smartwatch that shows the time in Dublin right now. “It’s late there. Have you been out partying?” I ask, as
Luke leans over the back seat to squeeze his face into the frame.
“I thought you’d still be recovering from Mexico,” he adds with a big, cheesy smile as he twists his baseball cap backward
to see better.
“The Irish know how to have a good time,” she answers and giggles, revealing just how tipsy she is. “Actually, they call it
the craic .”
“You should not be doing crack, Everly,” Wyatt thunders, nearly jerking the car off the road. “What are you thinking?”
“Yeah... even I’ll judge you for that one,” I add, frowning back at her.
She erupts into more giggles. “Not crack cocaine, you guys. Jeez. I mean the craic. C-R-A-I-C. It means a party. Like, the
craic was ninety tonight,” she says, doing a nice job at an Irish accent.
“I have no idea what you’re saying,” I deadpan, feeling like an old fuck. “I can’t handle Gen Z lingo.”
“This isn’t Gen Z... this is old Irish stuff. Maybe you guys should come out and visit me sometime. I have a feeling you’d fit right in here.”
Wyatt grumbles like the negative ass he is, but my brows lift. It could be a good Dark Night–bonding experience for us all
in the fall when she goes back next year. None of us have ever been to Europe, but I doubt Wyatt will want to go with Stevie
being so little. He only said yes to Mexico because our mom came with the baby and he was marrying the love of his life. Everly
ranks high on his list of priorities, but I’m not sure if a trip across the pond is in his near future.
“So what have you guys been up to since Mexico? How’s my baby cousin?”
“She’s good. Home with her mama,” Wyatt says, and I catch the proud smirk on his lips. God, he’s such a happy fucker.
“Wyatt is working us like dogs,” I grumble, and the sicko’s smirk grows even wider. “He made me stay late last night to finish
some sheet rocking on my own.”
He harrumphs and I harrumph right back. I’m picking up all the slack these days because he’s got to get home to the family.
Luke usually has bookwork shit to do for the business, so that leaves me: the muscle, the trained monkey, the hired hand.
They depend on me to not have a life and get the piddly shit done that no one else wants to do. It’s getting old.
“Well, hopefully you can relax tonight,” Everly says, her bright and happy tone piercing through all the way from Dublin.
“We had to hurry back to the mountain tonight because Calder has a date,” Luke sings like an ass from the back seat so I swing
my elbow back, connecting with his shoulder.
He laughs and rubs his arm while I reposition the phone to see Everly again.
Her eyes are saucers, and I think I can see the molars of her teeth as she grins back at me. “An actual date, Uncle Calder?
With who?”
“No one.” I clench my teeth and shake my head. “Luke is full of shit. It’s not a date.”
“It’s with Dakota,” Luke coughs out and slides across the back seat so I can’t swing at him again.
“Would you shut the fuck up?” I bark and turn back to our niece. “It’s not a date, Everly. Dakota and I just have a project
we’re working on together.”
“What kind of project?”
“Yeah... what kind of project?” Luke repeats in a mock high-pitched voice.
Wyatt glances at Luke in the rearview mirror with a knowing smirk that I would punch off his face if he wasn’t driving. “I’m
building some custom display shelves for her store.”
I can feel Luke’s eyes burning a hole in the back of my head as I refuse to look at him. I didn’t want to tell anyone about
me and Dakota, but like a dumbass, I decided it would be a fun idea to be fucking neighbors with my nosy-ass brothers. When
it’s just random women I bring home from the bars, no one asks any questions. But I knew they’d see Dakota at some point,
and Trista, Luke, and Wyatt would be like dogs with a bone until I cracked. So I did something shocking.
I told them the truth.
Well... part of the truth. The casual friends with benefits truth. If I showed them my list of kinky shit I plan to do to that maddening woman for the next couple weeks, I’d never hear
the end of it.
And having to go public with this shit is Dakota’s fault. My preference would have been conducting this little social experiment
at her place for some privacy, but she axed that idea immediately. I guess having sex in the house she shared with her ex-husband
brings up shitty memories or something. I didn’t want to pry. I just focused on managing my douchebag brothers and new sister-in-law
as best I could.
Trista was like a kid in a candy store when I told her, peppering questions at me left and right. It was so bad, I had to text Dakota to tell her she might want to tell Cozy, because this shit wasn’t going to stay secret for long.
The downfall to a close family: no fucking privacy.
But what happens behind closed doors is for our eyes only. And I can’t wait to see how Dakota reacts to everything I have
planned. Just the anticipation of her coming over tonight has made my dick hard off and on all fucking day. Do you know how
awkward it is to pop a boner while running a buzz saw next to your brother? Fuck. This woman has a way of messing with me even when she’s not around.
I can’t wait.
Dakota
“I have to tell you something,” I say into the phone line as I sit on the countertop in front of the vanity mirror in my bathroom
at home.
“You’re pregnant.” Cozy’s voice is resigned.
“No... What the hell?”
“Well, you freaked me out in Mexico with all that big-boob talk.”
“I’m not pregnant,” I repeat firmly. “You have to have sex to get pregnant. I am currently on a year-long dry spell. Or I
was...”
She gasps loudly into the phone. “You’re finally going to tell me you had sex with Calder in Mexico.”
I cringe and nod. “Yes, but seriously, how did you know?”
“Oh please, I think everyone knows.”
“Everyone?” I drop my eyeliner into the sink as I press my hand to the mirror for balance. “Like who everyone?”
“Pretty sure Johanna was the first one who called it.”
“Calder’s mother?” I swivel around to hang my legs off the countertop, so I don’t fall off. “Please tell me you’re joking.”
“I wish I was, friend. This is really embarrassing for you.”
Heat floods my face, and I have to fan myself before I pass out. I hop down and begin pacing in my bathroom, trying to slow down my heartbeat. “Don’t sound so smug! You were the nanny when you started screwing Max.”
She gasps. “That’s a low blow.”
“Well! You’re making me feel like shit.”
“At least I married the guy. Are you planning to marry Calder?”
“God no, I’m not an idiot.” I wince before I hit her with the next bit. “But I think I am going to have sex with him again.”
So. Much. Gasping.
“I didn’t think Calder ever slept with the same woman twice,” Cozy says once she’s caught her breath.
I cock my head and press my lips together because that ship has already sailed thanks to our little sex club visit a couple
nights ago. “I think he’s making an exception for me.”
“This is big.”
“It’s not big.” I wave my hand even though she can’t see me. “It’s chill, casual sex. We’re fuck buddies. No feelings involved.”
“Huh.” Cozy laughs. “Fascinating.”
“What?”
“I just didn’t know you could do casual.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’ve had sex with like three people. Your high school boyfriend, your college boyfriend, and Randal.”
“So...”
“So... I’m totally into this, I think it’s amazing. I just want you to be careful because this is new territory for you.”
I can hear the doubt in her voice.
“Getting divorced was new territory for me too, and yet...”
“And yet...” Cozy sighs.
“This just means it’s a good time for me to do some things that aren’t my norm.” I resume my pacing because it seems to help
my brain function.
“I fully support this. So what’s the plan? When are you going to see him again?” I hear Ethan’s voice murmur something about
downloading a game on his tablet.
“Ask your father!” she hisses. “I’m on the phone.”
“I’m headed to the mountain tonight,” I reply when it’s quiet again.
“Holy shit, this is juicy!” Cozy squeals excitedly. “Can I tell Max? I have to tell Max. Everly too. She’s going to flip.”
“Not Everly.” I sigh and pinch the bridge of my nose. “But I think Calder already told Wyatt and Luke, so go ahead and tell
Max, I guess. But jeez, we don’t need the teenager knowing about this. It’s weird.”
“Calder told his brothers about you?”
“Yeah, I guess the shelving units he’s making for me aren’t a good enough front... even though it’s true.”
I walk into my attached closet and begin rifling through my clothes to figure out what I’m going to wear tonight. What does
one wear to an enemies-with-benefits night of passion?
“The Fletcher family is relentless.”
“I am gathering that,” I reply with a huff. As an only child, I’m not used to all this sibling sharing-everything stuff. I
rely heavily on my friendships for connections. But how to do you talk to your brothers about who you’re banging? It’s weird.
“Anyways, it’s casual, I swear. And I’m not going to fall for him because we still bicker at each other pretty regularly,
so you don’t have to worry about me.”
“I’m going to worry a little bit,” Cozy says softly. “I’m a mother. It’s what I do. Not to mention I’m your best friend, and
I’m pretty sure you worried about me when I started hooking up with Max.”
I smile at the memory of that love saga. The maternal softness in her voice is comforting.
My brows lift as I spot Calder’s Colorado Rockies shirt hanging in my closet. I haven’t washed it since Mexico, and even though
I was the one who wore it, I swear it still smells like him. I press my nose to the fabric and feel my insides clench with
desire.
It seems shocking to be doing this, but I literally feel like I don’t have a choice. My vagina would revolt against me if I said no to Calder’s proposition.
I’m not sure what he’s getting out of it, though. Surely he can have any girl he wants. His reputation is proof of that. Maybe
he really is just being overprotective of me and my sex club experimenting. But offering to have sex with me seems like a
pretty generous answer to that question, right? I guess I’m easy because I’ve available. Maybe it’s as simple as Calder likes
sex, and I’m open for business.
That’s probably it. A guy like Calder doesn’t likely think very deeply about string-free sex.
“Well, just know that while you’re busy being a mom and a wifey, I’m going to be getting railed by the hottest Fletcher brother.”
“No way. I for sure have the hottest Fletcher brother.”
“Oh, look at the time. I have got to go. Talk to you later!”
I hang up and smile as a surge of excitement rushes through me. I’m feeling better than I have in years, and I’m taking that
all as a good sign. Let my sexual awakening commence.