Chapter 24
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Hutch
As soon as Jocelyn gets off work, she comes upstairs, and I immediately usher her to Kasen’s apartment.
I knock on Kasen’s door. No answer.
Jocelyn tugs on my hand. “Come on. We can talk to him later,” she urges as she tries to pull me toward the stairwell.
I don’t budge and knock again. No answer, but I swear I hear noise from inside his apartment.
I pull out my phone and text him.
Me: Answer your door, fucker.
No answer, but for sure I know there’s some noise coming from inside his apartment. A muffled cry?
I feel my brows furrowing in confusion and annoyance.
“OMG. We need to leave,” Jocelyn states as she tugs harder on my hand.
“Why? He’s home,” I state, motioning to the door.
Jocelyn puts her free hand on her hip and glares up at me, and then motions to the door. “Yeah, and he and Piper are clearly busy,” she says, raising an eyebrow.
It takes my muddled brain a beat to read between the lines on what she’s saying, and when it does, my eyebrows shoot up to the ceiling.
“Oh,” I manage to say.
“Yeah, oh. Come on,” she says, yanking me one more time. This time I follow her.
She giggles as we reach the stairs. “You’re adorably clueless, you know that, right?”
“Haha,” I reply, my voice laced with sarcasm.
My phone pings as I go to step, and I stop to check it.
Kasen: In the middle of something. What do you need?
Me: Yeah, I bet you are.
Kasen: (middle-finger emoji)
Me: Jocelyn needs to locate her dad.
Kasen: Right now?
Me: YES
Kasen: Fine. Give me…thirty minutes.
Me: Is that all?
Kasen: You know what…
Me: You love me and want to leave Piper for me?
Kasen: I’m going to beat the shit out of you at the gym tomorrow.
Me: Can’t wait.
Kasen: You’re sick.
Me: Takes one to know one.
Kasen: 30 minutes
Me: Fine.
“What’s that all about?” Jocelyn asks as we continue down to my apartment.
“Kasen can help us in half an hour,” I relay.
She laughs as we walk. “Wow. OK, then. Maybe I should check with Piper.”
She pauses and pulls out her phone, texting Piper. A second later, she grins up at me. “We can go back up,” she says with another giggle.
“Great,” I grumble, knowing Kasen is going to be super pissed since we just cockblocked him.
This time, it’s Jocelyn who knocks on the door.
Piper opens it. Her hair screams of the activities that were just occurring, but she smiles warmly and hugs Jocelyn.
“Come on in,” she says with a wave of her hand. We enter to find Kasen already on his computer.
“He’s here,” Kasen says.
Jocelyn stops and stares at him. “What do you mean?”
Kasen points to his computer screen. “You gave me his name when we searched for your other family members. So, I just ran a quick search on him. He rented an apartment that’s less than a mile from here a few weeks ago.
Looks like he’s interviewing with a consulting firm near here.
He’s been working on contract with them.
I’ll admit, this guy is a bit of a mystery, but he’s definitely here. ”
Kasen scribbles down two addresses and hands the sheet of paper to Jocelyn.
“First one is the apartment building, and the second one is the consulting firm. Sounds like they do some kind of IT consulting or marketing stuff, maybe,” he says, as his eyes skim his screen.
“Thanks,” Jocelyn states, staring at the paper.
“No problem. I hope everything goes well with that,” he offers, and I can see that his face softens when he says that.
Jocelyn gives him a smile that doesn’t reach her eyes. “Appreciate that, Kase,” she says quietly.
“Are you going to see him?” Piper asks.
Jocelyn turns to where Piper is leaning against a wall, watching us. She shrugs. “I don’t know. But I think so. I want to, sort of.”
Piper pushes off the wall and comes over, wrapping her arms around Jocelyn. I watch my woman hug her friend. They whisper to each other, and then Jocelyn pulls away.
“Have a good night, guys,” she says as she takes my hand again and tugs me toward the door.
As we walk downstairs, she doesn’t speak, and I begin to worry about her. She pauses at my door, and I look down at her.
“You OK?” I ask.
She nods. “Just a lot to think about,” she admits.
“You want to talk about it?” I ask.
She shakes her head. “No. I think I want to not think about it right now.”
“So you need a distraction?” I ask as I unlock my door.
“I do. Any ideas?” she asks as she saunters into my place, and I slam the door and pull her to me.
“Oh yeah, I got some ideas,” I state as I lean down and kiss her.
* * *
Jocelyn
I wedged myself between Hutch’s muscled thighs and place my hands on the lower half of his chest to prop my head upon.
He’s so big that even with my feet resting against his, my head only reaches where his chest and abdomen meet. Our gazes meet. He studies me silently for a beat.
“Out with it,” he whispers.
How does he know? I wouldn’t have pegged Hutch as a mind reader, but damn if he isn’t intuitive when it comes to me.
“Can I ask you something and you promise not to get mad?” I say as my eyes search his.
He chuckles, and his abdominal muscles tighten against my chest.
“I will try,” he promises, his eyes crinkling at the corners in amusement.
“Why are you obsessed with figuring out who puts the flowers on that bench every morning?” I ask.
His brows furrow, and for a second, I think he’s not going to give me a real answer. But then he frowns and opens his mouth, before closing it again.
I raise an eyebrow.
He sighs and crosses his arms behind his head, momentarily distracting me with his biceps.
“Eyes up here, princessa,” he teases.
I roll my eyes and stare back into his icy blue ones.
With his scruffy beard and thick, longer hair pulled back, he looks every part the Nordic Viking right now.
But I see so much more than that. I see the scar on his arm from his accident.
I see freckles on his shoulders from working on his family farm in tank tops.
God, what a sight that would have been. A Nordic Viking farm boy.
“After my accident, the doctor came to talk to me while I was still in rehab. The second she opened my door, I knew it wasn’t good.
She sat down, put her elbows on her knees, looked over at me, and told me I’d never play ball again.
I didn’t want to believe her. I heard every word she said, but I didn’t process them.
She talked about how my joint would never heal perfectly and that I was susceptible to future catastrophic injuries if I were to get hit in the wrong way.
She talked about how I’d always have a bit of a different gait when walking or running.
And just like that, my life as I knew it ended.
The team didn’t renew my contract. I had to sell my house and my sports car.
And then my girlfriend couldn’t deal with my depression and cheated on me.
And that was the final straw. I moved in here, and a friend got me my current job.
It’s a fine job and it pays well, but…” He trails off and shrugs.
“It’s not the dream,” I say softly.
He shakes his head.
“Nope. And I pretended for a long time that I was OK. I had lived, and that was good enough. But then Edith died, and I watched Al grieve, and I grieved too. She was a good listener.” He pauses again.
“Just like you.” He gives me a small smile.
“Anyhow, when Kasen’s grandmother was sick, he sort of disappeared and took care of her, and I was left with no one.
At least, no one close to me that really got me.
So I threw myself into solving this mystery.
It became my escape. And I guess, I found comfort in it in some strange way.
I had control. Those damn flowers end up there every day, come hell or high water.
And once you’re so far down a rabbit hole, it’s hard to turn back,” he finishes and shrugs again.
“How much therapy did you need to peel back all those layers?” I ask, trying to sound teasing, but deep down, it’s a legitimate question. This man has been through so much.
His lips twitch with a smile. “Enough,” he muses.
Then he frowns a little. “I can stop if it bothers you.”
I reach up and cup his jaw, running my fingers through his beard. His eyes flutter closed for a beat.
“Don’t stop. Unless you want to,” I whisper.
His eyes open, and he stares down at me. His hands grab my hips, and he rolls us over, wedging himself between my thighs.
His eyes rove over my body. “You’re so damn perfect, Jocelyn. I don’t know why the universe saw fit to send you to me, but I’m going to stop questioning it and just enjoy every minute I get with you.”
I grin up at him and wrap my legs around his waist. The tip of his cock wedges against my opening.
“Maybe I’m going to be too busy with my new favorite hobby to continue my old one,” he teases as he pushes a little further into me. I groan as I feel myself stretch to accommodate him.
“What’s your new favorite hobby?” I ask.
He thrusts a little further inside. “Letting Njal explore his new favorite cave of wonders,” he replies, his lips forming a smirk.
“Njal?” I question, fighting another eye roll.
He looks down to watch where our bodies are connected. “You named it?” I ask with a laugh.
He nods.
“I don’t know that name,” I state.
His smirk widens. This should be good. “It’s a Nordic Viking name for a giant.”
A giggle escapes me, and I give his chest a playful shove. “You’re ridiculous.”
I barely finish saying that when he slams in all the way with Njal. Fuck. That name is super spot on.
We both moan. He starts to move, but I grip him tighter, trying to hold him in place as I acclimate.
“Give me a second. Njal is not just a giant, he’s like a freaking monster giant that wants to break the cave open, and no one wants that,” I say as I try to relax my muscles.
Hutch throws back his head and laughs. And I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything more beautiful in my life.