Chapter 18
CROW
“This is like moving a frat boy with a shoe fetish,” my cousin Ruf said as he walked beside me carrying an armful of clothes he’d pulled out of Darcy’s closet.
I laughed because he was right. This was the third laundry basket full of shoes I’d carried across the street to my house, and not for the first time I wondered where in the hell she was going to put them all.
“At least we don’t have to load up a truck, drive it somewhere and then unload it again,” Roar said cheerfully.
When I looked over my shoulder I saw that he had a load of clothes as big as the one Ruf was carrying, and I wondered when Darcy wore half of this stuff.
She spent her days wearing scrubs, and had so many that it took all three of us to carry them over in one trip, and when she wasn’t working she was usually in tank tops and shorts, which I couldn’t say enough wonderful things about.
Really. When I saw her in a tight tank and shorts I couldn’t say anything at all because the blood left my brain and rushed straight down to my dick.
“How long has she lived here?” Ruf asked. “Did you notice that she was able to pack up her kitchen stuff in one box? I think there were still stickers on some of her dishes.”
“Clancy insisted on taking Darcy and Tansy shopping for stuff like that a few months ago because the girls were eating off of paper plates and re-using plastic silverware,” Brawley explained as he trailed behind us with another load of clothes.
“Darcy and Tansy have been so busy getting their business in order that they didn’t really have the time or energy to do anything about their houses.”
“Unlike Clancy who turned hers into a DIY showroom,” Brawley said with a chuckle. “She’s over there with my Dad right now discussing custom bookshelves for the living room.”
“And now that you’re living there you get to help with the projects, I’m sure.”
“I kind of like it,” Brawley admitted. “Maybe when she finishes our house she can move on and turn yours into something.”
“Something? My house is great!”
“Your house looks like a bachelor lives there,” Ruf argued.
“Yours did until your sisters got their hands on things, and when Jovi moved in it finally started to look like a home.”
“I found the perfect woman, you guys. I’m serious. She hasn’t even made a peep about moving my workspace out of the dining room.”
“Because when Koda is working there she knows that he’s not out terrorizing the general public,” Roar said knowingly. “Did I tell you what he asked me the last time I saw him?”
“There’s no telling,” Ruf muttered.
“He asked if Griffin could come over and look at my drum set so they could figure out how to lift it and rotate it in the air while I was playing. It took me a second to figure out what he meant, but by the time I did he informed me that I might not be a good enough drummer to handle all that pressure.”
I burst out laughing and asked, “He’s been watching music videos with Kale again, huh?”
“Apparently,” Roar complained. “I did feel better when he mentioned to Rocky that unless he figured out how to fly over the audience while playing guitar he wasn’t really a rock star.”
“At least he’s honest, right?” Ruf asked with a laugh.
“Has Koda mentioned your teeth at all?” I asked Ruf. When he looked over at me in alarm I said, “They’re planning something and I can’t figure out what.”
“That’ll make your blood run cold,” Brawley mumbled as he passed up to walk up onto my porch and go through the open door. “How long before I have either of them at the middle school? I need to start planning now because you know I’m gonna need back up.”
The second Brawley walked into the house the puppies went wild, probably smelling his dog Max on him. Every time I saw them I swore that they’d grown another inch, and the fact that they were all three fat and happy now made me smile.
“Any idea what kind of dogs they are yet?” Ruf asked as he walked past the dining room.
Once they started getting bigger and more mobile, I had installed gates on both doors so that the dogs were contained.
Now that they were housebroken, they only stayed in their kennels when no one was home.
They were confused and irritated right now because there was a steady stream of people coming in and out of the house, and they couldn’t get underfoot and trip anyone, which seemed to be their favorite thing to do. “They’re huge.”
Apparently, they understood Ruf’s question because the dogs decided to answer him before I could. In unison, they threw their heads back and howled their displeasure, which made Ruf stop in his tracks and stare at them.
“Nichole thinks they’re something called a Bullsky - a Bulldog mixed with a Siberian Husky.”
“Wow. They’re loud,” Ruf complained.
“Says the man whose own child is a wild animal,” Roar muttered as he followed Brawley up the stairs toward my bedroom.
“He’s not wild,” Ruf argued. “He’s had all of his shots!”
“Take those into the guest room,” Tansy ordered when Brawley started to walk into the master. “She’s going through them all to see what she can get rid of now that she’s biker chic rather than country club party girl.”
“Couldn’t she have done that before we carried all of this over here?” Roar complained.
“She could have but then you wouldn’t have had a chance to show off your muscles for the neighbors,” Tansy answered sweetly.
“I know you were lookin’,” Roar teased.
“Whatever, little drummer boy,” Tansy replied as she pushed him down the hall. “Go! We’ve got things to do.”
“We’re in the same boat, my friend. We didn’t just get one woman to tell us what to do, we got three.”
“He’s got four. You forgot about Brighten,” Ruf reminded him.
“What about me?” Brighten called out from the guest room.
“I said you were beautiful and sweet, and I couldn’t imagine what my world would be like without you in it,” Ruf replied sweetly.
“That is a prime example of what I was talking about,” Brighten told Darcy, who was on the other side of the bed with piles of clothes in front of her.
Ruf put his load down as I set the basket of shoes on the floor by the wall, and I laughed when Roar added his arm full to the pile and then hurried to stop them from sliding to the floor.
“He’s pretty and says all the right things but he’s not the brightest bulb on the string. ”
“Are any of them bright?” Darcy asked without looking up from her task. “Crow’s the smart one, although I’m sure Hawk has his moments.”
“They’re few and far between but they happen,” Brighten informed her as she started flipping through the hangers of the clothes the guys had just put down. “I’ll run to get some more bags from my house and then start sorting these by season while you finish that pile.”
“By season?” Roar asked.
“Is that something we’re supposed to do?”
“You don’t wear clothes no matter what season it is, so no, Crow.”
I smiled at Brighten before I said, “Darcy likes me shirtless.”
“So do mosquitos, but that doesn’t mean they’re right,” Brighten muttered.
“I can’t believe y’all are getting married this weekend!” Brawley announced as he walked down the hall. “Now Bright Eyes will have a cohort and you’ll never get any peace.”
“A cohort?” Brighten scoffed as she followed Brawley out into the hall. “Spoken like a true cop!”
Roar and Ruf took off too, which left me and Darcy alone in the bedroom, but unfortunately there were clothes covering the entire mattress, not that I’d have been able to do anything with a house full of people anyway.
I sighed when I looked toward the door and Darcy laughed before she asked, “Are you regretting your answer to my proposal?”
“That’s not it at all. I was just wondering what it would take to get all of these fuckers out of my house so I could be alone with you.”
“We’ve got years to be alone together, but a limited amount of time to get all my stuff over here today,” Darcy reminded me.
“Speaking of stuff,” I said as I looked at the piles on the bed. “Where are we going to put all of this?”
“I’m thinning it out now, but I’ll probably have to use this closet for storage.”
“That makes sense. The only things in your guest room were the clothes in the closet and the umpteen pairs of shoes on the floor. It reminded me of what it was like living with my mom and my sisters.”
“Not all of us can walk around shirtless all the time.”
“Are you complaining?” I asked.
“Of course not. You’re my very own walking sculpture and I can’t wait to put my hands all over you.”
“Enough of that, children! We’ve got work to do!” Brighten said as she walked back into the room carrying a roll of trash bags. “Let’s get this done so Crow can feed all of us dinner.”
“I’ve got to get back to the hospital soon to relieve Mom and Dad.”
“I’ve got your credit card saved on the pizza delivery app.”
“Of course you do,” I muttered.
“I’ll bring some up to you later,” Darcy promised.
I walked around the bed and pulled her into my arms so I could whisper in her ear, “All I want to eat is you.”
“And this is where I start uncontrollably puking,” Brighten muttered.
“Someday we’re going to be alone in this house, and when that happens . . .”
“You’re going to have a toddler running around, and that’s a better cockblocker than three nuns with squirt guns full of holy water,” Ruf said as he leaned into the room and said, “Come on, asshole, there’s still a mall worth of fucking clothes over there that we need to get moved.”
“You were right. Your entire family is crazy,” Darcy said before she gave me a quick peck on the lips. “I’ll see you on the next round.”
“Someday I’m going to have you all to myself.”
“But that day is not today,” Darcy said through her laughter as she pushed me toward the door. “Get to work!”
“Already with the bossiness,” I muttered as I shot a mock glare at Brighten. “You’re a bad influence, Bright Eyes.”
“I do what I can.”
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