Chapter 21 #2
Robbie doesn’t look as annoyed as he might have before he and Thom started screwing six ways to Sunday in every room of their house. He’s gentle as he pushes Thom back. ‘I’m fine. Go back to your gross exercise.’
Thom grins widely, catches Robbie by the chin, and kisses the breath out of him before jogging off to catch up with Dex.
Robbie waits until they’re not paying attention, still a little pink in the cheeks when he asks, ‘Sure?’
I nod, trying to hide my grin. ‘Roman was here this morning. Looked mad. He forgot his phone too. When he grabbed it, the screen turned on, and sex sounds were coming from the speaker.’
‘Porn?’
‘No,’ I answer with a smile. ‘Dex and him. B-J,’ I spell Dex’s name ‘Sex’ the way I’d been doing the night before.
Robbie’s lips twitch, and he slaps a hand over his eye. ‘Gross. I don’t wanna know.’
‘You have to know if I know.’
He sighs, then bursts into laughter, which is catching because I can’t help falling into a fit of giggles. It lasts a few hundred feet before either of us calms down.
‘Why is this so funny?’ he asks once Dex and Thom stop looking at us sideways.
‘Because Roman swore never to be with a hearing guy, and of all people,’ I remind him, ‘he chose Dex, who isn’t even through with his first ASL class yet. And after the shit he gave you and Thom?’
Robbie’s face falls, and his steps slow to a stop. ‘God, he really was a huge dick, wasn’t he?’
I nod my fist. I wasn’t around for all of it, but I was given all the piping hot tea. Robbie’s brothers have loose hands when it comes to any kind of gossip, and Roman has never been quiet about how he feels when non-signing hearing people get into relationships with Deaf.
‘It serves him right. He could use a little public humbling,’ Robbie signs. His arms start flagging, and I appreciate that he feels just as exhausted as I do. He glances around, then nudges and points to the grass. ‘Come on. Let’s go hide over here. I refuse to walk another step.’
He points to a large tree with a thick trunk, and I feel something relax in my body. Hangovers are for the fucking birds. I’m never doing this again.
Or, well, I am not doing this for a long while, at least.
I follow Robbie to the cool grass and settle in, my body thanking me for the break. I really am too old to be doing this to myself. I also make a mental note to visit the gym more often because I’m also too young to be totally taken down by a night out.
My gaze falls back to the path, where Dex and Thom are happily speed walking down the trail, completely clueless to the fact that they’ve lost the two of us to the ground.
As I lie back, I sigh as the ground sinks beneath me, and Robbie drops down, letting out a hum of satisfaction.
Our faces turn toward each other, and I lift my hands. ‘Those gummies nearly did me in last night.’
He snorts. ‘Same. Strong.’
‘Where did you get them?’
‘A new store. Guy who sold them to me told me I needed them. Probably looked stressed.’
I giggle. ‘Shop name?’
‘Cloud Nine,’ he spells.
I think I’ve heard of it. I’ll have to check it out, especially if things with my house go sideways. If they find bodies in the cellar.
God, there are bodies in the cellar, aren’t there? It’s why Aunt Lynda had it sealed shut. It’s why I can’t get down there. The stress of it all starts bubbling up in my chest like acid reflux, and Robbie notices because he shifts more onto his side and taps my arm.
‘You okay?’
I nod, stop, then shake my head no. ‘Did I tell you I found a human tooth in my backyard?’
Robbie’s eyes widen, and he leans up on an elbow. ‘Human? You sure?’
‘Yeah, Thorne thinks my aunt was a serial killer.’
‘Wow,’ Robbie says and then purses his lips. ‘You know, the name serial killer wasn’t coined until the 1970s. Before that, they were called mass murderers.’
He’s such a fucking teacher sometimes, but I love it. ‘Well, my aunt is one, apparently.’
‘You think there are bodies buried in your backyard?’
‘Or under the house. The cellar is sealed. I can’t get in. I think Thorne is going to do some digging around to see what he can find.’
Robbie sits up further, his eyes glinting. This is not good. ‘I want to join. I can help. Deaf eyes.’
Of fucking course he wants to play PI. I shove at him and shake my head.
‘He won’t let you. It’s my property, and he made me leave today.
Something about FBI protocol.’ I hesitate for a second because Thorne asked me not to say anything about his job, but he must know that if Denver’s aware, everyone else already is too.
And from the way Robbie doesn’t flinch, it’s obvious he knows everything Denver does about my current boyfriend.
I lie back with a sigh and think about what Thorne must be doing right now. Maybe I should have fought harder to be there, but the stark-naked truth is, I am not excited for anyone to go digging around for corpses or bones. Not the FBI, and certainly not myself.
Robbie falls back down. ‘Fine.’ He closes his eyes in both a pout and exhaustion and lies there like that until Dex and Thom start back toward us.
Since he won’t be able to feel the vibration of their feet in the grass, I nudge him gently until he rouses. His eyes are still a little red, and they fix on Thom, who’s smiling down at him.
‘Do-do?’ Thom asks and Robbie flips Thom off.
Thom chuckles, and reaches down, pulling Robbie up onto his feet and into a kiss.
I scowl at Dex when he tries to pull me up too. ‘Don’t touch.’
Dex grins and ignores me, holding out a hand because he knows that now that I’m down, I’m not getting up on my own with the way I feel. I take it and let him pull me to my feet.
‘No more walking,’ I say and sign. ‘Feet tired.’
Thom and Dex nod and then lead us to the apartment. ‘We can relax now,’ Thom says but then adds, ‘Until noon, then we go to spin class.’
Robbie groans and makes it obvious he’ll do no such thing, and I want to say the same thing.
But maybe an aggressive workout class will help me forget the horrors in the farmhouse. And maybe, just maybe, Thorne will figure out what’s going on with the cellar while I’m gone.