3. Hope
3
HOPE
W hen Parker climbed behind the wheel of his car, I jumped into action, hurrying to the passenger side before he left me behind. Because leaving me sounded exactly like something he would do.
As soon as I slid into my seat and shut my door, he lifted a travel tumbler from the cup holders between us and held it out to me, saying, “Water.”
My cotton mouth nearly whimpered for a taste. But being me, I couldn’t just accept anything gracefully. I paused in the middle of pulling on my seat belt. “Did you already drink from it?”
He arched an eyebrow. “You want to die of dehydration or risk my cooties?”
Valid point. Death didn’t really appeal, and it seriously felt like I might die if I didn’t get some liquids into me. Soon.
I took the cup and gulped greedily. The water inside was still ice cold, and I swear, it was the best-tasting drink I’d ever had.
As I restrained myself from moaning in relief, Parker turned the air conditioner even colder and then aimed one of his vents at me.
It was a sweet enough move that I managed to say, “Thank you,” as I slipped the tumbler back into the cup holder.
He grunted in reply, not a big fan of politeness, and he concentrated on putting the Lucid Air into drive and maneuvering us from the parking lot.
At the first light we came across, he yelled at the car in front of us for stopping when it had just turned yellow. It was pure Parker, and it made me feel more home than anything.
Resting my head back, I exhaled in amusement and listened to him bitch at the car for turning too slowly when the light flipped green again.
On the radio, a country song was playing at low volume. It sounded like it could be Whiskey Myers. I closed my eyes briefly, soothed by the melody.
Once I felt better, I sat up straighter and glanced around the interior to check things out, only to blink above me in awe. There wasn’t just a simple sunroof up there; it was as if the entire freaking roof was glass, making the sun visors appear as if they were floating in midair.
But I refused to be impressed.
“Nice sticker.” Smirking, I tapped a picture of the seven dwarfs he had attached to the visor.
Parker sent me a frown before returning his attention to the road. “Your brother gave it to me for graduation.”
“Did he?” I smiled at the mention of Alec. “That reminds me.” I twisted in my seat to face him. “Did you get the graduation present I sent you? You never said.”
He furrowed his brow. “You mean the custom socks with my face wearing a graduation cap on them?”
I nodded, pleased he’d received them.
But he only made a face and shook his head. “I must’ve lost them.”
I sniffed disdainfully over his cruelness and faced forward again, where I started to tap my fingers on my knee for something to do.
“So you’re four months free from college, huh?” I said, watching the sights we passed. “What’re you going to do with yourself now that you’re a big-time graduate with a business degree?”
When I turned back to him, Parker was glancing down at my tapping fingers as if they annoyed him before he distractedly answered, “Same thing I’ve been doing, I guess.”
“So…making more money than God?” I deduced with a nod, and I stopped tapping to clasp my hands together.
Cocking me an amused smirk, he admitted, “Basically.”
I heaved out a breath as I peered out the front window again. “Must be nice.”
When my phone rang, I fumbled with my purse to dig it out, only to decline the call as soon as I read the screen.
“Paul sure is persistent,” Parker announced as I tucked the phone away again.
When I didn’t answer, he added, “Is that why you left Ohio? Avoiding a clingy ex?”
“I’m here to see my brother,” I maintained.
But he clearly didn’t believe that. “Right.”
I ignored him.
As we approached the bay, I noticed that the video arcade I used to frequent as a preteen had gone out of business. The windows were boarded and graffitied. Pity.
But a new building had gone up a few blocks down from there. The sign above it had a V with two slash marks next to it and a chef hat topping them.
Motioning, I asked, “What’s that place?”
“New restaurant,” Parker answered with a yawn.
I glanced over with lifted eyebrows. “Really?” I muttered sarcastically. “I never would have guessed, what, with the chef hat on the logo.”
He glanced back. “If you already knew, then why’d you ask?”
“I was hoping for a little more detail, like what they serve.”
“I don’t know.” He scowled and shrugged. “They serve food. Surf and turf and salads and shit. I don’t create the menus. I just know it’s some new, fancy-ass restaurant everyone’s been raving about.”
“Fancy?” My eyebrows lifted in interest. “Do you need a reservation to get in?”
He squinted at me as if I’d lost my mind. “Obviously.”
Obviously. Hmm. I might keep the place in mind.
At the bridge that crossed the bay, I turned my attention to the inside of the car, trying to figure out why he needed two enormous display screens, only to realize the song playing was that Shaboozey one about everyone being tipsy.
“Oh, hey. It’s your theme song,” I announced smarmily and reached for the volume to turn it up, except Parker lifted his hand.
“Don’t fucking touch my radio.”
I immediately lifted my hands and drew back. “I was just going to turn the volume up.”
“Don’t care. Don’t touch it.”
“Wow. What crawled up your butt and died?”
Jaw flexing as if seeking patience, he narrowed his eyes as he glared over at me. “You did. Would you kindly remove yourself so I can relax again?”
“Fine,” I said, pressing my hands back into my lap. “Silence it is, then?”
“Thank you,” he breathed.
I turned to stare out the window at the water we were crossing, but the car was way too damn quiet for my taste, so I spun back to him a second later.
“You’re not drunk, like, right now , are you?” I had to ask because I knew how much he adored his alcohol.
He directed a severe glance my way. “Not yet. But I’ll definitely need to be after this.”
“Cute,” I shot back with an unimpressed sneer.
“Is this what you consider silent?”
I opened my mouth to counterattack, but a car in the right lane that we were passing tried to merge left with us before we were all the way around them, and Parker had to swerve and honk and flip them off then curse for a couple of minutes before settling down again.
Throughout it all, I sat there calmly with my hands in my lap saying nothing, so I really didn’t deserve it when he cast me a feral glower and snapped, “What?”
I lifted my hands with a nothing kind of shrug, refusing to speak.
He scowled harder, then sniffed with ire before setting his elbow on the window ledge and rubbing at the center of his forehead.
Two minutes passed without another word, where he kept sending me hostile glances before he finally burst out, “Oh my God, just fucking say it already.”
I lifted my eyebrows in surprise. “I wasn’t going to say anything.”
“As if,” he scoffed. “You always have something to say.”
“Well, I guess I’m fresh out of words, then, because I have absolutely nothing to say now.”
Pausing at a light, he squinted at me in disbelief and chewed on the inside of his lip before quietly asking, “Did he hurt you?”
Utterly confused, I glanced around before asking, “Who? Airport guy?”
“No. Paul.”
“Oh.” I nearly laughed. But I refrained before saying, “No.”
His shoulders lost some of their tension before he arched his eyebrows and sent me an almost admiring glance. “So you hurt him?”
“What? No .” I wrinkled my nose and shook my head. “No one’s hurt. Jesus.” Lifting a staying hand, I added, “And I’d really appreciate it if you didn’t mention the name Paul to Alec, alright?”
Parker only snorted as he concentrated on turning across traffic. “I don’t keep secrets from my best friends.”
“Yes, you do,” I immediately countered. “I can remember two instances right off the bat where you kept a secret from Alec for me.”
“ What ?” He gaped at me in clear disbelief before demanding, “When?”
“Okay, first of all”—I ticked up one finger—“there was the time I was in the hospital after my surgery. Alec was dead asleep across the room when you overheard my mom telling me I was a worthless pain in her ass who only reminded her of her cheating husband, and she kind of wished I hadn’t survived the transplant. I asked you not to tell Alec, and you obviously never did.”
With a scoff, Parker shook his head. “That wasn’t exactly newsworthy enough to gossip about.”
Ignoring how severely he was trying to downplay that day, I went on, lifting a second finger. “Then, there was my freshman year of high school. The Spring Formal. Nine months before my mother moved me to Ohio. Ryan Grishel felt me up with out my permission, and you kicked his ass. I asked you not to tell Alec about that too.”
“There was no reason to tell Alec,” he started with an uncomfortable grimace. “I took care of the situation so he didn’t have to worry about it. The kid wasn’t even in fucking high school yet. He would’ve hurt himself if he’d tried to defend your honor, which he would’ve tried to do. I was protecting him.”
“Whatever.” I shrugged, not caring as I folded my arms over my chest. “You kept secrets for me. You’re my secret keeper.”
“The fuck if I am.”
“I mean, if you need to keep telling yourself that to help you get out of bed each morning, that’s fine. But it’s still true. Secret keeper.”
“I’m not —” he started angrily, only to slam on his brakes to keep from colliding with a car that ran a stop sign in front of us. “Son of a bitch! Does no one know how to fucking drive anymore?”
I smiled, feeling more alive than I had in a long time.
Flipping off the other car and honking angrily at them, Parker growled and then waited for the intersection to clear.
By the time he pulled into the driveway at Archer House five minutes later, my blood was singing in excitement. But I was home . And I’d get to see my brother again in seconds. I couldn’t remember feeling this happy in forever.
Grumpy barely had the car parked before I opened my door and dove out, hurling myself toward the house. “Thanks for the ride,” I called over my shoulder.
“Hey!” he shouted after me.
But Alec was inside, and I couldn’t wait to see him again.
The last time I’d been here, I’d helped him move in, and we had explored every inch of the place together. Which meant that I knew when I dashed toward the first, smaller set of steps that were built into the side of the main house yet in front of the recessed garage it would lead straight into the kitchen.
Knowing how hungry my boy always was, I went there first, blowing inside without even knocking.
Only to plow to a stop when I found the kitchen full of strangers.
There were three of them hovered around some baking dish on the counter, biting their fingernails and looking worried as they talked amongst themselves.
“I’m not waking him up to ask; you wake him up,” the tallest of the trio insisted.
“But he’s your boyfriend,” another argued.
“Who’ll freak when he learns we tried to cook in his kitchen. Without him.”
“Well, technically it’s not his kitchen anymore since—” The third one stopped talking abruptly when the second, auburn-headed one noticed me standing there and started to tug on her arm to get her attention.
Suddenly, all three women gaped at me in unison.
“Um… Hi,” the tallest one finally said with a confused wave.
“Can we help you?” the shortest with long, glistening black hair asked cautiously.
I blinked, wondering what the hell was happening. Archer House had been taken over by…females.
The door opened behind me, and Parker snapped, “What the hell, Langston?” as he lumbered inside with two of my suitcases. “You fucking forgot something.” Dropping them heavily at my feet, he scowled. “I’m not your damn bellhop. Get the rest yourself.”
“Hey, I didn’t forget shit,” I told him, bending down to pick one of the bags back up so I could shove it into his gut. “I’m just not staying here. I already have a place across town. I only wanted to pop by to say hello first. So if you could kindly take these back out to the car, I’d appreciate it. Thanks.”
“The hell if I will,” he countered. “I’m not taking you across town.” Parker shoved the suitcase right back at me. “I agreed to get you from the airport to your brother. That’s it. I don’t give a flying fuck where you’re staying or where you go from here. My job is done.”
Grinding my teeth, I pushed the suitcase right back at him. “Put them back in the car. Right now. I said I’m not staying here. I don’t want Alec to see my luggage and think he has to offer me a place to sleep.”
“And I said I wasn’t driving you anywhere else. So you can just?—”
“Whoa!” Shorty yelped, interrupting our moment. Pointing, she screeched, “Oh my God. You’re Hope, aren’t you?”
The auburn-headed one whirled toward her. “You mean, Alec’s Hope? How did you know that?”
Shorty rolled her eyes. “There’s a picture of her with him in the living room.”
“Seriously? I’ve never seen it.”
“Probably because you’re too busy ogling all the Foster posters,” the tall one snarked.
Perky scowled a moment before giving into an accepting shrug. “True.”
“Plus there’s the fact that she looks exactly like Alec,” Shorty added. “But, you know, in girl form.”
I motioned toward them vaguely, still speaking to Parker. “And who the hell are they? Why is the kitchen full of females? Where’s my brother?”
He sighed.
Pointing, he lamely introduced, “She’s with Archer.” He pointed at Shorty before motioning to the tall one. “She’s Ivey’s.” Then he swung his finger toward the auburn-headed girl. “And she goes to Union.”
I blinked at the trio, taking them in before nodding slowly. “That actually makes sense,” I deduced before pointing at the short, stunning Hispanic beauty. “Except that one needs dimples.”
Damien’s girlfriend smiled, flashing a deep set at me as she pointed. “Oh, I have them. See!”
I blinked blankly, then turned back to Parker. “Wow. They’re freaking gorgeous.” And I sniffed. “So how many of them did you try to sleep with?”
He glanced at them as if he needed to tally the numbers in his head before he admitted, “Only two.” With a shrug, he met my gaze and added, “Archer already had his locked down and claimed before I was allowed to meet her.”
“Smart,” I murmured with an approving nod as my gaze strayed back to Bashful’s beauty with the dimples. “But also primitively possessive and completely hot of him. Hmm.” Taking her in from head to toe, I added, “I had a sense that Bashful would be the most passionate lover in the group. It’s always the quiet ones.”
“Bashful?” I was asked in confusion.
So I arched my eyebrows and clarified, “Damien.”
“Oh!” His girlfriend brightened with a big smile, making her cheek pit attractively. “Hell, yes, he is,” she had to agree.
Only for the other two to scoff.
“There is absolutely no way to prove that,” Hudson’s tall woman countered, cocking her hip so she could set her hand on it.
“Yeah,” Foster’s girl chimed in, making her auburn curls bounce self-righteously. “Foster is a fabulous lover, thank you very much.”
Grinning over the discord I’d caused, I turned, only to find Parker scowling at me, possibly because I’d just claimed that his best friend was probably a better lover than he was.
“What’re you still doing, just standing there?” I asked, snapping my fingers to hurry him along. “Take those back to the car.”
“Fuck you. I’m not your beck-and-call boy. I got you here, and that’s all I’m doing. End of story.”
“Grumpy,” I warned, lifting my eyebrows sternly to let him know I wasn’t playing around. I didn’t want Alec to insist that I stay with him because I wouldn’t be able to say no to Alec—he was my favorite person in the whole world; denying him anything was no longer within my abilities—and there was no way I could stay here. I just couldn’t. I had other agendas in town than merely to see him.
“Would you stop fucking calling me that,” Parker growled, stepping closer.
“Or what?” I countered, stepping forward as well, glaring up just as hard as he was glaring down. “You gonna hit me?”
The idea made him hiss with satisfaction as he sent me a hard smile. “I really wish I could sometimes.”
“Oh, so you’re going to say something cruel and shocking to make me cry instead,” I countered as if impressed, only to narrow my eyes. “Like you did when you told me to stop whining right after my dad died…when I was ten .”
His jaw worked before he huffed out a defeated breath and grabbed my two suitcases before turning on his heel and silently storming back outside again.
I exhaled in a rush, always slightly amazed whenever I managed to win an argument with him.
Gah, but that was exactly what living was about, right there.
I must not have been the only one left in awe, either, because someone whistled behind me, clearly impressed.
“Holy…shit,” Bashful’s girl marveled. “I’ve never seen Parker give in to something he hasn’t wanted to do before.”
“How did you get him to back down?” Sleepy’s other half asked when I turned back to the trio.
“And wait…” Mrs. Happy held up her hands, waving them to interrupt. “Did you call him Grumpy? And Damien Bashful? Oh my God. Do you have a Seven Dwarfs name assigned to all of them?”
By all of them, I knew she meant the seven, which were what people tended to call my brother and his best friends.
I blinked, wondering why the answer wasn’t already obvious, before saying, “Of course.”
“That is so cool,” she trilled excitedly. “Which character did Foster get?”
Really? “Which one do you think, hon?”
She thought it over before frowning slightly. “Well, he better be Happy.”
“Bingo.” I winked. “So… Is Alec home by chance?”
“Not yet,” the short one answered with furrowed brows. “He should be any minute, though. And Damien’s not that bashful, you know.”
“To you, maybe,” Mrs. Sleepy snorted. “I don’t think he’s said two words to me.”
“Hey, I got him to nod at me in hello once,” Mrs. Happy spoke up with perky teasing.
Turning back to me, Mrs. Sleepy demanded, “Who the hell is Hudson supposed to be?”
To her right, Mrs. Bashful took her turn to snort. “He’s napping on the couch in the front room as we speak; do you really have to ask?”
“Wait. He’s what ?” I demanded in outrage, my mouth dropping open. “Sleepy’s here? In this house? Right now? Not working? Oh, that filthy, rotten fibber.”
No one was allowed to tell me they were working when, clearly, they weren’t.
Not about to let Hudson get away with lying to me, I stormed toward the front room, ready to set him straight.