18. Kennedy
The front door slams open with a loud crash downstairs, and I fall off Linc and out of bed so fast that I hit the floor and end up wrapped in the blanket like a burrito.
When I finally manage to untangle myself, Linc is standing there in a pair of gray sweatpants with a gun in his hand, headed toward the bedroom door.
“A gun, really?” I wheeze quietly as I try to get up. “Where did you even hide a gun? Or the sweatpants?”
We haven’t slept the entire night and are actually in the process of fooling around again when the door opens. He’d been naked. I know he’d been naked because I’d been sitting on his dick, and all of a sudden he now has clothes on while I’m still trying to figure out how to breathe.
Yeah, I definitely need to work out more. Or at all. Except I really want pizza. And tacos. And maybe some donuts.
“Grab a shirt or something,” he says while staring at the blanket I’m clutching to my chest. “They’re in the drawer over there.”
I grab one without looking and pull the dark-blue shirt over my head. “This is stupid,” I tell him. “You know it’s got to be one of our families. You don’t need the gun, Linc.” While I’m talking, I grab my pants so that we don’t go downstairs to family with my ass hanging out.
He looks at me, then the gun, and then back at me before he sighs. “Fine. But if it’s Emma, you’re gonna wish that I brought that gun, ’cause she’s never gonna leave.” When he scoops me up into a kiss, I wrap my legs around his waist instinctively. Linc’s still-erect body presses against mine as the kiss deepens.
“No,” he says suddenly. “Not until we get rid of whoever is interrupting.”
“I’m gonna murder them,” I admit quietly.
Footsteps downstairs distract both of us, followed by a laugh that has to be Remy’s.
“Hey, Uncle Linc!” Nox screams up the stairs at the top of his lungs. “Why is Auntie Kenny’s machete at your house?”
Linc bites his lip and shakes his head while he looks at me. “They didn’t.”
“Clearly,” I tell him, “they did.” Taking him by the hand, I lead the way downstairs a lot like I did the night before.
“Auntie Kenny!” Nox exclaims loudly when he sees me. “What are you doing here?” He watches with a shrewd expression that would fit more on an adult than on a child, then gasps when he comes to a conclusion all on his own. “You spent the night with Uncle Linc. You better not have slept in my bed.” He is off, racing past us up the stairs to make sure that his room is completely untouched since he’s never actually spent the night at Linc’s.
Unfortunately, Nox isn’t alone. Both Remy and Parker sit at the bartop island in Linc’s kitchen, watching us while drinking coffee out of travel cups.
“You better have brought some for me,” I snap irately at my brother.
With a chuckle, he nods toward the other side of the kitchen, where two more travel cups sit with steam coming from the lids.
“Good. I’d hate to have to murder you in front of Nox.”
I ignore the obviously curious stares and grab the coffee, trying not to wince as I walk. Maybe it is a good thing they’d interrupted, because after a night full of sex, I think Linc may have broken me. Everything hurts, but in the best way possible.
“We need a favor,” Parker says as soon as I take my first sip of coffee. She shoots Remy a hard look. “I know Remy asked you to watch Nox today just so that he could interrupt your plans and be a cockblock, but that’s not why we’re here.” When Remy moves to object, Parker spears him with the most intense look I’ve ever seen.
Ignoring the two men in the room seems like the best idea, since I can already hear Linc’s protest forming on his lips. I nod toward the back door, and Parker follows me to the back porch with her coffee.
I wait until we are both sitting down on the porch swing before launching into the interrogation I can feel boiling up inside. “What’s going on? Is something wrong with Nox?”
We start to swing back and forth slowly, the metal chains creaking the only noise of the early morning. While I wait for her to tell me what prompted the early morning trip and interruption of the best sex of my life, I take a long drink of my coffee and try not to push her for information until she is ready.
“I think I’m pregnant. And I can’t say anything to Remy about it until I know for sure, because you know how excited he’ll be. My doctor can’t even get me in until tomorrow, and I don’t know what to do. Will you go with me?” She hiccups, and I know better than to say anything. It’s not like I know what to say anyway. Not for a long time. We sit there, swinging quietly, and I put my arms around her in a tight embrace.
Parker and I talked a lot about children through the years. Her decision not to have any more if she can help it. My futile attempts to move on from Linc so that I can have a family. All of it.
“Does Nox know?”
Parker sniffles. “No.” She sobs, and I feel a dam burst in my friend’s body. “What the fuck am I going to do, Kennedy? I don’t think I can do this again. What if something happens to the baby? To me? Who’s going to take care of Nox?”
“Okay, that’s it.” I let go of her and stand up so fast I almost get taken out at the knees by the swing, but I manage to catch myself before falling face-first off the porch. “You have to snap out of it, and I don’t know how else to help except to give you tough love.”
Parker stares at me with wide eyes for a second before she bursts out laughing.
“Oh shit,” she gasps. “You’ve got sex hair. Like really, really bad, Kennedy. I can’t believe I didn’t see it before now.”
I roll my eyes and shove my hair up into a bun with the hair tie I almost always keep on my wrist before sticking my finger in her face. “Zip it, smart-ass. I’m over here trying to be the voice of reason. No giving me shit about my hair.”
Parker wipes a tear from her eye and nods. “Scout’s honor.” She holds up her hand like Spock, and I can’t even pretend to be serious after that.
“Seriously, Parker.” I try not to laugh. “Remy loves you, and you love him. You’re not in the same position you were when you got pregnant with Nox. You chose him, and he chose you. You’re a family, and you’ve got my great grandmother’s ring on your finger. The man is gonna marry you. You don’t need to worry about anything.”
I lean over and rub my bun in her face, just to annoy her for bringing up how messy it is, and she tries to push me off her.
“Go away, you parasite.” She groans pitifully when I sit down practically on top of her, squishing her into the side of the swing.
As soon as I do, the back door opens and Linc walks out with Remy and Nox behind him. They all watch us like we are crazy, but I don’t move. Until the wood underneath us creaks loudly and then gives out, taking both Parker and me down to the porch in a mess of wood and metal.
Literally the highlight of my life will forever be the fact that I got Parker out of the way and took a back full of wood to keep her from getting injured.
“Look!” Nox yells. “Auntie Kenny’s like a superhero.”
That breaks whatever spell is keeping Remy and Linc frozen in place. In the next instant, Linc is shoving debris from the swing off my body and Remy is picking up Parker as tenderly as he can.
Linc holds me gently, probing my back and neck for any signs of injury. “Are you okay?”
When I look up at him, I can’t exactly move my neck because he is holding it in his hands with a firm grip. So instead, I glare up at him and wait for him to take the hint and let me go. It takes a few seconds, but he does. In the meantime, Nox jumps over the side of the porch and runs around the backyard like someone has given him an energy drink.
“I dropped my coffee,” I mutter murderously.
The offending cup has splattered on the porch, thankfully away from us, but it doesn’t make anything easier. I barely had a chance to drink any of it.
“I’ll get you more.” He pulls me into a kiss, ignoring the groan of displeasure from Remy. When the kiss ends, Linc narrows his eyes at my brother. “Go away if you don’t like it.”
Remy isn’t rattled, and he shrugs. “You’re the one who’s got to deal with her for the rest of her life, not me. I’m just sayin’ if you do it all the time, Mom and Dad are gonna expect to hear they’re having a grandkid sooner rather than later.”
Parker, behind Remy’s back, turns as white as a sheet and shakes her head as innocuously as she can.
My subtle nod is the only indication that I give that I know she doesn’t want Remy to find out even accidentally.
“Hey,” I say suddenly. “I have an appointment tomorrow for girl stuff. I was hoping you’d go with me. You know, to make sure that my IUD is still in place and all that good shit. No one wants a crotch goblin running around accidentally.”
Remy makes a gagging noise. “Stop being disgusting. Why would I go with you?”
“She’s talking to me, Remington.” Parker knocks him out of the way playfully. “And yes.” The thankful expression on her face answers the silent question I have about whether or not I’m being too pushy.
Needlessly, I turn to Linc to offer an explanation, albeit quietly. “Gotta make sure my birth control is up to date and all that shit.”
“Gross,” Remy complains some more.
“Go away if you don’t like hearing about it,” Linc tells him mercilessly. “I had years without her where you told me to pull my head out of my ass and take her. Now that I did, you don’t want to know that we’re being safe?”
My irritation at Remy vanishes in an instant. “You’ve been sticking up for me with Linc?”
Remy and Linc both freeze, and the slow-motion way they turn in my direction reminds me of a possessed doll trying to scare me in the middle of the night. They both gulp audibly, and I see matching expressions of fear.
“Y-yeah,” Remy stutters, looking more like a ten-year-old child than the older brother who puts fear into the hearts of criminals and lesser men. “I did.”
I throw myself at him, which he clearly doesn’t expect since he almost drops me on my ass. He catches on pretty quick when I burst into tears and have my arms wrapped around his neck like a monkey, and he holds me up against him in the tightest hug I’ve ever gotten from my brother.
“What’s wrong, Kenny?” He tries to move me off him, but I’m not budging.
I may be almost twenty-six, but my brother never stands up for me like that. At least, not that I know of.
“No-nothing.” I cry even harder, my eyes closed and pressed against Remy.
“Can someone help me out here?” He starts to sound panicked, but that doesn’t stop me from using him like a tissue. “Come on, Linc. Why’s she cryin’ like this?”
“Be-because.” I sob, my breath catching in my throat. “You stood up for me. With the man I l-love.” Stuttering on my tears, I take the comfort that only my big brother can give me.
“You broke her, Linc.” Remy pries me off him slowly, wincing and complaining when I don’t let go easily. “You broke her and now you have to fix her.”
His words catch me by surprise.
Linc didn’t break me. Not at all. Linc is the only one who stood a chance of putting me back together again.
I let go of Remy, turning to see Linc staring at me with an inscrutable expression.
“Go away, Remington,” I snap at him. “And take your family with you.” I wink at Parker and blow a kiss at Nox as they leave.
Once Linc and I are alone, standing next to the destruction of his porch swing, I cough lightly.
“I love you too, Kennedy.” His eyes lock on mine and I have to bite my lip to keep from saying anything. “I love you. And I know you’re not ready to tell me what exactly happened with Royal. I know he hurt you, and I fucking promise… I will fix what he broke with tacos and sex.”