26. Cale
cale
“What’s he doing?” The whisper isn’t as quiet as Nell thinks. I don’t open my eyes.
“Sleeping.” Oakley doesn’t bother to lower his voice. “If he’s gonna sleep there, maybe Mom needs to buy a bigger couch. Look, his feet are hanging off the end.”
“He doesn’t look like he’s sleeping. Is he dead? Maybe you should poke him.”
“Nah. His chest is moving. See? Anyway, I heard him snoring earlier, and dead people don’t snore.” There’s a pause before he adds, “I don’t think.”
I hear him step closer, and I reach out, snatching a fistful of pajama top and dragging him into me with a growl. Nell shrieks, but a quick glance at her shows her laughing as I trap Oakley in a headlock, digging my fingers into his ribs and armpits.
“I don’t snore!”
Oakley is squawking with laughter, desperately trying to get away, but his self-preservation instincts have fled because he yells breathlessly, “Yes, you do!” He wriggles free, retreating to a safe distance, proclaiming, “As loud as a rhino!”
I sit up, eyeing him through narrowed eyes.
“Well, you snore as loud as a hippo,” I say decisively, before looking at Nell.
She’s smiling, even if her expression is a little more wary.
“I haven’t heard you, Nell, but I guess you sound like a chipmunk.
” I make a high-pitched noise, chattering my teeth.
She giggles, shaking her head. “I’ve never heard myself snore.”
Oakley shoots her an exasperated look. “That’s because if you’re snoring, you’re asleep.”
“Good morning,” I cut in before they escalate into an argument. “How did you both sleep?”
Nell looks away with a shrug. Oakley grumbles, “Mom kept pushing me.”
I bite back a smile. “Did she?”
He scrunches his face into an exaggerated frown. “She doesn’t know how to share a bed. Did she kick you as well?” he asks innocently.
The tips of my ears burn, but before I can answer, a dry voice interrupts. “Excuse me, Oakley Daniels. I do know how to share. You’re a bed hog who likes to kick.” Melanie walks around the couch, wearing flannel sleep pants and…my shirt.
It’s the one I left here our last morning together before everything went to hell. Has she been wearing it this whole time? I eye her curiously, ignoring the low heat that flares to life in my stomach.
Oakley grins at his mother, right before he oinks at her. “Come on, Nell! Mom bought that chocolate cereal we like last week.” He takes his friend’s hand and tugs her after him as they go to the kitchen.
Melanie rolls her eyes. “Clean up any mess you make,” she calls after them. “And don’t eat the whole box, Oakley, or I’m not buying any more!” He yells an affirmative back, and she turns to me. “Morning.”
I surreptitiously tug the blanket more firmly over my lap, my eyes locked on where the collar of my shirt hangs a little too low on her shoulder.
“Morning, darlin’,” I rasp.
“How did you sleep?” she asks, her attention dropping to my bare torso. Heat flickers through her eyes, but her lashes drop, hiding it from view.
I lift a shoulder, making no effort to cover up or grab the shirt lying on the coffee table.
“Your couch isn’t very big,” I murmur, pretending not to see the way her cheeks flush or the way her breasts lift under my shirt as she sucks air into her lungs.
I bend my neck from side to side, my grimace genuine when the movement sends a sharp pain radiating up and settling just under the base of my skull. Her expression twists regretfully, but before she can say anything, Rosie appears out of Oakley’s room, looking wan and exhausted.
“Morning,” she says quietly when she catches sight of us.
Melanie steps away from me, self-conscious fingers tugging at the hem of my shirt. “Hey, Rosie,” she greets. “How did you sleep?”
She holds out a hand and jiggles it. “About as well as you’d expect.” She tries to laugh it off, but the sound is tremulous. “Where’s Nell?”
“She and Oakley have just gone to make breakfast,” Melanie says. “Come on. I’ll put the coffee on.” She turns to give me one last look, her eyes darkening as they land back on my chest. “You…” Her tongue darts out to wet her lips. “Put a shirt on.”
My grin is crooked. “Sure thing, darlin’.” I lift my eyebrows, and she braces, like she knows what’s coming. “Just as soon as you give that one back.”
Her head snaps down, eyes widening when she realizes what she’s wearing, her cheeks flaming crimson. “Oh, fuck…” she mumbles, before her shoulders straighten. “You know what? No. You left it here, so it’s mine now.”
“Finder’s keepers is a rule,” Rosie adds in, her eyes dancing with amusement as she looks between the two of us.
“Yeah. Right. Finder’s keepers. This is my shirt.” Melanie sticks her nose in the air, marching off, but I catch the way her cheeks tug up into a smile as she goes.
I sit back on the couch, running a hand through my hair as I listen to all four of them chatter away in the kitchen, unable to wipe the smile from my mouth.
The morning has just started, and my neck is stiff and aching, but it’s already the best day I’ve had in months.
I’m in the middle of my second race on Mario Kart when my phone rings beside me. I set my controller down when I see the name flashing on the screen and put it to my ear. “Hello?”
“I heard you were at the break-in last night,” Levi says in lieu of a greeting.
“That’s right.” Oakley and Nell have barely noticed that I have stopped playing, already doing laps around me.
Oakley’s taking great pleasure in blowing up my monkey character every time he passes.
Each hit is punctuated with a maniacal laugh that would suit any super villain, and I can’t stop the grin. “How’s Ryan this morning?”
“As well as you would expect,” Levi grunts. “He’s sullen and untalkative. Blaming everyone but himself.” There’s a tense pause. “After I turned up last night, the kids were all blabbing, hoping to pin the blame on each other by the time their parents arrived.”
“Ryan looked like the youngest,” I say. “And scared shitless.”
A long, drawn-out sigh comes through the line. “Don’t know what I’m doing, Cale. I’ve been so focused on Onyx lately. I know that. But Ryan and I have never seen eye to eye. Not since his mother…”
“He’s fourteen,” I say, sympathy welling for them both, settling right in next to my anger at what those kids had done, including Ryan. “He’s rebelling, I guess.” I don’t truly believe it, and his scoff tells me he doesn’t either.
“Rebelling is stealing cash from my wallet or staying out past curfew. The cops called about an hour ago, Cale. They found accelerants in the shed of one boy’s home.
” His voice is rough, disbelief mixed with resignation.
“They admitted to setting that house on fire—the one where the firefighter got injured? What if Ryan killed someone, man? It’s just sheer dumb luck he didn’t. ”
I already figured it was them, but I still curse under my breath. Oakley side-eyes me, and I smile at him and stand up.
“Be right back,” I say to the kids, and head out to the back deck, pacing the length of the house.
I’m not really sure what to say to Levi because I was the one who helped comfort Rosie and Nell last night, knowing their sense of safety in their home had been compromised, thanks to Ryan and his friends.
It isn’t going to help anything by sharing that with Levi.
I don’t think he fully understands how bad what Ryan and his friends did without setting another fire is.
“What else did they do?” I ask, sensing there’s more going on than what Levi has said so far.
“Ryan and I sat up into the early hours,” he says quietly. “I got him talking about how it all started.”
I blow out a breath, already sensing where he’s going with this and hoping I’m wrong. “That sounds ominous.”
“Your neighbor—”
“My woman,” I correct.
“Right,” Levi says slowly. “Ryan hangs out with his cousin sometimes, and apparently…Fuck. What a goddamn mess.” There’s a loud thud, like he just slammed a glass on wood. “Ryan and his friends went after Melanie’s house because of my son.”
I’m not surprised, and I drop down into the wooden chair on the deck, leaning forward with my elbows on my knees. “I guessed as much.”
He barks out a laugh. “Well, I fucking didn’t.
Ryan said he overheard Marcy bitching about Melanie and how she’s fucking things up for her and Clarissa.
He got it into his head that she needed to pay for it and took matters into his own hands.
” Another tense pause, and Levi grits out, “Ryan aimed those kids at her house like missiles. I don’t know about the other houses or the fire, but I’m pretty sure the same thing happened last night. ”
“Rosie McDougal hasn’t done anything to Marcy,” I protest.
“Not Rosie,” Levi murmurs. “Clarissa told Ryan that Rosie’s daughter has been bullying her at school.”
My hand clenches around my phone hard enough that the plastic casing creaks, fury vibrating under my skin.
“Are you kidding me? That girl wouldn’t hurt a goddamn fly, Levi.
She wouldn’t hurt a spider even if it bit her.
Clarissa is the one bullying people. She told Oakley his dad doesn’t love him, and that’s why he lives at her house now. ”
There’s a long silence before he says, “I honestly don’t know what to believe. I don’t want to think that my kid would take someone’s word and just hurt another person over nothing, you know? He’s a good kid—”
“Levi,” I interrupt. “I was with Rosie and Nell last night. They were fucking terrified. Nell was shaking, and Rosie…” I trail off, clenching my jaw. “This isn’t something you can sweep under the rug. They’re scared to go home.”
He curses. “I’ll make contact,” he mutters. “Make some kind of reparation. And I’ll talk to Ryan and keep him the fuck away from Marcy.”
I hum. “Understand the situation you’re in, man,” I say quietly. “But I gotta side with my woman here. Marcy’s causing enough shit for her right now.”