Chapter 31
CALLUM
The sun is scorching hot as we roll down the sandy street. The buildings on either side of the road have already been raided, and all the doors have been busted in.
Alexander is currently blasting some bubblegum pop from his old-school iPod. When we first arrived, we thought he was so weird bringing it with him, but little did we know that most of the Humvees didn’t offer a connection for any of the newer devices.
There is a pile of trash up ahead of us, and I make sure to call it out so we don’t run through it. That is a notorious trap for an IED. Or so I thought. We roll slowly through the middle of the street, thinking it is safer.
BOOM.
I shoot up out of the bed, sweat rolling down my whole body. My heart is racing, and my knee has a dull ache, indicating I was thrashing in my sleep. I haven’t had a nightmare like this in a while.
Come to think of it, I haven’t had one since I met the gorgeous green eyes of my Sunflower. I normally dream of her luscious body below me. I’d much rather wake up with a boner and my heart thrashing because of lust than reliving the moment that ruined my life.
Taking a look around the room I’m in, I realize that I am in the guest room at Graham’s house.
I finally can get my breath to even out, and I climb out of bed.
My knee decides the moment that I put my foot on the ground to stand up, it doesn’t want to bear my body weight this morning.
Let’s just add insult to injury this morning, shall we?
While I limp over to the closet to grab my knee brace, I hear Graham’s distinct five-knock pattern on the door. It is something that he has been doing our whole lives. Or at least since I was old enough to understand what it means.
Graham is only a few years older than me, so we grew up practically inseparable, that is, until Dee and him decided to join the Marine Corps. After visiting him during graduation, I decided that I was going to follow in my big brother’s footsteps.
“Yo, Little H!” Graham calls out from the other side of the door.
“Come in,” I call out to him.
I hear the door open while I am still in the closet, and Graham lets out a laugh.
“Here comes my little bro coming out of the closet.” He wraps an arm around me and pulls me towards him, causing me to shift more weight onto the bad knee, and I almost take us both out.
”Fuck dude!” Graham calls out while he steadies us both on our feet.
“Sorry, I had a rough night’s sleep, so I think I tweaked the knee a bit.” Limping over to the desk chair to sit down and strap the brace around my knee. ”What can I do for you?
I sit back in the chair, and he flops down in my bed, making himself at home. His hands are behind his head, lounging like he didn’t barge in here first thing in the morning just to hang out.
“Are you just here to babysit, Graham?”
”Nope, was wondering if you wanted to go down to the gym or something?”
In other words, yes, he is here to babysit me. To make sure that I am not letting myself slip into the darkness and the pain.
“I don’t think I’m doing much working out today until this knee figures itself out.”
“K, what about going into town and grabbing lunch?”
”I just woke up, what do you mean, lunch?”
”Cal, it’s like noon.”
Shocked, I snatch my cell off the bedside table. Fuck, I didn’t plug it in last night. I quickly plug it in and give it a few moments to get a little juice back before I try to power it on. The moment the main screen loads, the clock shows it is quarter to twelve.
We pull up outside of Grant’s, and Graham parks his truck before I climb leisurely out. My knee is able to hold more of my weight, but I still think I’m going to be in this brace again for a couple of days. Walking in the door, we are greeted by Molly.
“Hey guys!” She tries to look behind us, looking for someone.
“Hey, Mols.” Graham gives her a quick high five, and I just laugh.
“Just you two?” She asks. I can’t decide if she’s disappointed or confused.
“Ya,” I answer.
“Y’all sit wherever ya want. What do y’all want to drink?” Molly heads back behind the bar.
“Beer,” Graham calls out as he heads to the table we normally claim.
“Whiskey…neat.”
There is no one else here today. It is a weird time of day, and it’s during the week. I will enjoy the peace for now. Slowly, I lower myself down into the booth while Molly brings our drinks over.
“It's lil’ early for the hard stuff, isn’t it?” Molly’s drawl comes out for a split second.
“Don’t ask.” Graham tries to answer for me.
“Oh, honey.” She sits down next to me and wraps her arms around my torso. The move makes me highly nervous because I don’t want any other woman touching me who isn’t my sunflower. “Nyx texted me. They are plannin’ a girls night again…to try and help Ky.”
“I’m glad she has you guys.” I shoot back my whiskey in one gulp. “Can I get another?”
Molly unwraps herself from me before she heads back to the bar to get me another whiskey. Zoning out, let me get lost in the last time we were all here.
Nyx takes a hold of Kyra’s hand and laughs while she drags her out to the floor.
This bar doesn’t technically have a dance floor, but there is a small space where there are normally a couple of small tables, but anytime Nyx is here for more than just a meal, she pushes them off to the side to make room.
Nyx spins my sunflower around the small space, and their laughs are electric. Graham and Demitri watch their woman with wrapped attention. Their eyes never leave Nyx. Not that I can blame them. I’m just as guilty, just staring at Kyra instead.
The girls dance their way over to the bar to grab the tequila shots Molly left there for them. It’s a busy night at Grant’s, but they always make time for us. Grant loves us and those girls like his own. He needs a woman to care for him one of these days.
Crack.
A pain shoots through my shin.
“What in the actual fuck?” I bend down to rub at the spot while glaring at my brother across the table.
“You looked lost in your head.” He responds with a shrug of his shoulders.
“Just thinking about when Nyx dragged Kyra out dancing.”
We spend the rest of the afternoon drinking so much that Dee has to come pick us up. He definitely doesn’t look impressed by us in the slightest. He will forgive me; it’s been a rough couple of days.