Chapter Five
Five
Forge
The spray of hot water hit my face as I stood in the shower.
My first priority had been downing two bottles of water when I woke up with a dry-ass mouth. My second had been the shower.
I’d passed out before dinner yesterday, and my stomach was growling.
There were two calls and five texts from Oz that I hadn’t gotten around to checking. He was annoyed with me, and I didn’t blame him.
Yesterday’s breakfast with Mom had sent me spiraling, and I couldn’t pull out of it. She was so fucking frail and weak. The brutality of the treatment she’d gone through was hard to see, but we’d know soon how effective it’d been. Just how much more time it had given us with her.
With my eyes closed tightly, I tried to shut out thoughts of that. I didn’t want to think about it. I hated it.
Gray eyes flashed in my head, and I reached for the handle to turn off the water.
I’d almost forgotten about the houseguest. There was no way she looked like my memories.
Sober me would be able to see her clearly.
If she was just Calvin’s friend, then she couldn’t really be as hot as I’d thought she was while drunk.
My phone started ringing again, and I groaned while snatching a towel from the basket beside the shower and wrapping it around me.
Jesus, Oz, give me a break. I needed coffee and food before this bullshit.
Stalking out of the bathroom, I went to grab my phone.
Gathe’s name lit up the screen, and I was instantly relieved.
I put it on speaker before answering, “Yeah?” I took it back to the bathroom with me.
“Morning, sunshine,” he drawled. “I came over to get you last night for a trip to the club, and your ass was in bed.”
“Bad day,” I replied, taking another towel to dry my hair.
“Really? Because I’m thinking I may move into the empty bedroom. Seems you got some nice scenery just down the hall.”
I frowned at my reflection. “What?” I asked.
“Don’t what me. The hot little number in the room next to yours. You might have drunk a damn fifth of whiskey, but you had to see her.”
Shit. Drunk me hadn’t been wrong about what she looked like.
“And you’re the only single dick there. Seems unfair to me,” he added.
Tossing the towel in the hamper, I went to grab my deodorant. “She’s here because her fucking parents were murdered. Not really a hot and sexy setup.”
“Eh, she needs something to brighten her day. I can help ease her pain. My smile does wonders.”
Heading back to the room to grab something to wear from my closet, I smirked at his remark. “Good luck. I’m pretty sure she’s fucking my cousin.”
“And he’s leaving today,” Gathe replied. “Although Kash said she was Calvin’s best friend.”
I laughed then. Yeah, right. “Sure she is,” I said sarcastically. “When have you known a man to be best friends with a female? Especially a hot one?”
Gathe was silent for a moment. “Uh, me. You’re forgetting Saylor.”
Okay, yeah, fine. There was that. But we’d grown up differently. Saylor had belonged to Crosby since fucking birth, it seemed.
“Not the same.”
“And why is that?”
“I don’t know,” I snapped, growing annoyed. “I’m not debating this shit with you. Do what you want. I don’t give a fuck.”
He chuckled. “I’ll see you at breakfast.”
“Is there no food at your house?” I asked as I pulled on a pair of jeans.
“Yeah, but there are no sad, in-need-of-comfort smokeshows.”
Rolling my eyes, I picked my phone back up and ended the call. He’d be here soon enough anyway. I was done listening to him chatter like a damn woman.
Shoving my phone into my back pocket, I went to the door and jerked it open.
When I stepped into the hallway, I heard talking coming from the open door next to me.
Glancing down at it, I knew that was either Elsie’s room or Calvin’s.
It was one of two guest bedrooms in the house.
The other was directly across from it. That door was open too.
“I’d delay my flight until tonight if I could. But you know I can’t.” Calvin’s voice carried from inside the room.
If she was replying, I couldn’t hear it.
Shaking my head, I left to go to the kitchen. Just friends, my ass.
They’d probably slept in the same bed. Not that Gathe would give a shit. The one thing I didn’t have to worry about with him was losing him to a fucking female. He was as likely to get tied up in a relationship as I was.
The smell of breakfast met me when my foot hit the bottom of the staircase.
Hawkins came barreling out into the hallway from the kitchen with a waffle on a fork in his hand, waving it around like a flag.
I could hear Halo calling after him, and the sight made me grin.
Moving quickly, I blocked his escape path and picked him up.
“Gotcha!” I said as he giggled and squirmed to get loose.
“Thank you, Forge,” Halo said, meeting me at the doorway. “He’s wild this morning.”
I handed him over to her. “Is there a time when he isn’t wild?”
She shrugged. “I guess not.”
“Wilma made hashbrown casserole,” I said, walking over to the stove. “I love her.”
“No, no, Hawks,” Halo said, and I heard something hit the floor.
Grabbing a plate, I started to get a large serving of the casserole. Wilma was one of the reasons I hadn’t been in a rush to move. The Bowens’ place may be a bachelor pad, but they didn’t have a cook this good.
“Good morning.”
Calvin’s voice interrupted my thoughts, but I didn’t glance back to greet him. I had priorities, and he wasn’t one of them.
“Good morning,” Halo replied. “We have breakfast if y’all are hungry. Please help yourselves. Oz and Winslet will be here soon. She called and said to let you know they were running a few minutes late.”
Probably because my brother couldn’t keep his hands off his wife. I rolled my eyes and grabbed four slices of bacon. I finally turned around and forced a half smile in my cousin’s direction before walking to the table.
“Wook, Fowge! Wook! I can fwy!” Hawkins called out as he climbed up into the chair and held out his arms, preparing to jump.
“Hawkins! I told you to stop that!” Halo scolded him, then sighed as he sprang off the chair and landed in a squat on the ground, arms still spread open and a big grin on his face.
Damn, that kid looked so much like Crosby that it hit me in the chest at times. Remembering the kid he’d been. Wondering what kind of dad he would have been.
“That’s awesome, bud, but you’d better obey your momma. It’ll keep you on her good side, and you know what that means,” I told him with a wink.
He frowned for a moment, and then his eyes widened. “Ice cweam!”
Chuckling, I pulled out the chair beside him, thinking I could help keep the little guy from any more wild acts to stress out Halo. I’d much rather she talk to my cousin and his friend. I didn’t feel like being hospitable.
“I was thinking you’d get to go ride Jack with Stevie again,” I reminded him.
Stevie was Linc’s daughter, and Hawkins loved going to ride Linc’s quarter horses with her. They were older, smaller, and not as intimidating as Bane’s thoroughbreds.
He nodded his head vigorously. “I wike widing Jack!”
“Then you might want to sit your booty back in this chair and eat your breakfast like a big boy.”
He thought about that, then finally caved to the promise of horseback riding.
Little did he know, that was already in the plans for him today.
Bane had scheduled me to take Halo and Hawkins over there after lunch.
They never left the gates to the property without one of us with them.
Bane was going to meet them there, but he had to finish handling some business with Linc.
I stuffed a bit of casserole into my mouth, then glanced over at Halo, who gave me a silent, Thank you.
My focus shifted to the other female in the room before I could stop myself.
Yep, just as fucking gray as I remembered, or maybe they would be considered silver.
Damn, she had insane eyes. Her long black hair was pulled back in a ponytail at the nape of her neck, showing off completely unblemished skin.
The pulse at the base of her neck was beating so hard that I could see it.
Why was that? My gaze darted back up to see her eyes watching me. Interesting.
“Let me get you both plates,” Halo said cheerily, and I jerked my head back around to look down at my food.
Gathe was right. She was smoking hot. And she was fucking my cousin. Had to be. I didn’t want any drama. If Gathe wanted to console her and get all mixed up in that shit, whatever. Not me. I had my own set of problems. No need to add more to it.