Chapter Forty-Three
Forty-Three
Elsie
“What is going on with you and Forge?” The hushed words were out of Calvin’s mouth the moment we entered the kitchen.
I’d expected them, but that didn’t mean I had an answer for him. There were some things you didn’t tell your guy best friend. Especially when it involved his cousin … having had his face between your legs.
I sighed heavily, then turned to look at him. “We are friends,” I said, already knowing he wasn’t going to take that as an answer and let this go.
“No,” Calvin said, closing the distance between us.
“We are friends,” he whispered, wagging his finger between the two of us.
Then he pointed toward the great room. “That is something completely different. You remember that they’re in the Mafia, right?
Yes, he’s my cousin, but he is dangerous.
He kills people, Elsie. Kills them. Puts them in the ground. ”
The concern on Calvin’s face was understandable. But that side of Forge’s life wasn’t one I was privy to. It was hard for me to associate that with him.
I shrugged. “I guess I don’t think about that when I’m around him. He’s nice.” God, that sounded lame. “We have … bonded, I guess, over grief and numbers.”
Calvin was staring at me like I’d lost my mind. “Grief and numbers?”
“Yes. His mother is sick, and I lost both my parents. Then I help with the bookie stuff on game nights. We’ve become friends. He’s just … a little territorial. I think he might feel … threatened that you’re here. I don’t know.” I threw up my hands in frustration, then placed them on my hips.
Calvin ran a hand through his hair and tugged at it the way he did when he was stressed about something. “I brought you here to keep you safe. To keep you alive. I didn’t anticipate”—he paused and glared back at the door—“this.”
“You’re overreacting,” I told him. “Forge isn’t going to kill me. What’s the big deal?”
Calvin’s eyes went wide as he looked back at me.
“The big deal?” He sounded exasperated. “Forge looked ready to rip my head off for asking you to come with me to the kitchen. He’s not let you out of his sight all day, and earlier, when he saw us coming back from the picnic, he was pissed.
Did you not pick up on that? What happens when you leave?
Huh? Is he even going to let you? I mean”—Calvin shook his head—“this is messed up. I need to talk to Oz about it. Maybe he can—”
“Calvin.” I stopped his rambling. “I don’t want you talking to Oz.
Forge and I are friends, and, yes, I think he is uncomfortable with my best friend showing back up.
It reminded him that I may leave soon. He is going through a hard time, and you getting all worked up about our friendship isn’t going to help.
Please, let me handle this. It’s fine. I swear.
He needs me right now. With his mom and everything.
Just don’t make this something it isn’t. ”
“You said may leave. But you will leave soon,” Calvin said firmly.
I nodded, although I wasn’t so sure about that anymore. Not if Forge meant what he’d said earlier.
“Let this go,” I repeated.
He sighed and stared at me for a moment. “So, this is just you being a friend to him while he deals with his mom dying?”
I scowled. “Don’t say that.”
“What?”
“That she is dying. She is sick. She can beat this.”
Calvin’s eyebrows shot up. “Els, she stopped the treatments. Without the chemo to kill it, she can’t.”
I didn’t want to hear that. I shook my head. The thought of Forge losing his mother was more than I could deal with right now. One thing at a time. “You don’t know that. You’re not a doctor or God.”
He shrugged and shook his head as if he was done with me.
Whatever. He didn’t understand. He’d not lost a parent to death.
Because of her own selfishness, he had in a way lost his mother, but she was alive.
Breathing. Walking the earth. There was a chance for reconciliation.
She could see her faults and choose to fix them.
Death was final. There was nothing after.
“You swear that possessive stuff he’s doing is a friendship thing?” Calvin asked. “You’re not …” He paused and cleared his throat. We’d never discussed my sex life, although there had never been one. “You’re not, uh, sleeping with him?” he asked so quietly that I almost couldn’t hear him.
I shook my head. “No, Calvin, I’ve not had sex with your cousin.” And that was the complete truth.
The instant relief on his face would have been comical once, but at the moment, nothing was.
“We should go back in there,” I told him.
He nodded, then glanced around. “Where are the sodas?”
I walked over to the refrigerator and took out one for each of us, then handed him his. “Now, please, when we go back in there, relax and enjoy the evening.”
“Yeah, okay,” he agreed.
I led the way back to the great room. Forge’s eyes locked on me the second I entered.
I smiled at him and went right back to my spot, where he was currently standing.
He’d apparently not moved since I’d left.
His hand went around the back of my waist, settling on my hip, and he held me close to his side while he continued typing with his other hand.
“You good?” he asked without looking from the screen to me.
“Yes. Everything is fine.”
Calvin had said his good nights and headed up to bed when Bane, Halo, Hawkins, and Winslet all went up.
Once the games ended, I stifled a yawn and looked from Forge to Oz, who both were still wrapping up bets.
I didn’t want to interrupt, but I was ready to go to bed.
I’d had very little sleep the past few nights, and I was hoping with Forge back, I’d sleep better.
“I’m going up,” I said. “Night.”
Oz glanced up. “Thanks for your help tonight.”
“Of course. I enjoy it.”
He nodded, then went back to the screen he was working on.
Forge walked over to me, and I realized I was holding my breath as he did so. Watching him do anything was intoxicating. The man was eye candy. He grabbed my wrist and pulled me close until his mouth was near my ear.
“My bed. I’ll be up soon,” he whispered in my ear.
I pulled back to look up at him. Did he mean he wanted me to go to his bed?
“You’d better be there when I get there, or I’ll come haul you out of yours,” he warned, then winked at me before turning and going back to his laptop.
Okay, so that was what he meant. Anticipation sent a zing through my body.
I was ready. At least, I thought I was. I couldn’t imagine wanting to do this with anyone more than I did Forge.
I’d been a virgin far too long and for a silly reason, but having him be my first was worth the wait. If he didn’t break my vagina.