Depends on Who's Asking

by Vale, Lani Lynn

  My number was seven, so it didn’t matter either way.

  “Who’s number one?” Derek asked the group as a whole.

  Hayes stood up.

  “Take your pick,” Derek said as he swept his hand toward the table.

  Hayes picked a medium-sized box and started to rip into it. When he got to the box on the inside, he pulled a pocketknife from his back pocket and easily cut through the duct tape that held the box closed.

  He blinked when he saw what he’d unwrapped.

  “Ummm,” he said as he placed the box on the table. “Cool?”

  Inside was a plastic bag with air and water in it… and a goldfish.

  He pulled the bag out of the box and held it up for everyone to see.

  “Oh, cool!” Ares cried. “I’ve always wanted a fish!”

  Except, upon closer inspection, the fish was floating upside down.

  “That fish is dead.” Carolina pointed out the obvious.

  “It died after I got it home,” Nathan admitted. “I have the receipt for whoever gets to keep it.”

  There were snickers all around as Ares took the dead fish bag and put it back into the box.

  “That sucks.” She pouted.

  Bourne was next, picking up the largest box on the table and ripping into it.

  He pulled the box out and gasped. “This is exactly what I’ve always wanted.”

  Snorts followed his obviously false enthusiasm.

  “A motion-activated light-up toilet seat,” Reggie read the box. “Sweet. Asa’s gonna love that. But, just sayin’, so will I. Nathan’s gonna steal that.”

  Bourne scowled at her.

  Ford was next, picking up a small-ish box and opening it.

  He pulled out what looked to be about a hundred pairs of socks.

  “Nice,” he said as he poured them all out onto the table. “Always exactly what I wanted.”

  Chuckles followed the announcement as Samuel stood up. He walked over to the socks and stole them, causing Ford to groan.

  “Hey!” Ford cried out.

  “I could really use some new socks,” Samuel admitted. “Like for real.”

  Ford grumbled his way up to the table again and picked up another present. He ripped it open and looked at the pink box with disgust.

  “Umm,” he said as he stared. “What the fuck?”

  “It’s a Shave with Me Barbie.” Louis grinned like a motherfucker. “Way actually shaved some of my leg hair to use on her legs. You’re welcome.”

  Everyone burst out laughing when Louis explained.

  The next to go was Louis.

  He stood up and walked to the table, picking the one that had to be the absolutely smallest on the table.

  Louis opened the small package and read the label.

  That was when he burst out laughing and tossed the gift in Carolina’s direction.

  She caught the small package and looked at it, eyes narrowing.

  On the package that was shrink-wrapped to hell and back said, ‘Emergency Underpants.’

  I couldn’t help it.

  I laughed.

  She glared at me hard. “This is not funny.”

  My brows rose. “Come on,” I said, pulling the pack from her hands and reading the label myself. “You know it is.”

  Her lips twitched, obviously agreeing with me. “Whatever.”

  “I feel like I’ve been dropped into the middle of a conversation,” Calloway admitted. “And I have no idea what’s going on.”

  Louis patted his wife’s head.

  “It’s okay, honey. You can just sit there and look pretty. You’re good at it,” Louis teased, his eyes pure mischief.

  Calloway gasped in outrage and launched herself out of the seat.

  She hit her husband like a battering ram—well, as well as a battering ram who was pregnant and didn’t really want to hurt her baby could do—and started taking aim for his nipples.

  “Caro, help me!” Calloway urged.

  Carolina stood up and kicked off her killer shoes, tossing me a look.

  One that clearly said, ‘Hold my beer.’

  Ares was next to move, followed shortly by Sierra.

  The last to get up was Rowen. She handed off her infant son to Dax and then walked over, too.

  Once they were all close enough, Calloway said, “Ready?”

  “No,” Louis said, shaking his head as he tried to hold in his laughter. “Please don’t. I’ll stop. I’ll never say ugly stuff to you again, Way. I promise.”

  “Ready,” echoed from the other ladies’ mouths.

  I looked at the group around me, wondering what in the hell was going on.

  It seemed like everyone was split into two distinct groups. Those that were part of the SWAT team kids, and those that weren’t.

  One group knew what was about to happen and wore wide smiles on their faces. And the other group, who had no fuckin’ clue what was about to take place, looked curious and confused.

  “Go!” Calloway cried.

  Then all the ladies were crowding in and pressing loud, smacking, slobbery kisses to Louis’ face.

  “This is something that they used to do until we decided we liked girls,” Booth mused as he watched the happenings in front of him. He wrapped his arm around his wife and pulled her in close before taking a sip of his beer. “For some reason, when we were ten, this was the worst form of torture.”

  I could see how it would be.

  At least, when I was ten.

  Now? Well, Louis definitely wasn’t hating it, that was for sure.

  “Y’all are so fuckin’ gross!” Louis cried out as he tried to wipe the slobber that the ladies were leaving away. “Oh my God! You’re leaving lipstick on me!”

  The ladies started to pull off one by one, leaving his wife only to press a kiss to Louis’ lips, who definitely didn’t complain about that one. He swept his arm around Calloway’s back and pulled her in close, pressing himself fully against her before sweeping her up into his arms and taking a seat in his original spot.

  We all looked at Louis who was definitely sporting multiple shades of lipstick.

  “This is great,” he grumbled as he wiped his face off.

  Carolina headed back to her seat but stopped before she could get to me. “Do you want something to drink? I’m really thirsty.”

  I nodded. I would like something to drink.

  She patted my shoulder and slipped through the spot between me and her chair, rubbing her sweet little ass against my arm before disappearing two tables over to pull a couple of beers out of the inflated sleigh that was filled with ice and cold beer.

  She walked back over to me with a sway to her hips that had me studying the way the skirt brushed mid-thigh.

  When she got to me, she handed the beer to me and took her seat.

  I took it, twisted the top off, then handed it back to her.

  She smiled at me with a wide grin and handed me the unopened beer.

  “That’s sweet and all,” Bourne drawled as he watched the two of us. “But we always used to have to give our drinks to Carolina to open when we were younger. For some reason she was always able to get the drinks uncapped when we couldn’t. She’s probably better at that than you are.”

  I glanced over at Carolina who grinned. “I think it’s the little hands. I have more power per square inch.” She held her hand up to show me.

  I caught her hand with mine and folded it into my fist, holding on as Louis finally stopped kissing his wife long enough for us to continue.

  Malachi was next up.

  But instead of going to the table, he walked over to me and stole Louis’ emergency underpants out of my hand.

  “Hey!” Louis cried, moving his wife to her own seat and glaring at Malachi. “What the fuck?”

  “I think this wouldn’t be a bad thing to have around.” He handed it over to Sierra.

  Sierra rolled her eyes while Louis gagged. “Gross!”

  Louis stood up and picked an
other gift up from the table and ripped into it with just as much enthusiasm as the one before it. When he read the bottle—my gift—he started to laugh uncontrollably.

  My lips twitched at the irony of the situation.

  “Poo Pouri?” he wheezed. “Who the fuck got this?”

  I raised my hand.

  He looked at me for a long moment, trying to decide if I was serious, then bent over at the waist and wheezed out even more laughs.

  He sounded like a wounded water buffalo.

  Jesus Christ, but the irony of the situation was getting to me, too.

  Carolina was wiping her eyes free of tears as she continued to shake her head.

  “I don’t even know what to say,” she cried. “Oh, God.”

  “See, this is when I think that I’ve only gotten half the story again,” Calloway whined.

  Louis opened his mouth to tell her probably what he told her last time, but Calloway shut him up with her hand on his mouth. “Shut up before I geld you and make this baby of yours that I’m carrying an only child.”

  Louis licked her hand and she pulled it away before wiping it on his chest.

  Both were smiling.

  “I’ll tell you later, baby,” he said. “Now, who’s next?”

  Who was next happened to be me.

  I got up and got the next gift, opening it up to find a beer of the month subscription.

  “Umm.” I looked at it in confusion. “What the fuck is this?”

  “It’s a beer of the month subscription,” Adam answered. “It still has three months left. You’re welcome. I really liked the random beer that they sent.”

  I laughed and dropped the paper onto the table in front of me.

  Carolina leaned in and read the paper, shaking her head with amusement.

  When she started to lean back into her chair, I curled my arm around her and pulled her in tight.

  The rest of the presents weren’t any less amusing, and by the time that the game was over, everyone had gotten a present that they liked. Everyone but Ford who’d ended up with the dead fish.

  “What the fuck am I supposed to do with this?” Ford thrust the fish into Nathan’s face.

  Nathan batted it away and poked him in the chest.

  “Take it to Pet World and tell them that the fish died within an hour of having it, and you want a replacement fish. If it makes you feel better, I’ll even go with you and do the dirty work,” Nathan joked.

  Ford sighed and held his bag out to Ashe. Ashe sniffed at him and didn’t take it from his outstretched hand.

  “Come on!” Ford growled. “I have to go get all the other shit that you thought was necessary for a party that was catered.”

  Ashe reluctantly plucked the dead fish from Ford’s hands and took it out the door with her, leaving us all grinning our asses off.

  “You’re ridiculous,” Carolina pointed out. “There’s nothing left of her food to take. Y’all ate it all.”

  We all looked to the table that’d been heaping with food when we’d arrived. It was all dwindled down to almost nothing.

  The only thing left was a weird looking cheese ball.

  One that looked like it’d been hacked into tiny little pieces with the pretzel sticks that were right beside it, also uneaten.

  “Who brought the cheese ball?” Ford asked, poking it.

  “That was Connor,” Carolina supplied from next to me. “I wouldn’t suggest eating it. I heard my mom trying to explain to him how to make it today, and it wasn’t going well. I put a note on it not to eat it, but it looks like that note is gone.”

  “I can’t believe you,” Connor hissed, making Carolina jump and swing a fist at her brother.

  Connor easily caught her thrown punch and pulled her into his arms, burying his face into her hair as he breathed in her ear.

  “Don’t you fucking dare, Connor!” Carolina ordered sharply.

  Apparently, Connor dared.

  He inhaled, then licked her from ear to ear.

  “You’re so fucking sick.” Carolina glared as she wiped her face off with her forearm. “I hate you.”

  “You don’t hate me.” Connor chuckled as his eyes once again met mine.

  I hadn’t moved from where I was standing, but my eyes had stayed on him just in case I needed to intervene.

  Connor’s eyes met mine in anger, and I raised my brows and leveled him with a look that clearly said ‘I love her. I’ll protect her with my life.’

  His eyelid twitched and he looked away, but I knew better than to think I won.

  As we all walked out to our respective vehicles later, it wasn’t lost on me that I didn’t want to leave. Because leaving meant that I had to allow Carolina to go home.

  Also, leaving meant that I had to explain.

  And I didn’t want to explain.

  Explaining meant that I’d have to think about the last couple of days, and I didn’t want to do that, either.

  But for her, I’d do anything.

  “I…” I started to say once we’d reached her car.

  Only, just as I was about to invite her to come to my place, every single member of the SWAT team that wasn’t gone had their phones go off.

  I pulled my phone out and went to the app that indicated we had another SWAT call. This one a continuation of the one earlier that’d been ‘de-escalated.’ Apparently, the de-escalation hadn’t been so great after all.

  Her eyes met mine over the top of her car door that she’d opened as I’d read over the call.

  “I’ll see you tomorrow?” she asked hopefully.

  I licked my lips. “I have to work. I’m working the night shift. Can I see you when you get off? For an hour?”

  She scrunched up her nose. “That’s no fun.”

  My lips curled up into a smile and I walked closer, pulling her as close as I could with the car door between us.

  “I’ll see you tomorrow,” I whispered against her lips.

  Her eyes went hot as she pulled back. “Tomorrow? You’ll do some talking?”

  I laughed and jogged away. But I said over my shoulder, “I’ll do some talking.”

  But it was only later that I remembered that call from Brad and listened to the voicemail, and what I heard made me even more confused.

  CHAPTER 14

  Time to sit in front of a dead tree and eat candy out of socks.

  -Coffee Cup

  SAINT

  I was almost dreading heading over to Carolina’s house two days after the party.

  It was now the seventeenth of December and my pretend birthday. I always picked out a different day to celebrate my birthday. It was usually by myself.

  I’d had one hell of a day at work last night, and this morning hadn’t started off any better thanks to trying to investigate more of Brad’s cryptic ass messages.

  As I pulled up in front of Carolina’s house and got out, I didn’t go to the door but to the passenger side of my cruiser.

  Once there, I helped Smoke out of the truck.

  Smoke looked at me pitifully.

  Instead of putting him on the ground, I walked him to the front door of Carolina’s place and tapped the door with the steel toe of my booted foot.

  I heard her yell ‘coming’ from somewhere deep in the house, and what distinctly felt like a pinch near the vicinity of my heart when I heard her voice had me smiling despite my shitty day.

  She was already wearing a bright smile when she opened the door. A smile that quickly fell off her face when she saw me carrying Smoke.

  “Oh, no,” she gasped. “What happened?”

  I grimaced as I walked past her through the door that she held open.

  “Some asshole decided to run the dog over instead of stopping his car,” I said. “He’s okay. He could’ve been seriously hurt. But luckily, he dodged enough that they only ran over his tail. They had to amputate part of it. He should be up and running in no time, but they still had him on some pain medication and he’s partially still under the
effects of the anesthesia.”

  “Oh, you poor big boy.” Carolina looked at him with sadness filling her eyes. “Can I touch him? I know that he’s a working dog and all.”

  I was already nodding my head. “You care if I put him on that blanket on the floor?”

  Carolina swept the blanket up and laid it over the couch instead. “Put him there. He doesn’t need to stay on the floor.”

  I did as she suggested and Smoke groaned when Carolina went as far as to prop his head up with a pillow.

  “How did this happen again?” she asked.

  I recounted my night.

  “Well, it all started with the SWAT call. Then I went to work after that, and about halfway through my shift, some asshole decides to take off while I’m doing a search of his car. He nearly ran over the dog when he backed up, then purposefully steered toward him after that. Ran over his tail and the doctor had to amputate it. He looks weird, doesn’t he?” I couldn’t believe our luck.

  Poor Smoke.

  “He does look a bit odd,” she agreed. “But he’ll work it. Will this change his duties at work?”

  “The vet suggested we give him a week off to make sure that he knows how to handle himself, but ultimately said that dogs do very well with this type of surgery,” I admitted. “I wish I could pull that guy out of the car and punch him all over again.”

  She blinked at me with wide eyes. “You punched him?”

  I shrugged. “I was out of sorts.”

  She snickered and patted him on the back one last time before she stood up and said, “Are you hungry? I made a cake today.”

  I looked at her with narrowed eyes. “Who told you it was my birthday?”

  “It’s your birthday?” she all but shrieked. “What?”

  I frowned. “Yes, well technically my birthday is December twenty-fifth, but I choose not to celebrate it that day.”

  “And you didn’t tell me?” She threw her hands out wide. “That’s something that I think one would share with the person that they’re sleeping with.”

  I opened my mouth and then closed it, unsure what to say.

  “I…” I paused. “You didn’t know? Then why did you make a cake?”

  She crossed her arms over her chest, causing her breasts to rise up with the movement. It also pressed them together, which then made me take notice of the sweatshirt she was wearing.