My second wind disappears as we drive, and I slump over, laying my head on Ryker’s lap. I doodle on his leg for a few minutes, but when he runs his fingers through my hair, it lulls me to sleep.
~
With Ryker shaking me, I wake as we pull into my driveway. “Wake up, sleepyhead. You’re home.”
“We made it.” I clap and sit up. “Thanks for taking me with you.”
“We should have taken you before, but I’m glad we took you when we did. Can you get inside by yourself?” Devon asks.
I roll my eyes. “I’m fine. We’re parked in my garage. Do you need me to walk you across the lawn to Kace’s house?”
“Touché.” Devon climbs out of the car, followed closely by Kace and Ryker. Devon takes my hand and helps me out before pulling me into an embrace. “I still have your panties in my pocket. I’m not giving them back,” he whispers in my ear before kissing the top of my head.
I slap his arm. “Night, Dev!”
“Why is your face all red?” Ryker asks.
Devon is now on my shit list.
“It’s nothing, probably from sleeping on your legs.” I throw my arms around Ryker’s neck and give him a quick hug, ready to go inside and hide.
Ryker picks me up to finish off the hug. “Sleep well.”
Kace saunters over to me, spinning me around one last time before locking his arms around my waist and bending closer to my ear. “Should I leave my blinds open? You can finish the show you started last night.”
My stomach tightens with desire at the words. My poor libido has been pulled all over the place tonight. I run my hands over his chest to return the favor to him, my skin heating as it glides over the thin, tank material. “I dunno. You might have earned it. We’ll have to see.” I grab the edges of his tank and pull him to me, kissing his cheek before I dash into the house.
Conversations
I trudge up the stairs, my body lacking the energy it had earlier in the evening. Flipping on my light, I nearly scream as I see my mother sitting on my bed.
“Mom! You nearly gave me a heart attack.” I clutch at my chest, my heart beat matching the music from earlier tonight.
“Where have you been? And why are you dressed like that? No daughter of mine will whore herself out. I don’t care that you’re eighteen. You still live under my roof with my rules. Do you understand, young lady?” My mom pauses briefly so I can attempt to answer her questions.
“I was at a graduation party,” I kind of lie. We were celebrating. “Since it was a party, I wore party clothes. I did not whore myself out to anyone. One of the guys would have hit anyone that tried to touch me.” I ignore the fact that Devon has my underwear in his pocket. “Dad knew I was going out. He gave me the keys to his car.” She’s not the only one that can give permission to do things around here.
She bounds to her feet, her finger in my face. “Don’t talk back to me. I told you to stay away from those boys. They’re no good for you. You can do one hundred times better.” I start to respond, but she puts her hand up. “I don’t care that Devon was the valedictorian. He will never be anything but trash. Why I let you associate with people from the Heights is beyond me. Your father should know better.”
I clench my fist to resist striking her. Never before have I wanted to hit someone, but those three have been an important part of my entire life. They’ve supported me when she hasn’t. Whatever has changed in her the last few months drives a deeper wedge between us. I hold my tongue and wait for her to continue. My words mean nothing to her.
“Look at the time. We have to be up early to finish everything, and you’ve kept me up late. I’ll be a wreck tomorrow because you can’t keep your legs together.” She reaches for me, but I step back.
“I’m going to bed. You should as well since we have to be up early to finish everything.” I throw her words back at her, hoping to end this conversation.
“Listen to me. I don’t need your lip.” Her red face gets redder by the minute. “You’re done with those boys. Done. They have already been invited over for tomorrow, so I won’t change that, but afterward, nothing. You will not be going camping with them.”
“Why all the yelling?” My dad steps into the room. His hair flopped sideways like he didn’t bother to run his hands through it when he got up.
“You.” My mother turns her attention to my dad, her finger in his face. “This is your fault. You always wanted a boy, so you encouraged those three miscreants to hang out here. It’s safer for our daughter if we know where everyone is. Now look at her. She thinks she can get away with anything.”
“It’s too late to be yelling. I trust our daughter because she’s our daughter, and we raised her right. She will only graduate from high school once, so she deserves to have some fun. She made it home in one piece. I trust the boys to make sure that happens. What I don’t appreciate is you contradicting something I already approved without discussing it with me first.” My shoulders straighten at his words. I’ve never seen my father stand up to my mother before. At least I’m not alone in the idea that her mood changes are new. “It’s never been a problem before, but since it appears to be one now, future decisions can be made as a family with the majority vote being the decision.”
“H…” Mom splutters. “We will continue this conversation in private. I will not have a child ruling over what can be done in this house.”
“I’m going back to bed. I’ll be in the extra room. We can continue this later, but know she is no longer a child. We should treat her with that respect.” My father turns and walks out the door, heading right toward the extra room instead of left toward the master bedroom.
“Happy now?” Inches from my face, my mother nearly spits the words at me before stomping out of the room and slamming my door.
I drop my face in my hands and start to cry. Shaking, I scrub my eyes and take a deep breath. This will not break me. She has to learn to give me my space, not that she can control me once I’m in school.
Glancing up, I realize my blinds are open. How much did the guys see? I walk over to the window, and all three of them stand there, hands in the form of hearts. I blow three kisses out to them, then shut the blinds and fall into bed, fully clothed.
~
In the morning, I wake earlier than I planned, which is a good thing since I didn’t set my alarm. After showering and changing into work clothes, I lumber down the steps to the kitchen, worried about seeing my mother.
“Morning, honey,” my mom’s cheerful voice greets me.
I do a double take to make sure it’s not my grandmother because my grandmother is the only female I know that is so happy first thing in the day.
“Morning. How can I help?” I grab the cereal and a bowl. I’m not really hungry, but eating will help wake me up from this strange dream.
“We’re good right now. You just go relax. The only thing left to do is to set the food out, but we don’t want to start doing that until about twelve thirty, since guests aren’t arriving until one.” Her chipper attitude confuses me. Where is the woman that was in my room last night?
“Hey, stinkerdoodle. I didn’t expect you up so early. Go get another hour of sleep. Everything here is under control.” Dad winks at me and takes the box of cereal, pouring a little in my bowl before getting a bowl and filling his own.
Opening the refrigerator, I pick up the milk and bring it to the table. Dad snags us some spoons, then we both sit to eat. Mom hums as she walks into the laundry room and out of earshot.
“What’s going on?” I lean in so we can talk softly without my mom hearing.
“Everything’s fine. I spoke with your mother once we slept off the anger from last night. She’s just stressed about making today perfect for you. Don’t be too hard on her. This party means her baby isn’t her baby anymore. You’ll be leaving her. That’s hard on a mom.” Dad’s explanation doesn’t give me the full story, but I drop it. If they want to tell me, they will.
“Dad. The car hi
t a hole yesterday. It was dark and hard to see. Kace changed it with the spare you had in the trunk, but he said that the old tire was unsalvageable.” No reason to hold on to this information, especially if he’s in a good mood.
“This is why I’m glad the boys were with you. I’ll take the old tire to the recycling plant and put one of the spares from the barn in the trunk. I’m glad it wasn’t worse.”
“Kace offered to show me how to change a tire.” Since most people don’t have cars, formal driver’s training is no longer required. My dad taught me, but left out the basics on how to care for the car.
“Oh, good. If he doesn’t, remind me, and I will.” He sips his coffee and flips through the news channels.
The mood change from last night bothers me. “Dad, I’m going to head over to Kace’s to see if Mrs. Volk needs any help with last minute food items.”
He raises his cup to me. “Your mother talked to her yesterday, but that’s a nice gesture. Just be back in time to get ready.”
I finish my last couple bites of cereal, place my bowl in the dishwasher, and head over to see the boys. Normally, I would walk in, but since it’s so early, I knock. Mr. Volk answers the door.
“Hi, pop.” I give Kace’s grandpa a quick hug as he ushers me into the house. “Does Gran need any help finishing up anything? Everything at my house is ready until it’s time to get the food out.”
“Gran has it under control. You can head upstairs and make those lazy ass boys get up, though.” His deep laugh causes me to giggle. “You know how much they hate mornings.”
“We were out late. I should let them sleep. A tire blew on our way home, so we ended up later than we intended.” I defend the guys; although, even if we weren’t out late, they probably would have stayed up playing video games.
“You’re up, they can be up.”
“I slept in the car.”
“Fine. I’ll go wake them up.” Pop grabs two old canes that sit by the front door, tapping them together lightly.
“No, you’re right. I should wake them up.” The guys would kill me if Pop started banging on doors and walls to get them to wake up this early.
“Good girl.” He sets the canes back down and heads into the family room.
Climbing up the stairs, I take them unhurriedly to give the guys extra time to sleep. The knob creeks as I slowly turn it, so I pause several times in my attempt to open the door. Like always, Kace’s room shows no signs that a teenage boy lives in there. Everything is put away and closed up.
Kace lies on his bed against the wall, dark-blue covers wrapped around him. Devon sprawls out on the floor tucked between the desk and the dresser, one of his legs propped up on the desk chair. My throat dries when I see Ryker lying on the bottom end of Kace’s bed. His muscled back coming to an end at the top of his black boxer briefs.
Like he knows I’m looking at him, he rolls over onto his side, facing toward me to give me an uninterrupted view of his chiseled chest. Taking a deep breath, I slide the door shut as quietly as possible before kneeling in front of Ryker’s face, mine inches from his. My fingers trace the line from his temple down to his cheek, the path broken by the smile that forms on his lips.
Ryker takes my hand and kisses my palm softly before pulling me into bed next to him. He scoots over so he can spoon with me, brushing my hair away from my face so he can rest his chin near my face while my head lays on his bicep.
“How did you know it was me?” I ask since he never opened his eyes.
“Katie?”
I elbow him in the side, but my arm doesn’t get far as he tightens his arms around me. “I know you, Bai. I can’t explain it, but I just knew it was you.” He kisses my temple as I snuggle into him.
“Pop told me to wake you guys up, but I didn’t have the heart to do it,” I whisper, trying to let the others sleep.
“Are you tired? Do you have time to sleep for a little while? We have a big day ahead of us.”
“Actually, I’m wired, and I’m not sure why. I should sleep, but I don’t think I can.” I’m definitely not going to fall back to sleep with his mostly naked body wrapped around me.
“Let’s wake the others, then. We can finalize our plans for tonight.”
Ryker moves his arm to release me, but I pull it back. “We should give them a few more minutes, unless you’re ready to get up.” His morning erection presses into my thighs. I struggle to stay still, not knowing how to handle this situation since I’ve only fallen asleep with each of them only a few times.
“I’m happy never moving.”
Ryker quiets as I run my fingers up and down the length of his arm. My heart aches as I think about all the time lost over the last couple of years never daring to take the next step in a relationship with any of them. None of them asked me out, but I never hinted I wanted that from them, always keeping them at arm’s distance for fear that someone would get hurt. Now that we’ll be scattering to different parts of the country, I wonder how I’ll survive without all of them there, waiting to walk with me at class or watch a movie on a Saturday night.
Tears rolls down my cheek and onto Ryker’s arm.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” He rolls me around to look at him.
Unable to hide the shine of my eyes, I bury my head against his chest. “After tomorrow, when we get home from camping, everything with change. I don’t want it to change.”
“Don’t you?”
Lifting my head, I peer into his eyes. “No. Do you?” The ache in my chest tightens, trying to break me into a million pieces.
“Yes. Do you think a month ago you would be lying in here with me like this?”
“No, but at least I had the opportunity if it arose.” I scrunch my nose as I try to figure out where he’s going with his questions.
Ryker runs his thumb over my forehead and cheek to smooth out the wrinkles. “True. I love that we have this opportunity right now.” As he tilts my head up, my eyes flutter closed, hoping he’ll kiss me. My first, honest kiss from someone I care about and not from a game or a need to feel normal.
Before his lips touch mine, Kace kicks Ryker. “Dude, move over. You’re taking up the entire bed.”
I pop my head up to look at Kace, his hair wild from sleep.
“Hey! When did you get here? It’s my room and my bed, you should be over here with me.” Kace reaches over Ryker and latches onto my wrist, dragging me over Ryker’s body and into the bed next to him.
“Morning! I was sent up here to wake you. You managed it all on your own, though.” I bop him on the nose before running my fingers through his hair to tame the crazy locks.
“My turn!” Devon jumps on the bed behind me and hooks his legs over mine, pulling me his direction.
“Hey, Dev!” I twist as much as I can to face him, but his legs have me locked in place.
“You’re the best alarm clock, ever. You should have been waking me up for school all along. I would never have been late.” Devon slides his hand under my shirt as he hooks his arm around my waist.
My stomach muscles tighten as his fingers glide against my bare skin. I stretch my neck in an effort to see his face, but he nuzzles his chin against my hair.
“I’m pretty sure if you woke up like that, you wouldn’t have made it to school at all.” Kace fist bumps Ryker.
“I’d be okay with that, too.” Devon fakes some snoring sounds as he snuggles me into him.
“I can’t stay too long. I need to make sure I’m back in time to setup, so my mom doesn’t get mad at me.” With her attitude recently, she may kick me out.
“Speaking of your mom… What happened last night? It looked pretty heated.” Kace scoots closer to me.
“It was nothing,” I lie. I don’t know why either.
“Bai… If something’s going on, you can tell us.” Ryker slips off my sandals and places my feet in his lap as he leans against the wall.
Closing my eyes, I roll my face onto Devon’s arm. “I don’t know anymore.” There’s proba
bly a better explanation in there, but I don’t know how to explain it.
“She seemed fine when we were unloading the groceries. Did she just think we kept you out too late? We’ve been out that late before, but never when something important was scheduled for the next day.” Kace pushes the hair out of my face, encouraging me to look at him.
Sitting up, I try to think of an explanation. Devon releases me, and I move to sit against the headboard. “She’s changed. Last year, my mom never would have bought all that food and left people with nothing. Instead of the party being about me, it’s about making my dad look good. It all feels so selfish.”
“I’m sure it’s just her nerves. She wants today to be perfect.” Kace tries to explain away my mother’s actions.
“Maybe.” I shrug, not believing it.
“Well, whatever it is, she won’t bother you for the next couple of days, because we have plans. Are you excited?” Ryker asks while tickling my feet.
“Hey! Not if you’re going to treat me like that.” They know I hate being tickled. “And what do you mean days? I thought we were just going tonight.” The boys didn’t tell me about any plan changes.
“Before we went to sleep last night, we talked about it. We have a couple of days before we get our assignments, so we want to spend it with you.” Kace bites his nails.
“Really?” I expected them to spend the time packing.
Devon pinches my side, causing me to flinch. “Yes. No place we would rather be. I don’t have much to pack, so I plan on making our last couple of days together meaningful.”
Drooping, I bite my lip to hide my pout. I’m not ready to separate from them. “Well, I need to pack more stuff. What all do I need to bring? I’ve never been camping.”
Falling For Them Volume 2: Reverse Harem Collection Page 59