The 2015 R.L. Mathewson Chronicles Collection

by R. L. Mathewson

  “Then perhaps we should move on to negotiations.”

  Part V

  “Not. Fucking. Happening.”

  “You don’t have a choice,” Zoe said smugly as she sat across from him on the couch next to Haley, who was struggling to stay awake.

  “You don’t think so?” he asked, cocking a brow as he glared at his cousin’s Red Sox loving wife.

  “We have the list,” Zoe pointed out as she crossed her arms over her chest and leaned back as Haley mumbled something in her sleep and sort of fell over onto her side where she grumbled something unintelligible and snuggled a throw pillow.

  Sighing heavily, he slumped back against the couch, wondering if he’d fucked up by using sex to get answers from her had been a mistake.

  “How do you know that she hasn’t already shown me the list?” he asked, gesturing lazily towards his wife.

  “Because she doesn’t have a copy of the list,” Zoe replied with a huge smile that had his eyes narrowing on his unconscious wife.

  “Then who has it?” Trevor demanded next to him as they sat there, glaring at their wives.

  Smiling, Zoe announced, “Marybeth.”

  “Fuck…no,” he said, sighing heavily as he closed his eyes in defeat, because he knew that the only person who had any chance at all of getting his hands on the list would use it just to fuck them over for the hell of it.

  “We could ask him to-”

  “Darrin’s not going to share that list,” he pointed out as his eyes locked on his wife and he decided to focus on what they could get their hands on now.

  “If you don’t tell us the name and location of the buffet that you were going to today, we will go on strike,” he announced, locking gazes with Zoe since she was the only one of them conscious.

  “Strike?” Zoe repeated back slowly, looking confused as she shot Trevor a questioning look.

  “Strike,” Trevor said firmly as they both folded their arms over their chests and stared her down, knowing damn well that they had the women where they wanted them.

  “I see,” she murmured thoughtfully before she shrugged and made a counter offer, “You’ll get the name and address of the buffet restaurant if you agree to watch the kids for a whole week so that we can go to the North Shore Author Event in April.”

  He felt Trevor go still next to him as he struggled to bite back a smile.

  This was fucking perfect….

  “And if we don’t?” he asked, deciding not to let her know that this actually worked in their favor.

  Zoe shrugged. “Then we go on strike.”

  “I see,” he murmured thoughtfully, not really all that concerned since he was more than fine with this plan.

  “So, we have a deal?” Zoe asked with a devious look in her eye that reminded him of her rather frightening children.

  He didn’t bother conferring with Trevor since there was no doubt in his mind that his cousin was on board.

  “Yes,” he said with a nod, “we have a deal.”

  Part VI

  “No more sex,” Haley mumbled pathetically from where she hung limply over Jason’s shoulder.

  “I did what I had to do,” Jason said with a sniff when everyone in line stopped what they were doing to gawk at them.

  “Why don’t I drive Haley home?” she offered when she heard what sounded suspiciously like light snoring coming from the vicinity of Jason’s back.

  Jason shook his head as he glanced around the large restaurant. “Can’t.”

  “Why exactly is that?” she asked, frowning when Trevor gently wrapped his hand around her arm and pulled her back just as Jason turned around, giving them his back.

  “Don’t talk to him,” Trevor whispered in her ear as he used his hold on her arm to discretely pull her back another foot, putting more space between them.

  “Why?” she absently asked as she watched as Jason carefully placed Haley on her feet and quickly wrapped his arm around her when she stumbled unsteadily.

  “You know why,” Trevor whispered as they watched Jason, with Haley still struggling to wake up, step up to the cashier and pay.

  Yes, sadly she did know why.

  Apparently it was time to pretend that they didn’t know each other in the hope that if the other screwed up and got banned that they wouldn’t be taken down with them. She really didn’t see the point, especially since there was no hiding the family resemblance, but she didn’t say anything, mostly because she would never do anything to ruin her entertainment.

  There was just something about screwing over her husband and his family that put a smile on her face, she thought with a satisfied sigh as she watched Jason shoot Trevor a warning glare as he walked towards the back of the restaurant. As Trevor paid for their meals, she decided to see if she could make this a little more interesting. She discretely took out her phone and-

  “Don’t even think about it,” Trevor said as he plucked her phone out of her hands.

  “I was just checking to make sure the school hasn’t called?” she explained, making sure to sound appropriately innocent.

  “Uh huh,” Trevor said, sighing heavily as he placed her phone in his back pocket and took her hand in his.

  Damn it!

  Sighing heavily, she let him drag her off to the opposite side of the restaurant. Now what was she supposed to do for entertainment? she wondered as Trevor picked a booth by the salad bar.

  At least if the rest of his family was here she could entertain herself by watching their antics, but with just Trevor and Jason here there wasn’t going to be much to do until one of them did something terrifying enough to get kicked out. They really should have planned this better, she realized as she sat down and tried not to pout, but it was kind of hard not to when faced with a five hour wait at a buffet with absolutely nothing to do but kill time.

  Part VII

  “What are you doing?”

  Blinking, Zoe looked up to find Jason glaring down at her plate in disgust. “Making a salad,” she said, frowning in confusion as she glanced down at the salad in her hands and then back up at Jason.

  “Why?” Jason asked, shooting her plate another curious look before he looked back up at her, waiting for a reason to explain why she was wasting her time on the salad bar at a buffet. It was a typical Bradford response, and one she’d dealt with before.

  “Because I don’t want to get fat like you,” she said with a shrug, somehow managing to keep a straight face.

  He gasped in horror, looking startled. “I’m not fat!”

  She looked pointedly down at his impressive chest and abs covered by a gray Bradford Construction tee shirt and shrugged. “If you say so.”

  Another startled gasp brought her attention back up to find Jason glaring down at her. “You are no longer allowed to play with my wife,” he bit out with a sniff as he stalked off, leaving her standing there, shaking her head in wonder.

  There was just something about a Bradford that she found highly entertaining, she thought with a fond smile as she picked up the large bottle of French dressing and drizzled it over her salad, making sure to cover every last bit of green and red with the delicious orange concoction that made eating healthy possible. Once that was done, she grabbed two warm rolls, two small packs of butter and carried her plate over to the beverage station where she filled a glass with ice and Coke. Once that was done, she carried her food over to the booth that Trevor had picked out and sat down.

  A minute later Trevor paused by the table to drop off four large glasses of Coke and stole a quick kiss before walking away. The next time he walked past their table he dropped off two plates overflowing with fried chicken, a plate with mashed potatoes, corn and cranberry sauce before kissing her and disappearing back into the small crowd surrounding the buffet tables. He stopped by their table two more times, dropping off twice as much food before he finally sat down with two cups of chocolate milk.

  He managed to polish off one of the plates of fried chicken and the plate of mashed p
otatoes and corn before she could manage half her salad. Once she was done eating, she pushed her plate away, sat back and watched her husband devour his food.

  “I’m going to have to go soon,” she reminded him as she looked down at her watch.

  “We still have two hours before we have to pick the kids up,” Trevor said, not bothering to look up from the biscuit that he was buttering.

  “I have to stop by the store first,” she absently said as she looked around the large restaurant, already bored out of her mind.

  “I’ll make burgers on the grill,” he offered with a shrug, picking up another biscuit and slathered it with butter and strawberry jelly before popping it in his mouth.

  “I see,” she murmured, glancing over at Jason’s table across the restaurant to find him glaring at her as he stuffed a biscuit in his mouth and just because she couldn’t help herself, she bit her lip and looked pointedly down at his trim waist, the implication clear.

  She swore that she heard his gasp of outrage across the noisy restaurant, and although it did entertain her to screw with his head, her enjoyment was short lived as she recalled her current predicament. She was stuck in a buffet restaurant with a limited number of Bradfords with nothing to read or do for the next two hours.

  She really wished that she’d managed to text a few Bradfords. At least with a restaurant full of Bradfords she was guaranteed some entertainment. She briefly considered asking for her phone and reading for a while, but she didn’t want to kill her battery just in case the kids needed to get hold of her. That left her with two choices, sit here and watch Trevor devour enough food to feed a small army or nibble on something while she waited until it was time to leave. Since sitting here watching as her husband tried to appease the Bradford appetite wasn’t exactly appealing, she decided to roam the buffet tables for a while.

  Part VIII

  (Dedicated to Debra MacArthur: Happy birthday, my little ray of sunshine)

  “What are we waiting for?” the incredibly handsome man that had been standing next to her for the last five minutes asked in a conspiratory whisper that had her lips twitching.

  “I’m not really sure, but whatever it was, it went fast,” Zoe said, gesturing to the empty metal pan in front of them.

  He nodded solemnly. “Then it must be good.”

  “Exactly,” she said, matching his nod and earning a killer smile that would no doubt make any other woman instantly fall head over heels in love with him.

  “While we wait, can I interest you in some mashed potatoes?” he asked, gesturing to the pan of creamy mashed potatoes in front of him even as he reached down and adjusted his holstered firearm, making her inwardly sigh with pleasure.

  There was just something innately sexy about police officers, she thought, absently wondering what it would take to get Trevor to play a little game of cops and robbers with her later.

  Lips twitching, she held up her plate. “Please.”

  With another one of those grins that she had to admit would give Trevor a run for his money, he scooped up a big spoonful of mashed potatoes on her plate. “Care for a double?”

  She pursed her lips thoughtfully, before she reluctantly shook her head with a long drawn out sigh that had his lips twitching with amusement. “I’m afraid that one scoop’s my limit.”

  “No one would have to know,” he said in a low, sexy drawl as he reached up and cupped her face in his warm hand. “It could be our secret.”

  Biting back a smile, she placed her hand over his, holding it where it was. “Someone would find out.”

  “We’d be discrete,” he promised on a whisper as he leaned down and kissed her forehead. “Just say the word, darling, and all those mouthwatering carbs could be yours.”

  “What if my husband found out?” she whispered, struggling not to laugh when she felt his lips twitch.

  “He’d probably kill the dumb bastard touching you,” the familiar sexy drawl announced, drawing her attention to the man standing behind them, watching them through narrowed slits.

  She felt Darrin press one last kiss against her temple before he pulled back, but he didn’t go far. He put his arm around her shoulders, no doubt to screw with Trevor’s head, something that he seemed to take great joy in doing.

  “I guess our secret’s out,” Darrin said with a sigh of regret as he gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze.

  “He was bound to find out,” she said, matching his tone.

  “My only regret is that we didn’t have a chance to discover what was in the pan,” Darrin said with a forlorn expression that had her biting her lip, hard, as she struggled not to laugh.

  “How many times do I have to tell you to keep you goddamn hands off my wife?” Trevor asked, looking close to going for his cousin’s throat as he gave the arm still thrown around her shoulders a pointed look.

  “Probably a few hundred more times,” Darrin admitted with a shrug as he used his hold on her to move her to the side and out of the way of a woman trying to get to the pan of cranberry sauce.

  “What are you doing here?” Trevor asked as Darrin once again maneuvered her out of the way.

  “Found Marybeth’s list,” Darrin said with a triumphant grin that had Trevor’s glare narrowing and Zoe struggling not to wince.

  She considered giving him a warning, but just as quickly decided against it since it would probably provide her without countless hours of entertainment. Not to mention the fact that Marybeth would probably kill her if she opened her big mouth.

  No, she decided as she watched in horrified fascination as a server carrying a large metal pan of country fried chicken walked towards them, completely oblivious about the two large Bradfords locking eyes on him, it was probably best if she didn’t say anything.

  Part IX

  “Just act natural.”

  “What?” Haley mumbled as she struggled to open her eyes and get her feet to work.

  “Just walk casually,” Jason whispered as she stumbled over her own two feet, but before she could fall on her face and happily curl up on the cafeteria-styled tiled floor and go back to sleep, Jason had his arm around her and was carrying her towards the back hall where she assumed the bathrooms were.

  “What’s going on?” she muttered pathetically, giving up on trying to walk and just settled heavily in his arms as her eyelids began to slowly droop shut.

  “Fried chicken,” was all he said when she suddenly found herself in a dark room that smelled like Mr. Clean.

  “What are we doing?” she asked, forcing her eyes open with a yawn.

  “Staying low,” Jason whispered as he carefully set her on her feet.

  “In a cleaning closet?” she asked with a sigh and a sad shake of her head, berating herself for opening her big mouth and telling him about all the buffet restaurants that they’d found.

  Granted, she hadn’t really had much of a choice, she mused as she bit back another yawn and she reached out, looking for a light switch. When she found one against the cool cement wall she flicked it on, bathing the small closet in fluorescent light long enough to confirm her suspicions that they were definitely in a cleaning closet before Jason reached past her with a sigh and flicked the light back off.

  “You really can’t be that paranoid,” she said, sighing heavily as she reached over and flicked the light back on.

  “Yet, I am,” he said, flicking it back off.

  “Standing here in the dark isn’t going to make a difference,” she said, rolling her eyes with an annoyed sigh as she flicked the light back on.

  “It will give us away.”

  Light flicked off.

  “No, it won’t.”

  Flicked back on.

  “Yes, it will.”

  Light flicked back off.

  Shaking her head in disgust, because really this was just too much, she reached over to flick the light back on only to find the stubborn bastard that she loved standing in front of it, blocking her.

  “Move,” she said, blindly reac
hing around him to turn the light back on.

  “No.”

  “Fine,” she said, sighing heavily as she gestured for him to get out of her way, not really caring that he couldn’t see the move. “Then let me out.”

  “Can’t do that either.”

  “You really can though,” she said, trying to push him aside to reach the door to no avail.