Finally, Ernest woke up, doing a stretch and giving me a yowl, like his patience had worn out.
“I know. You wanna go outside for a sniff?” I asked, leading him out the back door.
I went with him, glad for the setting sun and the slightly cooler evening air.
The light was still on in the studio, and I figured Traeger would be hard at work when I finally closed up and went home.
Ernest sniffed around the greenhouses, peed on random smells every five feet or so, then started to lazily dig at a soft patch of dirt on the ground.
Just for a moment, watching him, my heart felt light, content.
Then an engine idled.
Cut.
A door slammed.
And my heart dropped.
CHAPTER TWO
Kylo
“Listen, don’t tell on me, okay?” I asked the macaw as I passed him a piece of my breakfast danish.
Eddie wasn’t at his usual place at the kitchen island. No bacon scents filled the house. There were no stacks of golden pancakes.
A part of me was disappointed. The other part hoped Eddie found his “honey” finally and was at home making her a breakfast spread instead of us. He deserved that kind of happiness.
“No!” a woman squealed as bare feet slapped on the steps.
I turned, brow raised, as a shirtless woman came running into view, a big smile on her pretty face, her tits bouncing up and down, trying to outrun Caymen through the unfamiliar house in some sort of primal foreplay.
“Gotcha,” Caymen said, throwing the half-naked (save for a barely-there pair of purple and pink striped bikini bottoms) over his shoulder and landing a hard slap to her ass.
“Oh, nooo,” the woman cooed at him, feigning some helpless Southern belle’s breathy voice. “Don’t you dare take me back to your bedroom and ravage me!”
Their voices trailed back up the staircase as I leaned against the counter and let out a little chuckle.
While all the guys aged up eventually, met a woman, fell in love, and moved on, I had to say they were missing out on some wild stories.
Especially since the Cider brothers came to prospect. They filled the crazy hole left by Coast, who was busy playing the part of step and foster daddy with the love of his life.
“Fuck you, Benny,” Mackie croaked at me. When I glanced over, he was watching me with those dark eyes of his and opening and closing his foot over and over. It was his version of begging for food. And because I was a sucker, I went over and gave him the last wedge of my danish.
I was just finishing putting a pot of coffee on when there was a hard banging on the front door. I stiffened just as Velle came downstairs, still pulling on his shirt, a tiny brunette trailing behind him as she desperately tried to finger-comb her hair back into order.
He shot me a scrunched brow look as I made my way through to the living room.
I waited, wanting to see if it was the cops banging with their club or something, since that damn sure wasn’t a hand whacking the wood like that.
Tension tightened in my stomach as I wished I wasn’t currently the most senior club member in the house. Huck was off in Navesink Bank with his whole crew, visiting his sister and her family, as well as our mother chapter.
I definitely didn’t want to be the reason we got invaded by the cops while he was gone.
Sensing my unease, Velle jumped on the couch, slightly pulling the blind back to peer out.
“Not the cops,” he said, a weird smile tugging at his lips.
