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Winnie giggled. “Do we need to have our story straight?”
“I think we can be more relaxed than that. I promise not to leave you in their clutches.” Because God only knew what my sister and her foul mouth might say.
“And miss out on some potential blackmail stories about you? Chase Calloway, you are on your own here.” She winked mischievously, and we were back to laughing and ribbing each other, which was good because I’d pulled into the driveway of my childhood home. A ton of good memories came from here despite anything else that happened. I parked behind my sister’s car that had seen better days and opened Winnie’s door.
“Chaser is here!” Turning away from my date, Damien Hart, my neighbor growing up, and his cousin Hunter Hart walked over, clapping me on the back in greeting. We’d all played football together from the time I knew them. Our street had a long history of my dad recruiting all the boys to play football and coaching us from peewee leagues all throughout high school.
“Well, if it isn’t Heartbreaker and Q.” I nodded when they let me go. “This is Winnie.” I introduced her to the guys, noticing that my sister was blissfully missing for the moment.
“Pleasure.” Damien grabbed Winnie and pulled her in for a surprise hug that made my blood boil. There was a reason he was called Heartbreaker, and he didn’t need to be anywhere near my date. Poor Winnie, taken unexpectedly, held her arms out stiff while Damien bear hugged her, chatting away. There was always that one friend who made everything sexual and when it wasn’t my sister tossing out innuendos and insults, it was Damien.
“Dude, enough, go find your own.” Hunter thankfully, pulled his cousin off her before I gave in to temptation and ripped his arms off his body. I was still older than both of them and willing to kick some ass like a teenage Neanderthal if necessary.
“Uh, nice to meet you both.” She adjusted her dress and fixed her hair that Damien mussed.
Grunting, I pulled Winnie back and tucker her under my arm protectively whether she was into that or not. Damien was being a dick, which meant Kristen probably invited her on-again, off-again cop boyfriend. Damien’s number one enemy, but a good friend of mine, Evan Rooney.
“Hands off, Hart,” I grumbled, feeling a sharp little fingernail poking me in the side. Looking down, Winnie frowned at me, and I squeezed her against me until she shook her head, smirking.
“We all used to be neighbors,” Hunter explained, pointing to the house next door. The Harts owned a family construction business and their house was constantly being added to and changed when Mrs. Hart got an idea in her head. I was pretty sure my sister had helped her decorate half the house at this point spending so much time over there.
“That must have been fun growing up,” Winnie said, and the guys nodded as we made small talk. Taylor Jane Bryant, another neighbor and Hunter’s girl walked over, joining us. Still no Kristen, but I was holding out hope she really hadn’t invited Evan. I liked my friend, but the pissing contest between him and Damien over the years grew to exponential proportions and usually left Hunter and I breaking up some fight.
“Hi, I’m Taylor Jane. I’m the other neighbor.” Taylor was sweet and bubbly, introducing herself clutching Winnie’s hand and pulling her from under my arm for a moment. She was the ying to my sister’s yang and her best friend since kindergarten. I loved Taylor like she was my own sister.
“Yup, and this one is mine.” Hunter pulled Taylor into his side, kissing her forehead. He was the only one who called her by her full first name every time. I found it to be a mouthful while Damien rolled his eyes, and Hunter punched him hard in the arm.
?
?Get over it, man.” I told Damien.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m grabbing a beer.” Damien jogged off, probably to go shoot the shit with my dad and a stab of jealousy for one of my closest friends hit me unexpectedly.
“You know, I think your mom needs some help. Why don’t us girls go get some sangria and meet you boys back out here in a few?”
“Uhh…” Everyone looked at me, and I looked at Winnie, trying to gauge how she felt about that. I told her I wouldn’t leave her to the wolves and I meant it.
“It’s okay, I’ll be right back. Go do some boy things.” Winnie patted my chest and sashayed off with Taylor, leaving me.
“You look like you could use one of these.” Hunter handed me a locally brewed beer from Easton’s pub, and we sat down near the custom fire pit we’d all worked together on some years back. The rocks had seemed so much bigger back then and the years had quickly passed us by.
“Thanks.” I nodded, tipping the beer in Hunter’s direction. “So…you and TJ. That took what? Fifteen years?” Hunter shot me a look crossed between annoyance and a smile.
“Shut up, man. It was worth the wait.”
“I’m just riding you. She’s a good one, and you deserve to be happy.”
Hunter grunted, acknowledging the truth, and I realized how out of touch I’d been with my friends lately. His own childhood was pretty fucked up, but that was his story to tell. I was glad he found something peaceful with Taylor, who had her own heartbreaks growing up. It was like they were made for each other and soothed the other’s injured parts with ease. That’s how relationships should be or at least I thought so.
It wasn’t long before shouting had us all drawing our eyes from the fire pit to the yard. “God, you’re such an asshole!” And that was Kristen. I could tell Hunter was going to ask about me showing up with Winnie, but we were interrupted by Damien and Kristen fighting as usual. Yeah, I didn’t picture relationships like that, but those two were definitely a hot mess of oil and water or some combustible combination. We shook our heads and got up to intervene before my mother came outside to see what was ruining her Fourth of July BBQ.
“Oh yeah, well you’re a hot-headed bitch sometimes!” Whoa, now Damien was getting on my nerves calling Kristen names.
“What did you call me, unicorn dick?”
Yeah, this was headed downhill super quick and maybe Kristen did deserve the hot-headed part. Hunter and I looked at each other, silently saying, “You get that one, I got this one,” and made to grab our respective relatives before they could jump each other, claws out and scratching. I didn’t need another war wound peeling my immature sister off the one guy I didn’t want to admit she probably should be with. It would probably take my sister another decade to figure that out.
“Argh!” Kristen went full psycho in my arms.
