AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Sure.”
She smiles at me. “Thanks for your help, Coop.”
Anddamn, that smile gets me every time. I run my hand over the back of her head and under her hair before squeezing the back of her neck. “Whatever you need.” Three simple words that I mean from the depths of my soul. I’m not sure when my feelings changed, when they went from awareness to attraction that’s now turned into pure need. But they have.
Something about this innocent exchange just did me in. I wrap my hand around the back of her neck and run my thumb over her fluttering pulse. Carys releases the prettiest sigh just before the door slams open, and I drop my hand back down to my side like I need to sever a connection before I get shocked.
Carys’s emerald-green eyes are wide and locked on me.
Questions linger behind them.
Yeah, baby. I’ve got them too.
But instead of answering any of them now, I pick up the box with her sewing machine in it and carry it down to my Jeep.
* * *
It doesn’t take long to get the girls’ things moved over to the new house and for Carys and Emerson to direct us where their boxes need to go. Once everything is in and situated, Emerson grabs her keys. “Okay, CC and I are going to Target to get some new sheets and necessities. Buuuuut...” she drags the word out. “We’d love you guys to come back tonight for a thank-you dinner.”
Linc throws his arm around her waist. “You cook too?”
“Ha. That would be a big no.” Carys snorts and cracks up with laughter.
Seeing her so at ease in her own skin makes me smile.
Emerson sticks her tongue out toward Carys. “Nope. Not a cook, but... I order a really mean takeout. The booze is on you guys, if you want it though.” When Axe opens his mouth to speak, she silences him by pointing at herself. “Twenty,” then points at Carys, “And nineteen for a few more days.”
Shit. I forgot her birthday is coming up.
“You want pizza or sushi?” No sooner do the words leave Emerson’s mouth than all of us answer.
“Pizza.”
* * *
When the guys and I walk back into our house, Trick whistles for Wanda and takes her outside, Linc grabs beers from the fridge and tosses them to Axe and me, and I turn to Axe. “You do know you don’t live here, right?”
He flicks his bottle cap across the room and into the sink. “Course I do. But Trick pays someone to grocery shop and clean the damn house. If I go to my place, I have to do it myself.” He sits down on the sofa and grabs the Xbox remote. Axel hates being alone. We all know it, but he’ll never admit it.
“Gonna tell us what we interrupted earlier, Coop?” Linc moves around the living room, grabs one of the other gaming remotes, and drops down onto the recliner.
I fight the urge to tell him to fuck off, to give me time to figure shit out before it becomes the next thing the team focuses on for entertainment. I never cared before. But Carys is different. Everything about her—about this—is more. And it’s not up for discussion because I’m not sure I’d be able to control myself if one of them said the wrong fucking thing.
Axe stops mid-sip of his beer and stares. “What’d I miss?”
Linc cues up the game. “You were hitting on the hot blonde across the hall when Trick and I walked in on what looked like... I don’t know... a moment, I guess, between Coop and Carys.”
“What the fuck ever, man. A moment? Seriously? Do you need a tampon and some chocolate to go with the vagina you’ve magically grown?” Axe is a fucker, but he’s a funny fucker... until he turns his sharp eyes onme. “And what the fuck is up with you and Miss Goody Two-shoes? Cause you seem interested in a chick you introduced as your sister, man.”
“She’s my stepsister. And our parents didn’t get married until I had already moved out here. So it’s not like that.” I’m not sure if I’m trying to convince him or me.
Axel kicks his feet up on the coffee table, totally relaxed. “Still your stepsister, however you slice it, Sinclair. I’m thinking that’s a whole level of complicated you may not want to deal with.”
I wouldn’t want to deal with it if things were different.
But they’re not.
She’s not.
