AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Adam
Lucywasn’timpressedbythe way I twisted in the sheets that night. Usually I fell asleep flat on my back, the cat on my chest and I’d wake in the morning, having rolled onto my side, the cat sleeping beside me. She was always touching me in some small way. Lucy had to have that human connection.
That night I couldn’t fall asleep and she got upset with my wiggling, finally settling on the other side of the bed and folding up into a little loaf, paws neatly tucked beneath her body while she waited me out. She was out of luck though, because I tossed and turned, stuck on the look on Madelyn’s face, the one I’d seen that afternoon. It kept me awake for hours.
Mrs. VanBuren had always been an outspoken old lady, but I’d seen the hurt in Madelyn’s expression when she realized her grandmother was belittling her life choices in front of people who meant the world to her. It had upset me for Madelyn’s sake, and since I’d never known anything but pride from my dad and my stepmom, I couldn’t begin to imagine how much it bothered Madelyn to hear her sacrifices reduced to something as simple as a poor choice.
If I was being honest about it, there was more bothering me than just that, and it wasn’t nearly so charitable.
I hadn’t seen Madelyn in a dress in years, and she certainly hadn’t looked anything like she did now, her limbs taught with a muscular definition I knew spoke of rigid discipline, her ass something that would taunt me in dreams for months to come.
Bad Adam, knock it off. She’s Steve’s little sister.
There was nothing little about her. The woman was a solid wall of muscle, not nearly as broad as me but defined in a way that made that little bitch run out of the coffee shop like she’d threatened to snap him in half. Yeah, I’d seen that. I watched the way her face fell when she realized her date had pulled a ding-dong-ditch, and I knew just what had happened without her telling me. Because I knew guys like him, threatened by a woman with confidence and presence, and it was clear that her very spirit stirred and irritated his demons.
It was a blessing I wasn’t on-shift the next morning, because I didn’t drift off into a miserably fragmented sleep until somewhere past three in the morning. By that point Lucy had given up on me completely. She’d moved to the pillow opposite mine and settled in for what looked like a peaceful nap while I tossed and huffed.
Though we’d seen one another just the day before, I rolled into Steve’s driveway at ten. Both of us had a rarely overlapping day off and we’d made plans to go out rafting on the Black River, something we both loved but hadn’t done together in years.
“Ok if I bring her with us?” were the first words out of Steve’s mouth, and Madelyn turned to look at me with an expectant smile.
Fuck, no. If she comes with us I won’t be able to concentrate.
“I called to make sure there was a spot for her and it sounds like we’ve got a light crew today…” Steve’s smile was huge over his coffee cup. He knew exactly what he was doing; he’d always been able to read me that easily.
“I shouldn’t,” she said hesitantly, her eyes begging me to jump in and reassure her it was ok. “I know you two were planning a guys’ day out and I’m…you didn’t plan on me.”
“It’s ok.” My voice sounded funny and Kennedy grinned at me, handing me a cup of coffee.
“She needs to get out,” Kennedy confirmed. “She’s gonna climb the walls here just waiting for all her paperwork to clear–girlfriend needs a job so she can get out of her own head.” She smiled sweetly at Madelyn, who looked a little embarrassed.
Clearly Kennedy and Steve had a serious jump on cooking this one up, because Madelyn was already dressed appropriately for the day, her hair pulled back into a ponytail. Then again, for all I knew this was how she dressed every day. It was a problem, because there was even more smooth skin on display today and immediately my eyes went to her legs. It made me swallow hard, because like it or not, Madelyn VanBuren’s legs were a work of art, just like the rest of her.
Kennedy was saying something and I waited for the buzzing in my ears to calm before I could tune into something about a late lunch. Whatever it was, I’d ask Steve later.
“Why are we rafting with a group, again?” I asked Steve. The man had kayaks in his garage and we’d gone out in them repeatedly, both experienced with navigating the river.
“Cheaper.” He grinned. “Weekday rates with a group.”
That wasn’t the reason at all and I knew it, because the kayaks were free.
I drank my coffee quickly and gave Teagan a cuddle, because I couldn’t resist that kid. She was everything good about Kennedy and Steve combined, and she was freaking adorable.
Then I followed Steve out to the truck parked in the driveway. Madelyn crawled in behind me and I realized I could smell her, something warm and sweet that made me think of cupcakes. It made my mouth fucking water and the most inappropriate things flashed through my brain.
The three of us trailed into the outfitter’s office all of ten minutes later, with me following in Madelyn’s vanilla cupcake wake. It was damned unsettling, between that and watching her ass barely covered by the shorts that anyone else would have considered decent. You could have put the woman in a flour sack and it would have been indecent, that much I’d decided just now, and it was complicating matters considerably.
We went through the safety rundown and strapped into our lifejackets, which made all of us look a little silly and I realized, as we got into the van that would take us to the launch site, that it was just the three of us with a guide. I shot Steve a dirty look he decided to ignore as he made small talk with his sister, but he absolutely knew I was onto him.
“Raft fits eight?” I asked the guide casually as we loaded up, and he shrugged.
“Yeah, but…Monday. End of the season. You know how it goes: The tour groups kind of fall off.”
I sure did, and it went something like Steve was up to no good. Or Kennedy. I couldn’t be sure. Those two were fucking devious, peas in a damn pod. They’d engineered this somehow.
This particular outfit started at the top of the rapids, not like the other companies in town who skipped the top two and started the trip further downstream, in order to make things a little less challenging…a little less scary for people who thought they were up for excitement but couldn’t handle all that much of it when shit got real.
Since there were only four of us, even the guide grabbed a paddle and we were off. Steve told him we were pretty experienced and he shouldn’t spare us, so we took some gnarly angles at wild speeds and I was surprised to find the river still so active, considering how late it was in the season. The rapids were still going at full bore and as we took the second one and took a breather in a smooth stretch, I heard a low exclamation from Madelyn, where she sat behind me.
