He swore his heart had left his fucking chest and was now pounding in his head directly under his stitches. “How d’you know?” he asked Maddie, not sure he wanted to hear the answer.
“Because I followed her one day. I saw exactly where she went. She was going to do cardio but not the type you get from using a treadmill. The type you get when you go horizontal,” Maddie said, wiggling her eyebrows. “And, funny, how the motorcycle parked in front of the same room that she went in to,” she put a finger to her lips and rolled her eyes toward the ceiling, “looked exactly like yours.” Her gaze swung down and held his.
Neither of them blinked for what seemed like forever. Finally, he broke. “No shit.”
“No shit,” Maddie echoed.
“You’re giving Mom the business, aren’t you?” Josie asked with an excited look in her eyes.
Jesus fuck. “Your mom home yet?”
Maddie ignored his question. “Well, whatever you’re doing keep it up. I haven’t seen her this happy—or satisfied—in a long time.”
“Ain’t like that,” he said weakly.
“Mmm hmm,” Maddie murmured.
“She’s been helpin’ me.”
“I bet,” Josie chimed in.
“Look. She’s been helpin’ me. Ain’t lyin’ about that. That’s all it is.”
“Riiiight,” Josie drew out. She winked at him. “Helping. In a motel.”
“We didn’t want anyone to know—”
“That you two are having sex,” Maddie finished.
No, that he couldn’t fucking read. And, yeah, that him and Chelle were having sex. He wasn’t admitting either one of those things to them.
Both girls got to their feet.
“We’re going to tell Mom it’s okay if you stay in her room. We don’t mind. We’re both old enough to deal with her having a man sleep over.”
“We’ve been wishing she’d find someone for a long time.”
“She’s been lonely since Dad died.”
“Right? I keep telling her to get on one of those dating apps.”
His gaze ping-ponged back and forth between the sisters. This was not a conversation he wanted to be a part of. “It ain’t like that,” he mumbled again.
Both ignored him again.
“She acts like we can’t hear how often she uses her vibrator.”
“I know, right? It’s about time she gets the real thing.”
“I mean, we’re both having sex more than her.”
Oh fuck. “Your mom home yet?” he just about shouted.
Both froze, tilted their heads and listened.
“Ooo. I think she is. I hear Uncle Rick and he sounds pissed,” Josie said.
Fuck.
Maddie nudged her. “Let’s go save Mom and grab the crutches so we can move Shade into her room.”
“It ain’t—” he started one more time.
They were gone.
Thank fuck.
Chelle could deal with her girls. Once she was done dealing with her brother.
He told her it wasn’t a good idea for him to stay with her. The last twenty minutes proved it.
Once he talked to Chelle, he would have his brothers come get him.
Chapter Twenty
Shade’s brothers did not come get him. Of course, Chelle wouldn’t hear of it.
Instead, after Chelle got rid of Rick, Maddie brought up her crutches, adjusted them to his height and all three Goodsons moved his ass right into the master bedroom and into Chelle’s bed.
He stopped saying, “It ain’t like that,” when Chelle came into the spare bedroom before the girls did and told him about the conversation she had with them.
The whole time she was getting him up to speed, he wondered if they also told her about how they were having more sex than their mother. Shade wasn’t fucking bringing it up, but maybe she should know.
But, for fuck’s sake, that wasn’t his business. Just like it wasn’t his business on how she dealt with her brother, who slammed the front door hard enough when he left that the windows rattled.
Yep, that wasn’t his fucking business, either, and if she wanted to tell Shade about it, that would be up to her.
Though, he really wanted to punch that motherfucker in the face for disrespecting his sister by slamming her front door and storming out. Especially with the girls in the house.
Not that Shade was going to complain about being moved, but he was happy to see Chelle’s bedroom was the shit. As in good shit. It was large with a high ceiling and a huge master bathroom he’d be able to move around in easier on crutches. Her bed was huge, too, compared to the one in the spare bedroom. That kind of sucked since he couldn’t fuck her in it right away. He’d put that on a to-do list along with all the ways he was going to do her in that big bed.
She had loads of over-stuffed pillows which she propped behind his head and under his leg, along with a decent-sized TV on the wall with all the streaming apps. The room even had French doors leading out to a tiny balcony over-looking the backyard.
She announced it was her favorite room in the house and he could see why. With the way she had it decorated he knew instantly she’d done it herself. He didn’t know shit about decorations or color palettes, or even furniture, but the second he hobbled into the room, he felt like she’d wrapped her arms around him.