“Hey, Hawk, wanna play a round or two?” one of the brothers asks as I walk in through the doors, ready to head to my room. The second I became a prospect, I was out of my parents’ house. The way they go at it like bunnies, I’ve had to walk in a time or two with my eyes closed and my ears plugged just in case. You walk in on them one time, and that shit scars you for life.
“Not tonight. Goin’ to make me a sandwich, grab a beer, and call it a night.” Even I know I’m not fit for company, and there’s no reason to start a fight. Fuck, last time that happened was when I came home from a run, stopped at Ender’s college and saw another man near her, holding the small of my girl’s back. There was no holding me back. I bid my time waiting until he was away from the college and had a few words. The fuckboy mouthed off one time too many. I walked away with busted knuckles; the same couldn’t be said for him. I left him crying on the ground, literally holding his nose while prattling on about how he’s going to call his daddy, press charges, and sue the shit out of me. As if he even got a glimpse of my face. It wasn’t my first rodeo with busting someone up; it’s why I waited until well into night to drag him into an alley and fuck him up. The next day when Shovel called church, I was the last one in and the last one to leave. He looked me up and down, eyes lingering on my knuckles, but didn’t say a word.
“Maybe tomorrow, yeah?” Ruger asks, but it’s more of a request than a question.
“Sure.” Ruger doesn’t agree with how his wife froze me out. After hearing they were arguing over what I had done, there was no way I wanted something else to sit heavy in my stomach. I’d rather be an outcast than have people’s marriages fall apart.
I make quick work of making a sandwich—turkey, cheese, all the fixings, with a side of chips, and two beers. One to drink while I eat and another for when I take a shower. Maybe then my mind will shut the fuck down and I can sleep. If it’s like anything else, though, it’s a shot in the dark, and I’ll be up half the night wondering what Ender is doing, how she’s coping with being back home and having to live under her parents’ roof.
“Son of a bitch.” I finally get a chance to sit down on the foot of my bed to eat, and my phone is going off.
“’Lo,” I answer the phone.
“Boy, thought you had my back. Your momma is in a tailspin, and you need to get your ass home.” Dad barely takes a breath as he tells me what’s going on.
“I didn’t think it was over you. Figured it was because Ender was back in town and she was pissed at the air surrounding us,” I give it to him straight.
“About that, you need to head on home. Shit is about to go down. I’m thinkin’ my boy needs to talk to his pops.”
“Let me eat, grab a shower, and then I’ll head on over. It’ll be about fifteen minutes. That okay?” I knew the time would come when things would come out. Me and my big fuckin’ mouth to Ender made it happen too fast for my likin’.
“That’ll do. Come on in. You don’t even have to cover your ears or eyes.” I don’t know who’s worse—mom or him.
“Christ, alright, enough of this. See you soon,” I respond.
“Yeah, you will.” We hang up, and I shove my food down my throat then grab a shower before I head over to see which world war we’ll be fighting tonight.
CHAPTER 6
LAVENDER
Finally, a moment of peace and quiet. Solitude away from everyone, my parents included, and I can already tell I’ll be looking for an apartment in town. I know it’s new to have me home for the first time in years, permanently at that, but the helicopter parent act has got to stop. No matter how much I tried to steer them to return to their normal routine, both made their place in my room, Dad on the window seat, Mom on the foot of the bed, watching me put things in their place. I could have questioned both of them with what Ryder mentioned before walking away from me. The only problem with that is, what if he wasn’t telling the truth? What if he was just trying to stir the pot to knock my world off its axis? And what if this was his way of making me tuck tail and run away, this time for good?