“It’s everything my family hates.” She snickered. “My dad is the pastor at our local church. And my mom, well, don’t even get me started. To them, science is practically a sin, so they refused to pay for college.”
I grunted. “Science is the reason we have medicine to keep people alive.”
“Exactly!” Skylar crowed. “It’s a crazy world but I love it. So if they weren’t gonna help pay for it, I was going to find my own way. And being here, I get to piss them off twice as much by spending all my free time either screwing or studying.”
I laughed at her enthusiasm to make her parents angry. “That’s the spirit!” I joined in.
We prepped dinner in silence until the door to the kitchen flew open, and Slider slipped inside with a quiet smile. “Hello, beautiful ladies.”
We both rolled our eyes and continued with our food prep. “Hadley, can I talk to you for a sec?” he asked, walking closer. I looked over to Skylar, who gave me a smile.
Sighing, I turned to Slider. “It’ll have to be quick.”
He pressed his hand against my back, guiding me through another set of doors and into the empty dining room. His body slumped the second we were alone, and I instantly felt bad.
I reached out and touched his arm. “How are you feeling?”
He had held himself so sure and solid a minute ago, but the moment no one could see him, it was like he could almost drop to the ground.
“Every day I feel worse. I almost passed out last night while I was coming back from X-Rated on my bike,” he answered softly.
I looked him over, his skin was slightly pale, and the beads of sweat were gathered on his hairline. “Slider—”
“Don’t say it, Hadley.”
“No, this is stupid. And I’m gonna say it until you start to listen. Tell them…” I said sternly. “What if you do crash your bike next time?”
He snorted. “Rather go out like that than let this shit kill me slowly.” He was giving up. I could tell. Slider couldn’t see the future anymore, it was blurred by unsuccessful medical treatments and doctors’ visits and the idea of death.
“You’re gonna be okay. Just keep fighting,” I told him softly, taking his sweaty hand in mine.
He looked down at our hands. “I just want it to be over, Hadley,” he whispered sadly. “I hate this.”
Tears welled in my eyes. “If you talked to them—”
He snatched his hand away. “I’d rather ride my bike off a cliff, and them never know how weak I was.”
“You aren’t weak!”
The door from the kitchen flew open, and Slider instantly straightened his back. Laughter flowed in followed by Skylar and Camo.
“Hadley! The boys want fucking burgersnow.” Skylar groaned. Camo grinned. He groped at her ass and she swatted him away.
“We don’t have shit for burgers,” I told her, stepping around them and walking back into the kitchen.
“Well, the boys want burgers,” Camo laughed.
I grabbed a potato off the counter and pointed it at him. He held his hands up in mock surrender. “You’re telling me, we’re halfway through dinner prep and now you want burgers, which we don’t have meat or buns for.”
“Just the messenger, Had!” He grinned before ducking around me and out the swinging doors.
Skylar sighed. “Fucking men. Never happy.”
I huffed, taking my potato with me as I headed out the doors after Camo. Voices carried inside from out on the patio so I followed them outside. “Burgers? Really?” I asked loudly, gathering the attention of the group of brothers.
Harmony laughed. “Uh-oh.”
“Last minute thing,” Kit answered looking somewhat apologetic.