“Ugh,” I said in disgust as I looked around at the dirty clothes covering the ground outside the tent. “You’re seriously disgusting,” I called, making him laugh again.
I picked up the pants and underwear and socks and t-shirts, working my way around the front of the tent with a scowl on my face. All of it needed to be washed. Hell, some of it was almost stiff with grime.
When I’d picked every piece up and finally held it securely in my arms, I looked up and froze.
Callie was standing there with a surprised look on her face, and her husband was glaring at me from right behind her.
Shit.
Chapter 4
Thomas
I was so hard it was painful. I’d been hoping that once Heather left the tent my dick would start to behave himself, but that wasn’t happening. The blankets still smelled like her. I still smelled like her.
I kicked the sleeping bag down to my feet and groaned. If anything, staying in the tent might’ve been making it worse.
“Hi, Heather,” my mom greeted outside the tent.
Well, that deflated things pretty damn quickly.
I sat up and reached for my pants as Heather said an embarrassed hello, but I didn’t hurry. It was kind of funny listening to her try to act like she hadn’t just climbed out of my bed. She mumbled something about the weather and I had to swallow back a laugh.
I’d always known she was hot. Even when half of her head was shaved and the rest of it was waxed into a blue mohawk, she’d still been shit hot. The way she moved, the way she looked at me, her attitude, her ass, all of it was damn near made to make my dick hard. But I hadn’t really realized how cute she was until I heard her stumbling over her words.
“You makin’ a comparison?” a low voice asked.
My dad.
That motherfucker.
I didn’t bother with a shirt as I stepped quickly through the tent opening.
“What?” Heather asked in confusion. She took a step back, though. She knew whatever he was saying was fucked.
“First one Hawthorne, then the other,” my dad replied. “Will’s got an old lady, not gonna get in there.”
“Shut your fuckin’ mouth,” I growled, stepping in front of Heather. “Don’t talk to her like that.”
“Asa,” my mom said in disgust, elbowing him in the stomach. “You’re being an asshole.”
“Wait,” Heather drawled from behind me before taking a step to the side so she could see my dad. “You think I banged Micky?”
I glanced at my mom to find her smiling slightly at Heather’s use of my brother’s family nickname.
Heather laughed, and my dad stood up straight. Christ.
“He was fourteen,” she said incredulously. “I was sixteen.”
“And?” my dad asked snidely.
“Asa,” my mom said again, turning her head to look up at him.
“And?” Heather took a step forward and I moved with her. The girl didn’t have a single ounce of self-preservation. “I didn’t fuck your son,” she said flatly. She glanced at me briefly. “Either of them.”
She turned on her heel and tried to storm off, but what looked like a tangled pair of my boxers fell from the pile in her arms and she had to bend over to get it, totally ruining her exit.
“I like her,” my mom said, laughing quietly.
“You got no loyalty for your brother?” my dad asked me, completely ignoring my mom.
“The fuck are you even talkin’ about?” I snapped back. “Her and Mick were friends.”
I wanted to point out that my baby brother was fucking dead. He didn’t care about any of it anymore, but out of respect for my mom I slammed my mouth shut. That would just hurt her. It would hurt her even more if my dad took a swing at me, and I knew he would.
“Your brother spent every fuckin’ minute that he wasn’t with you with her,” he growled back. “Don’t try and bullshit me.”
“I’m not doin’ shit,” I said, running my hand over the back of my head, where Heather had dug her nails into my scalp.
My dad stomped off and it took everything in me not to kick the side of my tent. It wouldn’t have been satisfying anyway, and it probably would have just fucked up the poles holding it up.
“He’s having a hard time,” my mom said in apology after my dad was far enough away. “This lockdown is hard on them. All the shit with the Russians, trying to figure out what to do, and then Heather shows up, a blast from the past. It’s a lot.”
“He’s a dick,” I replied, shaking my head. “I’m about done with the way he’s treatin’ her. That shit is seriously fucked up. She hasn’t done shit to him.”
“I know.” Mom sighed. “I’ll talk to him.”
“Mick wasn’t with her,” I repeated, meeting her eyes. “They weren’t like that.”