Opposites Attract (The Locklaine Boys Book 2) (21 page)

BOOK: Opposites Attract (The Locklaine Boys Book 2)
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“Uh…”

“I tell her all the time,” Richard chimed in, coming up behind me to wrap his arms around my waist and brush a lingering kiss along my neck.


No way!
” Navie shouted, her face nearly splitting with the size of her smile. “You two, really?
That’s so awesome
!”

Richard just all but peed on my leg in front of his friends and family. What is that supposed to mean? Are we a couple? He wouldn’t do that if it was just a casual fling, right?
Ohmygod, my brain really needed to just shut the hell up, already!

“Honey, come here,” Navie waved at the man who looked exactly like Richard. “Delilah, this is my fiancé Rowan, Richard’s brother,” she introduced with a blissful smile as she looked up at him. He stared at her with just as much adoration. “Baby, this is the florist for our wedding.”

“Nice to meet you,” he said with a friendly quirk of his lips. “And I’m sorry you’re stuck living next to such an asshole.”

Richard released one arm from me just long enough to flip off his brother. My awkwardness chose that moment to kick in and I let out a nervous laugh, followed by a snort.

“Oh my, God!” the redhead shouted. “Adorable! Can I keep you?”

“Delilah, this is my friend, Pepper,” Navie said, finally giving the bombshell woman in front of me a name.

“Nice to meet you,” I told her, thinking her name fit her perfectly.

“And I’m guessing you already know Collin, but that’s Griffin right there,” she pointed at the man with brown hair just a few shades darker than Collin’s and piercing green eyes. “He’s Pepper’s boyfriend and another Locklaine boy.”

I nodded at the
other
insanely handsome man in the room, blushing at his kind smile.

“We were just thinking of going out to grab some dinner,” Navie told me. “You should come with us.”

“Great idea,” Richard echoed from behind me.

I moved out of his hold and pushed my glasses up my nose as I turned to face him. “Thanks for the invite, but I can’t. I actually just came over here to warn you.”

He frowned as he asked, “About what?”

“Devon had kind of a rough day. It’s called for a BJ dance party so the music’s going to get a little loud.” I cringed. “Sorry.”

“I don’t know what a BJ dance party is,” Collin chimed in, “but I’d rather do that than go to dinner. Count me in.”

I shot him a look. “It’s girls only.”

“Doesn’t that defeat the purpose of a BJ?” he asked in bewilderment, causing to me roll my eyes.

“Ben & Jerry’s. We’ll be stuffing our faces with ice cream and tequila while dancing to some angry chick music.”

“Christ, that sounds awful,” he flinched. “I’m out. Guess I’ll be needing ear plugs?”

I laughed as I nodded my head. “Probably.”

At the sound of Devon’s loud, “Yo!” we all spun to face the open doorway. “Enough sucking face, let’s get this party started already.” Then she lifted the bottle of tequila to her lips and took a long swig, wincing in pain once she was finished. “Sweet Zeus’s nipples, how many of you are there?!” she shouted, her wide-eyed gaze bouncing between all the Locklaines. “Ah fuck. I just busted an ovary.” To everyone’s credit, they all burst into laughter. I smiled in appreciation. I got Devon. She was basically my spirit animal, so it was nice to see these people seemed to get her as well.

From the corner of my eye I saw Pepper and Navie give each other a look before turning back to me. “I like ice cream and angry chick music,” Navie said sweetly.

“And I love tequila,” Pepper spoke up. “Room for two more at this thing?”

I glanced Devon’s way and saw her shrug noncommittally. “The more the merrier, but word to the wise, this is a dude-bashing party, so there’ll be no waxing poetically about your guys and their insanely awesome tally whackers. Deal?”

Pepper shrugged. Navie clapped her hands. “Yay! I’ll tell you all about Rowan back when he used to act like a raging hemorrhoid.”

“Ah, the love of my life, people,” Rowan deadpanned.

“And I actually Tazed Griffin… twice. The second time was intentional,” Pepper said. “I’m down for some dude-bashing.”

Devon looked at Pepper in awe. “Which ones yours?” Pepper pointed to Griffin who waved happily. “You Tazed
that
guy?” she asked in shock. Pepper just nodded. “Babe,” Devon said to me, “can they be our new best friends?”

“I don’t think this is a good idea,” I heard Richard mutter to someone behind me. “I’m actually a little scared right now.”

“Join the club,” the guy who sounded like Rowan just answered. “My balls just sucked back up into my stomach to protect themselves.”

“Awesome!” Navie shouted, throwing her hands in the air. “Let’s do this! Wait… so why are we guy bashing tonight? Not that I’m not all for it, ‘cause I totally am.”

“Because they all suck,” she answered, then said, “No offense,” to the members of the opposite sex crowding around.

“None taken,” Griffin waved her off. “We’re pretty terrible.”

“Speak for yourself,” Collin scoffed. “I’m a fucking peach.”

I looked at the girls, still waiting for a definitive answer as to why we were hosting an impromptu dance party. “Her boyfriend broke up with her today.”

“Ah, gotcha,” Pepper nodded in understanding. “Well, let’s go then. That tequila isn’t going to drink itself!”

“Baby,” Griffin called out to her. “At least
try
not to get arrested again?”

“Wait… again?” I asked.

Navie just brushed it off. “Total misunderstanding. Both times.”

My jaw dropped open. “You’ve been arrested more than
once
?”

“It’s not like any charges were ever pressed.”

“Oh, I can’t wait to hear this,” Devon laughed as she led the girls from Richard’s apartment to ours. I moved to follow after them, only to be halted by Richard’s hand on my arm.

“So I take it you won’t be staying here tonight?”

I gave my head a shake. “No, sorry. She’s going to need me. She acts tough, but she’s really sad. I don’t want to leave her alone.”

“I get it, cutie.” He smiled and leaned in to kiss me. “I’ll see you tomorrow, though. What time are we leaving?”

My eyebrows dipped into a deep V. “Leaving?”

“Yeah. For your parents’ dinner.”

I snort-laughed at his joke before dread kicked in and I realized he wasn’t laughing with me. “Wait… you’re serious?”

“Yep,” he grinned. “I’m really looking forward to a home-cooked meal.” He rubbed his flat, toned stomach.

I rolled my eyes with a groan and turned to walk out of his apartment. “I’m going to need a lot more than just one bottle of tequila tonight.”

I shut the door on his laughter, and headed for my apartment with sudden determination to get completely obliterated. Maybe that would stop me from overanalyzing the strange turn my life had taken in the past few days.

One could only hope.

 


I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU’RE
making me do this,” Delilah groaned from beside me in the back of the cab, her head shoved between her knees as she worked to breathe evenly.

“Ah, pumpkin,” I cooed as I rubbed her back, trying not to laugh at her self-inflicted misery. “It’ll be fun!”

Another groan. “I hate you. I hate life. I hate the animal that died in my mouth and the band currently banging drums in my skull. Oh God, the cabbie’s air freshener is going to make me hurl. Why do they make air fresheners with new car smell? It never smells like a new car! It smells like dirty feet and nachos mixed with Febreeze.”

I looked up at the rearview mirror to see the cabbie in question glaring into the backseat. I would have apologized if she hadn’t been spot on in her assessment. The car reeked, and I wasn’t even the one with the raging hangover. I could only imagine how much pain she was in at that very moment.

Not that it stopped me from twisting the knife just a bit more.

“What do you think your mom cooked? I bet the house smells amazing right now, all that meat and stuff, just simmering and baking. Ooh, by any chance do you think she made cabbage? I
love
cabbage!” I didn’t. I honestly hated the shit, but the question got the desired effect when she groaned again, followed quickly by a painful sounding dry heave.

“No puking in the cab!” the cabbie yelled through the Plexiglas partition.

“False alarm,” I told him when Delilah finally sat back against the seat with her eyes closed.

“Oh merciful Buddha,” she moaned. “I think I’m dying.”

“You’re not dying.”

“I’m totally dying. All the blood has drained from my body, replaced with tequila, Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia, and bad choices.”

I tried my hardest not to grin. “Yeah, hanging with Pepper and Navie’ll do that do a person.”

“Add Devon to the mix and it’s like a trifecta of pure evil. I don’t like them anymore. I don’t want to be friends with them.”

There was no holding back the laughter on that one. “Pretty sure you don’t have a choice with that one, cutie. I could have sworn I heard Pepper telling Griff they had to clean out his office and make it a bedroom for you because they were adopting you. You’re officially part of the clan, baby. Congrats.”

The sound that emitted from her with that was positively dreadful, and it only got worse when the cab came to a stop and the cabbie announced we were there. “Do we have to do this?” she whined, looking out the car window up to a quaint-looking brownstone.

“Oh, yeah. We’re doing this. It’s going to be fun.”

The look she gave me plainly stated just how badly she wanted to murder me. The cabbie must have seen it too, because he felt the need to announce, “No blood in the cab!”

With a chuckle, I pushed the door open and held out my hand to help Delilah from the back, refusing to let go once she climbed from the car. I didn’t know what it was about her, but whenever she was around, I found myself unable to suppress the urge to touch her. I didn’t
want
to. I craved feeling her skin against mine as often as possible. She was quickly becoming an addiction, something that mildly terrified me, seeing as I told myself I wasn’t looking for anything long term after what happened with Bree. As we made our way up the front walk, the door flew open with two identical looking girls standing in the doorway.

“Twins?”

“Yep,” she muttered under her breath. “And I’m pretty sure they were sent by Satan to torment their parents.”

Just then, one of the little girls turned her head and hollered over her shoulder, “DADDY! AUNT LILAH BROUGHT A BOY TO DINNER!”

“Oh yeah,” I chuckled. “This is going to be fun.”

“You say that now,” she whispered, a sinister smile hooking at her lips. “Just wait.”

A ball of dread formed in my stomach. She looked like she knew something I didn’t, like she was in on some big secret that didn’t bode well for me. Suddenly, I wasn’t feeling all that confident. And when a man about my height and body weight, wearing a scowl that did
not
speak well for me, appeared behind the little girls, I knew why.

“Who the hell are you?” he demanded to know in a menacing voice. “And why are you holding hands with my little sister, asshole?”

“MOMMY!” the other little girl yelled back into the house. “DADDY SAID A POTTY WORD!”

Delilah actually had the audacity to laugh as she continued toward the front porch, pulling me along with her.

“Jace!” a female voice yelled, chastising. Then an older woman who had features similar to Delilah’s shoved him out of the way. “Didn’t I tell you to go set the table?”

The man — Jace — frowned down at the woman. “But he’s still touching her,” he grumbled as we climbed the steps. Not that he was wrong, even with the threat of bodily harm, I couldn’t bring myself to release her hand. I hadn’t been all that worried about winning her family over on the way over here. I’d always been pretty good with parents, but older brothers? Well, that was a whole new ballgame. I was most definitely going to have my work cut out for me. And judging by the protective flash in his eyes, I would be lucky if I made it out of this dinner with all my limbs still intact.

Delilah’s mom ushered the little girls back into the house before propping her hands on her hips and glaring up at her son. “And our Lilah Bug is a grown woman who doesn’t need her big brother threatening every man she brings to dinner.”

BOOK: Opposites Attract (The Locklaine Boys Book 2)
2.3Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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