Bayou Stix Series: Bayou Stix Limited Edition Box Set (78 page)

I shrug. “Sorry, man. I’ve had a rough couple of weeks and then the past two days weren’t exactly awesome around here.” I glare back. “I needed to let off some tension and Chelsee provided some relief.”

He looks away. He’s staring out the window watching the squirrels run around under the Live Oak trees. He sighs deeply. “Look, I know I left you high and dry. I know Clove is a lot to deal with and for some insane reason, my mild mannered, sweet sister turns into a shrew around you.” He cuts me with a look.
What the hell?!
I squirm. “But I should have told you about the baby. We should have told all of you. That was my bad. I was trying to protect her.”

I sigh and take a sip of my coffee as I look at him over the rim of my cup.

Damn this coffee is good. Why doesn’t coffee taste this good when I make it?

Focus, Liam!

“She hates me. I don’t know why she hates me. But she does. And when she starts snapping at me, well, I snap back. But, yes!” I point at him. “You should have told me! You leave me in charge of the person who means the most to you in the world.
Who is knocked up by a complete fucking loser, you asshole!
And you leave that important fact out! Damn, man! That’s the kind of shit a dude needs to know!”

“What does it matter to you if Clove is pregnant, Liam?” He sits back in the chair and crosses his arms as he waits.

Shit! Dammit! Way to play it cool, Liam!

I sit back and meet his gaze. “It doesn’t!”

He keeps staring at me. I hate when he does that shit! He’s so insightful and can read people like a book.

He taps his chin and says, “I’m going to say this one time. I don’t care what happened while I was gone.” I open my mouth in shock, but he waves his hand cutting me off before I can speak. “Stop. Don’t insult me by lying. Both of you are trying to hide something and that’s fine. She’s an adult and you’re an adult. But, she’s my baby sister and you are my friend. If it comes down to it, I will always pick my sister, so don’t make it come down to it. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

Um, what IS he saying? Is he giving me permission? What the fuck? Do I WANT permission?

I have no idea what he’s talking about.

“Dude, I don’t even know what you’re talking about.” I shrug as I look away. I rub the back of my neck to try to work some of the tension out. “Nothing happened, I swear.” I look back and he’s still staring at me, calling my bluff. “Ok, there was a small kiss, but it just happened and well, I don’t see it happening again… so, no worries.”

His brows disappear under his hair. “A kiss? You kissed my sister?”

Shit! Why the hell did you tell him that, Liam?

He’s going to fuck up my face. Dammit!

I meet his gaze again and stiffen my back. “Yes, I did. I didn’t set out to do it. It just happened… and she kissed me back. Then…” Damn this is difficult. “Then she ran away and right after that was when she was hospitalized.”

Dade says nothing. He just stares at me.

I stare back, saying nothing.

After what seems like hours, he chuckles and I swear he says under his breath, “Finally.”

Wait, what?

I raise my voice, “What did you say?”

A knock at the front door breaks the tension in the kitchen. We both stare at each other as the knock comes again. Then, we hear the door open and a female voice is calling down the hall, “Hey. Where is everyone?”

Dade calls back, “In the kitchen.”

A couple pairs of feet can be heard on the hardwood and then Blue pops into the kitchen. “Everything ok, boys? Can we come in?” She smells the air appreciatively. “Ohhh, coffee.”

Jessie pushes her into the room and slaps her ass, saying, “Go grab a cup, woman. You need your coffee and I need you to have it. You’re making me insane!”

She cuts her brilliant blue eyes at him and mutters, “You better watch it, asshole.”

He raises his hands in surrender and says, “That’s why you love me!”

She laughs and says, “Yes, I suppose that’s true.” As she’s pouring her coffee, she looks at me and Dade. “Morning guys. How was your trip, Dade?”

He chuckles. “It was nice. Just what I needed, though I hate that all this happened while I was gone.”

Blue looks at me. “How are you, Liam? Missed your face.”

Jessie rolls his eyes and points at me then at Blue, “Mine!”

Swooping my arms out, I grab Blue and pull her onto my lap as she walks towards the table. Her coffee sloshes over the rim and spills. She squeals and laughs. Jessie glares at me and grits out, “Get my fiancée off of your lap, Pretty Boy.”

I blow him a kiss. “What’s the matter, scared she’ll realize she picked the wrong man?!”

Dade laughs and Blue squirms. She’s so beautiful, but we are just great friends. It’s awesome to push Jessie’s buttons though.

Jessie glares at me. “Hell no. You can’t handle my wildcat. Besides, she’s marrying
me
.”

Blue gazes at Jessie with love. “Yes, I am. Stop acting like idiots, you two.” She pats my arms. “Let me up. I don’t think we need any more bruises on either of your faces.”

Dade guffaws and I smirk as Jessie scowls. I let Blue go though. She leans down and rubs my face. “You need to shave.” Then she turns to Dade, “Is Clove upstairs?”

He nods. “Yeah, she whipped this breakfast up, told off Liam’s slut-of-the-day, and headed upstairs.”

Blue starts laughing and I feel my face get hot.
Really, fucker? Way to throw me under the bus!

Jessie cracks up. “Slut-of-the-day. That is awesome!” He high fives Dade.

Blue rolls her eyes and mutters, “Really. I swear you guys act like fifteen year olds sometimes.” Then she pins me with her gaze. I shift uncomfortably. “Really, Liam? She saw you with another one?”

I smirk. “In my defense, I was home alone last night and Chelsee has never stayed over before.”

Jessie whistles and says, “Model Chelsee?”

I nod and Blue glares at him. “What do you know about ‘model Chelsee’?”

He laughs, “Nothing, woman. I have never touched her, which is saying something since I think every male over eighteen in Southern Louisiana has tapped that.” He points at me. “Including your boy over there.”

When he says it like that, ugh… No wonder Clove didn’t want to contaminate her perfect skin by touching me. I need to take a shower. Like now. A scalding hot one.

She glares at me. “Really, Liam? You’re better than that, Hun.”

This sucks. My friends are all ganging up on me. I need to take a trip today.

Just as Blue says, “I’m heading upstairs to see Clove. Bradi is actually going to meet us here in a bit and we’re going to hang out with her today doing girl stuff.” I stand up and say, “I’m heading to Lafayette for the day. I’ll be back sometime tonight. Going to shower.”

I have a funny feeling in my chest and I
need
to make the trip today. I need some advice.

A few more comments are exchanged and I close myself in my room and wash off what’s left of Chelsee. I also strip my bed and throw the sheets in the laundry room on my way out the door. So why do I still feel so dirty?!

Clove

I
’m singing along to the songs of the eighties on Spotify as I straighten up my bed and change my clothes. I love the eighties. It’s my favorite decade. The music makes me happy and if an eighties movie is on, I’m watching it. As I belt out Pat Benatar and dance around my room, there’s a knock at my door.

What? Who is that?

Grabbing the remote, I turn my Bose down and call out, “Yeah?”

I hear through the door, “It’s Blue. Can I come in? You dressed?”

Racing across the floor, I open the door. “Of course. Come in.”

She comes in and grabs me, pulling me into a hug. Pulling back, still hugging me, she glares at me. “Really, Clove? How could you not tell us?”

Smiling sadly, I answer her. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know how to tell you.”

She shakes her head and her short hair flares out. With her dark hair, blue highlights, and piercing blue eyes, she’s gorgeous. I always feel so mousy and plain next to her and then there’s Bradi with her blonde hair, perfect body, and supermodel good looks. Let’s also not forget beautiful, redheaded, stacked, Lexi. Yeah, I don’t fit in with these women. Feed my insecurities much…

She’s reading my face. “Stop. I don’t know what’s causing those frown lines, but stop it.” She taps my nose. “I know you were scared, but we’re your friends and more than that you’re family, Clove. You should have told us. We would have never let you deal with all of this shit alone.”

She pulls my hands and we sit on the bed facing each other. I shrug and grimace. “I know. I’m sorry. I seem to be saying that a lot here lately, but I am sorry. I just thought I’d screwed up my life enough with my stupid choices and I didn’t want all of you to think I was an idiot.”

Squeezing my fingers, she says, “How exactly did you screw up your life? And we would
never
think that, Clove.”

Letting go of her hands, I trace the floral pattern on the quilt of my bed. I’m not like them. I’m younger and not as strong. I’m not as beautiful. And I’m damn sure not as smart.

Looking up at this beautiful woman who is like an older sister to me now, I smile sadly. “Let’s see… I let a creep cheat on me and lie to me and treat me like crap. I also got knocked up by the same creep. Then it turned out he was even more of a creep than anyone knew. He was having
SEX
with Jude’s fans. In his house. In his bed. And I lived in the same house and didn’t even know! I trusted him even though there were warning signs everywhere. He also
STOLE
from Jude left and right! I have always fallen for the wrong men… My whole life. Something must be wrong with me.”

Blue chuckles. “Girl, every woman falls for the bad boy. We all do it. Sometimes the ‘bad boy’ is actually a good guy, but trust me, we
all
do stupid shit over men at some point. Look at me. I was engaged to a man I didn’t love and I really didn’t even like. I was going to marry him. Then I saw him screwing an intern on his desk in the office. And that was that. Granted, Brock’s intern was in her early twenties and not days over seventeen, but they are really not that different. You didn’t do anything that tons of other women haven’t done and don’t do every day.” She grabs my hands. “Hey, look at me.” I do. “Seriously, Clove. We love you and you are a smart, beautiful woman. You made a mistake and someone took advantage of your goodness. That’s on them and
not
on you, ok?”

She reaches out as I nod. Pieces of hair are falling around my face from the knot I threw on top of my head. She clucks her tongue and strokes a piece of hair. “So, what’s this about? Why the sexy hair?”

My face heats up. Dammit, I hate when I blush!

I shrug and chew on my lip. “I don’t know. I just wanted something different. I wanted everyone to stop treating me like a child, I guess. And this was what popped into my head.”

She laughs again and her eyes crinkle. “Hm… does this have anything to do with a certain gorgeous, god-like looking man who lives downstairs?”

She’s staring at me and my face registers my shock.
What? No. This was not about Liam. It wasn’t! Yeah ok, Clove. Nothing to do with him… You are a terrible actress. It’s no wonder you failed at that. Stick to cooking! Shit!

My eyes are wide and luminous. “What?” I shake my head “no” and more hair falls out of the loose knot. “No, nothing to do with him. Nothing at all.”

We hear from the doorway, “Riiiiight! If you say so, chick.”

Both Blue and I look up. Bradi is standing there grinning and she has a bag full of something delicious smelling in her hands.

I sputter out, “Shut up! It wasn’t about him.” Then I whisper, “Well, not really.”

Bradi laughs and walks over to hug me. “Uh huh.” She hugs Blue too. “Hey, Bitch. Missed you!”

Blue laughs and stands up as her stomach growls loudly. “As you can hear, I’m starving and whatever you have in that bag smells like heaven, so can we go eat it, please?”

We all chuckle, but I look apprehensively at the door. Bradi sees the look. “No one is here. Dade and Jessie are going to meet Cruz to go over some tour stuff and Liam is gone. No one is here but us.”

My sigh of relief is loud. Bradi and Blue look at each other knowingly. I get a weird feeling in the pit of my stomach.

We all head to the kitchen and Bradi takes plates out while Blue tops off her coffee and asks if Bradi wants a cup. She nods. I hop up to turn the on the kettle on the stove on to make my tea.

Once we’re all settled, Bradi opens the white paper bag and the delicious smell of fresh, hot beignets wafts out. We all sigh in appreciation. I realize I’m starving too, even though I just ate some eggs and fruit with Dade.

We all dig in and the sounds coming out of our mouths sounds like an orgy. I start to laugh. Bradi cuts me with her eyes. She has powdered sugar on the side of her mouth. Blue bites into one and powdered sugar floats up and lands on her nose. We all start laughing.

Blue groans and mutters, “Beignets are the food of the gods. Why does this fried dough smothered in powdered sugar taste so damn good?”