Under My Skin (Skin Deep) (10 page)

“Wow, Nanny!” I exclaimed loudly, cutting her off. “Cool story! Did you see the weather report for this week?” She nodded and she was off on a tirade about the ‘damn
Ohio weather’ and I breathed a sigh of relief. That is something I didn’t need to know about, or to ever have a mental image of. Yeesh.

They stayed for a few minutes longer, leaving only when a couple more customers came into the store to browse.  Before she walked out the door my mom made sure to let me know that dinner was Wednesday at seven, and it was non-negotiable. Be there with the guys or I was in a shit-load of trouble.

I acknowledged her in exasperation, waving and shaking my head at them fondly as they walked out with my Nanny grumping at my mom that she always takes too long.

The rest of the day went fairly quickly and just before I left the store, I heard a voice yelling at me from across the parking lot. I looked up and around, trying to determine where it was coming from when I saw Calland, Emma’s brother, running toward me.

He stopped in front of me, panting like he’d just run a marathon and I couldn’t help but pick at him like he always does everyone else.

“Getting a little out of shape there, buddy?” I asked with a smirk, reaching out to poke him in his stomach.

He glared at me, saying, “You’re a pain in the ass,”  and then got down to the reason he had sought me out. “So do you know if Jackson or Brandon are planning on doing Luke’s bachelor party?”

I grinned at him and shook my head. “No, no one has mentioned anything. Why?”

“Cause I have got to get in on that shit!” he exclaimed.

I laughed and told him, “Well, come on over to the house and talk to them, then.”

He said he would and then jogged back to his car, hollering back over his shoulder that he’d stop by after he got something to eat.

Chapter 10

Wednesday snuck up on me so quickly that I didn’t have time to worry about it, let alone to prepare the guys for it. I did remember to call my mom and let her know that Jackson’s sister would be there, too. No way in hell was I gonna leave her sitting alone at my house while we all went for dinner.

We pulled up at my parent’s house a little early and I led everyone into the house. Something I regretted almost immediately.

“MOM! DAD! OH, GOD!” I yelled as I stopped so quickly that Jackson and Brandon both rammed into me from behind, and then poor Chloe let out an ‘oomf’ as she hit Brandon’s back . I threw my hands up, waving them around like a crazy woman as I tried to back up and get the guys back out the door to protect them from the shudder-inducing sight that is now seared into my eyeballs.

It didn’t do me any good because they were like a solid brick wall behind me, stunned into complete silence, their bodies frozen and unmovable. Chloe was trying to peek around them but couldn’t see anything, which I was grateful for. I gave up shoving at them and turned, resigned to dealing with what we’d walked in on. Thank fuck my parents had actually stopped the semi-horizontal mambo they were doing on the couch and were casually grabbing up their clothing and stepping into it like they had all the time in the world and I wasn’t standing there with guests waiting to be introduced.

“Allie! Honey, we didn’t expect you until later!” my mom said brightly. Clearly being caught
in flagrante delicto
posed no embarrassment for them.

“Mom, you said seven, it’s seven and we’re here! What…why…ugh!” I shook my head and threw my hands up, completely at a loss as to what to do or say at this point.

I felt movement behind me and noticed that the guys had finally unfrozen enough to have turned their heads and were now nervously looking everywhere but in front of them, and Chloe had pushed her way to the front, her eyes wide as she took in my parents dressing in front of us.

“Well, I guess we let time get away from us!” my mom said, laughing. My dad looked at her with a doting expression before turning to us, grinning.

“So these are your guys?” he asked in his booming voice. He moved to walked toward us with his hand outstretched, clearly intending to shake hands with them.

He stopped and inclined his head, acknowledging the small shake of my head I gave. I really didn’t want the guys and Chloe to have to shake the hand that was just…where it was on my mother. He smiled again, this time sheepishly and grabbed my mother’s hand, pulling her down the hallway.

When they left the room, I turned back to the three who were standing there behind me, all with expressions of confusion, shock, amusement, and a hint of disgust on their faces. “I’m sorry…” I trailed off, pretty much at a loss as to what to say. There was really nothing I could say to make them unsee the things that they’d seen. I, myself, wish I could rinse my eyeballs with bleach to rid myself of the image. Seriously, though, I should have been used to it by now. This wasn’t the first time I’d walked in on things like this. “Well, I told you my family was unconventional…worse than me! I warned you! So now you know!”

They all laughed and I felt the shock of the moment dissipate some. My parents came back into the room and Mom led us out to the back patio where she had a cooler full of beer on ice before she ran back inside and came back out with a veggie and dip tray for us to munch on while dinner was finishing up in the oven. She’d made lasagna and garlic bread and we ate and drank beer and generally had a pretty good time.

Brandon and Jackson took everything in stride, answering my parents’ off the wall and probing questions with ease and laughing at the stories they told about me growing up.

“So,”
Jackson said a little later, “You’re okay with Allie being with both of us?”

I’d been waiting on that subject to come up all night and, frankly, I figured it would have been
Brandon that would have asked it.

My parents both shrugged and Mom said, “As long as she’s happy, that’s all that matters. Now, what happened to you, missy?” She turned and pinned Chloe with a motherly look.

Chloe just waved her hand and offered a short, terse answer. “Bad decision that I rectified as soon as I could and won’t be revisiting again.”

My mom shot a worried look my way and shook my head slightly, pleading silently with her to let it drop. Chloe hadn’t really offered any information to us about what happened, and
Jackson hadn’t said much about it either.

“Oh!” my mom shouted out of the blue, thankfully changing the subject. “I have pictures!”

I groaned as the guys both grinned at me, their eyes sparkling in the waning evening light. My mom jumped up and went inside, flipping on the porch lights as she lugged out four huge photo albums spilling over with pictures.

She took great pride in going through all of them, and we all laughed our asses off at the various crazy poses and outfits I’d sported throughout my life.
Brandon found a picture of me and Emma standing together, me in a sport coat of my father’s and an old top hat, Emma wearing an old white lace dress of my mother’s and her oversized heels. Emma was holding a bouquet of wildflowers and we were arm in arm in front of my old teddy bear that had a big book propped up in it’s arms. We were grinning into the camera, both of us missing front teeth and looking so cute and innocent.

“Holy shit!”
Brandon crowed, laughing. “Does Luke know that Emma’s a bigamist?”

“Ha ha, very funny,
Brandon,” I said sarcastically, giggling over the picture myself. “I forgot about that! God, we were obsessed with everything wedding back then…” I sighed wistfully and then doubled over again when Jackson pointed out a picture of me sitting on my potty chair with the newspaper spread out over my lap, pretending to read it. In the picture, I was scowling at my mother or whoever was taking the picture, obviously not impressed with being interrupted.

We stayed until almost eleven, finally getting up and saying goodbye to my parents after my dad got into a discussion with Brandon and Jackson about Luke’s bachelor party. They started talking about ideas that Calland had thrown out when he’d come by the house the other night and I called an end to it when they started whispering to each other and shooting suspicious looks over their shoulders at us. We walked to the door and my mom wrapped Chloe in a gentle hug and told her to come back anytime, especially if she ever needed to talk. She then hugged both the guys, kissing their cheeks and then laughing hysterically when they both jumped as she goosed them. I just sighed and shook my head. Mothers.

I was woken up at three in the morning by my bladder, who was protesting the four beers I’d consumed at dinner. I stretched and started to wiggle my way out from between the bodies wrapped around me but found that I didn’t have to because Brandon wasn’t in bed with us. I shook it off and stumbled up out of the bed, headed into my bathroom to take care of pressing matters. When I was done, I moved to get back in bed but stopped as I heard soft voices in another room. I quietly slipped into the hall and padded toward the spare bedroom. The door was cracked open and a faint light was coming from a nightlight that I’d put in there for Chloe at her request. I peeked through the opening and tensed when I saw Brandon lying in bed with her, one of his arms wrapped loosely around her while the other gently stroked her hair. He was murmuring to her soothingly, trying to calm the whimpering sounds coming from her throat.

I took a breath and when I did, the door moved, creaking slightly. I winced and peeked back through to see that
Brandon was watching me. He smiled at me and motioned me into the room. I mentally berated myself for being nosy and being caught at it as I slowly pushed my way into the room and padded toward the bed as quietly as I could. He held his arm out to me and I shook my head, backing away again. No way in hell was I getting in bed with them and being all lovey-dovey while the poor thing was bawling her eyes out.

I heard a small sniffle and then Chloe’s head lifted. I saw surprise flash across her face before she’d schooled her expression again, giving me a guarded and slightly guilty look.

“Hey,” I said softly. “Sorry…I just…I heard you and just wanted to see if you needed anything, or if there was something I could do?”

She shook her head at me and gave me a watery smile. I could see her eyes filling back up again and
Brandon wrapped her in his arms again. She buried her face against his chest and cuddled closer. A feeling that I swore I’d never feel in my life settled darkly in my chest, squeezing around my heart. Jealousy doesn’t sit well with me, especially when there is absolutely no reason for it….right?

Swallowing the nasty feeling down, I gave
Brandon a small smile in response to the rueful one he shot me and turned and left the room. I made my way back into my bedroom and sank down on the bed beside Jackson. He stirred and turned over, reaching for me blindly in the darkness. I allowed him to pull me into his body, letting the comforting warmth of him soothe me.

“What’s wrong, baby?” he asked, his deep voice sleep-roughened and soft.

I shook my head, not caring that he couldn’t see it. No way in hell was I telling him what was really wrong.

“Where’s
Brandon?” he asked suddenly, sounding more awake.

“Chloe had a nightmare and he heard her,” I replied. I felt him lean down and then his lips were on mine, kissing me sweetly before he sat up and swung his legs off the bed.

“I’ll be right back. I just want to check on her, okay?” Without waiting for my answer, he fumbled in the dark for his shorts, pulled them on, and left the room.

I heard faint voices down the hall and flopped myself over onto my back, my breath leaving me on an exasperated huff. I laid there in the darkness, lost in my own thoughts until sleep pulled me under again.

My alarm woke me in the morning and I reached over and thumped it off. My eyelids felt like they weighed twenty pounds and were lined with sandpaper as I blinked and rubbed at them, trying to wake up. The alarm started going off again and I leaned over Brandon to shut it off but the damn thing kept going. I pounded on it once more and it bounced off the nightstand, crashing to the floor, which made Brandon jerk straight up in bed, sending me tumbling in a heap off the end of the bed. I swore loudly as I laid there on the floor, realizing it was my cell phone ringing and not the alarm.

I heard the bed rustle above me and looked up to see Brandon and Jackson peering down at me, Brandon with an almost crazed, scared look, and Jackson mildly amused and curious.

“What are you doing down there, baby?” Jackson asked, his voice laced with barely suppressed laughter.

I rolled my eyes and stretched, trying to look nonchalant but failing miserably. “Ahh…you know. Just hanging out.”

Brandon reached down and grabbed my hand, pulling on it until I sat up. “Sorry…”

I smiled at him and shrugged before getting to my feet. He grabbed for my hand again and pulled me onto the bed across his body, wrapping his arms around me and squeezing. His lips found mine and he kissed me softly before apologizing again for dumping me off the bed. I smiled again and found myself lifted away from him and wrapped in
Jackson’s arms with his lips on mine. I sighed contentedly and then groaned as my phone rang again. Brandon reached over and snagged it, holding it out to me.

I glanced at the display as I answered, surprised to see that Emma was calling this early. “Hey, what’s up?” I asked.

“It’s me,” a deep voice said in my ear. “Emma wanted me to call you.”

I shot up in bed, not even wincing when I elbowed
Jackson in the stomach in my scramble to sit up.

“Luke? What’s going on? What’s wrong? Where’s Emma
? ” My questions came fast, not even giving him enough time to answer.

“Nothing’s wrong and she’s right here. We were just talking about something and wanted to run it by you,” he said, laughing at my tone.

“Really? At…” I craned my neck looking for the alarm clock to check the time before I remembered that it was on the floor where I’d dropped it. “Whatever time it is?” I asked him grouchily. “Why didn’t Emma call, then?”

“Jesus, Allie, just listen to him!” I head Emma yell in the background, laughter ringing out in her words. 

“Okay, okay…get to it!” I growled, still irritated by them laughing at me when he just about scared the piss out of me by calling this early from Emma’s phone.

“We’re going to move up the wedding.” He said it firmly and then fell silent, I guess waiting for my response.

“Okay? That’s it? That’s what you were calling for at the crack of dawn, trying to scare the life out of me? Ugh…tell Emma I’m going to kill her. I love her, congrats, I’m all for it, but I’m hanging up now. I’ll be there tonight to kill her. Text me the date.” I huffed out a breath and tapped the end key on the screen of my phone before dropping it and flopping back on the bed between Brandon and Jackson who were both looking at me expectantly.

“That was Luke. They’re moving up the wedding date,” I said. Then a thought occurred to me and I fumbled around on my mattress, sitting up again as I hit Emma’s contact info on the screen. It rang three times before she answered, still laughing.

“Yes, Allie?”