Page 9 of Grayson

“Looks like I’m having a girls’ night,” she tells him with a smile. “We’ll try to keep it down.”

“Hell with that, he never keeps it down,” Tori pipes in and I cringe. Leave it to my sister. “It’s like a damn brothel lives next door to me. I get so tired of hearing the sounds that filter through the walls. So the hell with quiet, I think y’all should keep him up all night.”

I feel my cheeks heat and look up to find both Vivian and Scarlett sharing a look.

“Oh I like her.” Scarlett is the first to speak. “I like her a lot.” The two of them enter as Scarlett waves a good-bye to her cousin. And before I step inside, I glance up and find him watching me. Something passes, a strange feeling that rolls through me from head to toe. He doesn’t move, doesn’t speak, but I do notice how his eyes shift down over the length of my body. I shiver and try to hide it.

“Enjoy your night,” he says, smile tugging at the corner of his mouth and I say nothing in return. Instead I step inside and close the door behind me, flipping the lock. Turning around I press my back to the cool surface and find three sets of eyes watching me from across the room.

“Oh no.” Scarlett shakes her head.

“She’s been stung by the hornet.” Viv laughs.

“What hornet?” Tori starts to look around the room.

“The Grayson hornet,” Vivian clarifies and I stand tall and move closer, trying to ignore them both.

“I am sorry but that man is not stinging my sister.” Oh hell. “He’s stung more women than the busiest gynecologist. He’s probably got twenty-two children and twenty-two baby mamas scattered over the city and she will not be added to that list.”

“Tori,” I say in warning and it does nothing to stop her.

“What?” I’d warned Vivian of Tori’s loose lips, but Scarlett has no idea what’s about to unfold. Lets’ not forget she is his cousin and my sister, oh my hell, she has opinions that will knock this poor woman on her ass.

“I’m not lying, I share a bedroom wall with that man. It’s no wonder I have no filter, the things I hear being screamed out in the middle of the night and into the morning. And the variety, I mean I swear he never sleeps. The only time I get to sleep is when he is on shift at the station. I wonder if he somehow hides a hooker in the closet so that she can service him between calls.”

And she just keeps going. I’m afraid to look up, so instead I focus on removing items from the bags.

“You know one night I swear he had a coyote staying over. The howling, it was so fake.”

“What do you know about fake?” I gawk at her and hear both Scarlett and Vivian snicker.

“Please I’m fourteen, not four, and though I may not have experienced any of the things I hear myself?—”

“And you better not until you are forty!” She waves me off and continues on.

“I’ve gotten a pretty good preview of the sounds. I can almost tell which woman is there, though there aren’t many repeats. But what I will never understand is why in the hell do any of them put on a show. To me, if you aren’t liking it, don’t pretend, make the guy do it right or get the hell off.”

“Oh my God, Tori.” I cover my face with my hand.

“Word,” Vivian says and I catch the tail end of their shared fist bump.

“There is one that I call the squealer, she seriously sounds like a piglet, it’s horrible. Thankfully she has only been there twice. Wait.” It takes her far too long to reach the point she has now. “You just left his place.”

She points to Scarlett and I know where this is going. Only I don’t get the chance to stop her.

“So I’ve been home for more than an hour, and I’ve been in my room doing homework. There were no sounds, like none. So it’s true right, he’s not as talented as some of these ridiculous woman play out?”

“He’s my cousin.” Scarlett is not offended, her enormous smile assures me of this.

“Oh my bad.” Tori shrugs it off like she hasn’t just completely tore into him in front of his family.

“No harm, I know him better than most and I lecture him often on his choices.” Scarlett looks over at me. “He is friendly.” She laughs when Vivian snorts.

“I’ve thought about taking him up on that friendliness a time or two over the years.”

“But you said he was nasty.” I dump the chips into a large bowl followed by the salsa into its own bowl.

“Not nasty as in I’d never go there.” She grabs the blender and starts scattering out the ingredients to make margaritas. “I meant nasty like I’d love to go one round but I’m afraid he’d ruin other men for me, so I’ve never tried.”

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