Page 63 of Laugh

“Uhh…” She thinks it over. “I think it would be okay. She doesn’t really have issues with her brothers for the most part. They’re just not super close or anything. Let’s call and just say sorry later if Haddie’s upset about it. I don’t think she will be, though. This isn’t about them and their fucked up family drama.”

“You have any of their numbers?”

She nods and forwards me their contacts. Another five minutes and I’ve got both Matthew and Alexander lined up to help as well. I may have pushed my ‘man up’ narrative at them as a little guilt-tripped incentive. They’re not bad guys. Just idiots. Maybe this will help repair a bit of the disaster that happened between all of them.

Finally, Haddie makes her way out at a clipped pace and comes up short. “Okay, so I was thinking. Maybe we could steal a few of the guys from your team? Big ol’ muscles and all that. They probably won’t want to tell their coach no, right? I drove Marcus’s car today because I told him I was going to take advantage of the gas he still had in his tank. Wouldn’t want it going to waste and going bad. Wait, does gas even go bad?”

I wrap my arms around her and plant another loud kiss on her lips to shut her up. “Baby, you’re stressing. Addie and I have it worked out. With the three of us, we’ve got a total of ten bodies and four trucks. Think that’ll be good enough?”

Her mouth falls open as she looks between the two of us. “Who?”

With a chuckle, I lead her toward Marcus’s car and hold the door open for her to slide in. “Let’s get on the road and I’ll call you on the way. We’ll get this done, Happy.”

She nods, swallowing down another rush of emotion as she slips into the car. Leaning down, I wrap my hand around the side of her neck and tilt her head back. “One step at a time. Take the drive to breathe and focus on this one thing in front of us. Marcus is fine where he’s at. His parents are with him and he’s coming home. You’ll see him tonight and get your weird friend talk in. Then,” I kiss her deeply, showing her what ‘then’ means. Pulling back slightly, I grin against her mouth. “ThenI’m going to take care of you in the best of ways.”

Breathing heavily, she touches my face with her fingertips. “Aye aye, Captain.”

Chapter 24

I Hate This

Haddie

“Haddie?”

I spin around and find all three of my brothers standing in front of me. I had just shoved a box in the back of Beau’s friend Vince’s truck and my arms feel sluggish already. It’s been fifteen minutes.

Bouncing my eyes across their faces, it’s obvious that they feel uncomfortable standing in front of me. When my eyes fall on Jonathon, I raise a brow. “I didn’t know you were coming too.”

His smile is forced when he shrugs his shoulder. “I didn’t hear my phone ring. When they called me to tell me what was going on, I wanted to help. How are you doing, sis?”

I answer with a shrug, like he did. I’m not sure I’m ready to talk about my deepest, darkest secrets and fears with my brothers. Outside of the fact that weneverhave those kinds of conversations, today isn’t the day. Plus, I’m still pissed at them. They never reached out after I left dinner and I haven’t been back since. Come to think of it, my dad hasn’t either. All I got was that one text from the stepmonster that I ignored like the plague.

“I’ve been better. Thank you for coming to help. There’s a room in the back that has a ton of things already packed up that need to be loaded. Addie’s in the kitchen with Mina, whom I just met today and is freaking awesome, packing up his kitchen. The rest of the guys are breaking down furniture and doing stuff with screws and bolts or something.”

Spinning around, I turn to hightail it back into the apartment, but Alex’s voice stops me. “Haddie, wait a second.”

My shoulders inch up to my ears as I turn back to face them, slower this time. I don’t think I’m ready to hear what they have to say. Not right now. A lecture is going to send me over the edge. They move closer to me, Jonathon bumping his fists at his sides like he’s nervous and looking anywhere but at me.

“Yeah? We really need to get in there.”

“Haddie, just… listen for a minute. We’re really sorry for what happened at dinner,” Alex says softly.

I raise my brow, waiting for more. Therehasto be more than that because, well, because I said so.

“Not just for that,” Matthew adds. “Beau was right with what he said to us. We’ve seen how mo–” I suck in a breath and he stops himself, then corrects the ‘mom’. “Debbie treats you, especially when dad isn’t around.”

“And Bamber,” I add, narrowing my eyes at him.

Jonathon snorts out a laugh. “And Bamber. We all had a pretty big argument with them at the last dinner when you didn’t show up. Dad bitched that you didn’t come and we all sort of lost it.”

Matthew cuts in. “We can’t change the past, but we won’t let it keep happening. Will you forgive us?”

“Please?” Alex asks, giving me a sad puppy face.

I hear a loud grunt and bang behind me and with a peek over my shoulder; I see Beau and his friend Ethan carrying out Marcus’s couch. That guy is seriously a tatted-up beast, but when he walked in holding Mina’s hand, he was all hearts and oozing love. Super cute.

Beau looks between me and my brothers, then calls out, “You all good out here?” There’s a hint of warning in his voice for my brothers and there’s no stopping my grin.

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