Page 2 of Make Me Stay

“I love you, Ma. Don’t get all sad on me. I’ll be here annoying you for food at the very least.”

“That’s true.”

I laughed and headed out the door. Trouble, my brother’s dog, was bounding around the side yard with my nephew, Danny. The kid was really coming out of his shell these days. Knowing his piece of shit mom wasn’t going to be back anytime soon definitely seemed to lighten the load on the little dude’s shoulders.

I waved to them both before climbing into my ancient truck. It had a million miles on it—okay, so it was only 227,000, but it had gotten me all over the United States without failing me yet.

I spotted my brother on the deck as I pulled out. He was hunched over his laptop with a beer beside him. Probably looking for day laborers again. Even with most of my brothers back home now, there was too much work for the four of us. Gus and Cam were still out of state, and Ripley had his own business to worry about.

Now that summer was upon us, we had more options.

Memorial Day was right around the corner. In between jobs, we were also working on the warehouse that Sully had found for our Murdock Brothers headquarters.It was literally a box, but we needed a place to keep supplies, as well as leftovers from other jobs.

And a place for Lexi Howard, our office manager, to work.

I flexed my fingers on my steering wheel and put her out of my head.

Wyatt, her big brother and my best friend, would beat my ass if he knew what kind of thoughts I’d been having about her.

I headed over to his place, brews in the passenger seat. He was only a few streets over. Wyatt had inherited his grandfather’s small bungalow and had slowly been renovating it out of the sixties’ decor.

I spotted him outside with a door across a pair of sawhorses and his sander in hand.

My best friend was as different to me as possible in this world. Dark to my blond, linebacker to my quarterback, and perpetually steady and happy to live in the Valley to my wanderlust.

“Hey!”

He looked up from sanding to me rolling into his driveway. He waved, his perpetually shadowed face splitting into a smile as he turned off the machine and flicked off his ear protectors. “What are you doing here? I thought I didn’t have to see your ugly mug until tomorrow.”

“That extra bedroom still open?” I asked as I parked.

“Maybe.”

I lifted the twelve-pack. “Now?”

“Getting warmer.” He picked up the door and went to the garage.

I rolled up my window, grabbed my stuff, and followed. Wyatt’s garage was half storage, half game room with a big screen on the back wall and a long, leather couch in front of it. His gaming system, cable, and streamer box were neatly stacked on shelves he’d built for them. That was my best friend, Mister Organized.

Just like his sister.

“Hey, Wyatt, did you want—oh, hi Kai.”

Hell. Speak of the devil. She was still wearing her work clothes, but she’d lost her shoes, showing off ruby red toenails. Her hair was down, which made my fingers itch to touch all those cloud-soft, black waves. The red stretchy shirt showed off her God given bounty, as well as the inward curve of her waist outward to her grippable hips.

I moved the half case down in front of my zipper.

This sudden attraction to Lexi was going to get me into a shit-ton of trouble.

Wyatt glanced over his shoulder as he tucked the door away. “Lex and I were just having fajitas. Want in?”

“Uh, sure. I bounced before my mom put on dinner.”

Lexi smirked. “Bet you’re enjoying mom food instead of takeout.”

“I actually can cook. She made sure all of us could make a few dishes at least.”

She crossed her arms under her breasts, and I had to force my gaze to stay on her face. Not that her face was a hardship, either. She had the biggest midnight blue eyes and a mouth that made me think many, many X-rated thoughts. “Is that so?”

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