Page 51 of Shortcake
After a couple of minutes, Simon said, “I think she’s okay, but she probably has a minor concussion from the hit.”
“You can get a concussion from a punch to the jaw?” Haylee asked.
The largest brother, whose muscles seriously rivaled the Terminator’s, raised his hands in the air. “I’m going to need to know who punched herrightnow!”
“Where the fuck did he run to?” The other, slightly smaller brother said, cracking his knuckles. Granted, “smaller” was a relative term. None of them weresmallguys, by any means. And I said that as not a small guy myself.
Enzo clutched Simon’s arm and looked up at him dreamily as Simon said, “I think we all need to calm down—”
“Until it’syoursister who’s punched in the face, you can shut the hell up!” the youngest brother said. If I had to guess, I’d say he was probably Haylee’s boyfriend by the way she was holding his hand and trying to calm him down.
“Don’t talk to Simon like that!” Enzo shouted back, getting up in the brother’s face.
“I told you it was a bad idea to let her open her own bar,” the other brother said. “Something like this was bound to happen.”
“Let her!?” Haylee jumped in, stepping forward, going toe to toe with the guys. “What sort of neanderthal bullshit is that?”
The scene was total and utter chaos.
I half expected Addy to jump to her feet and fight that comment as well, but she didn’t. Amidst it all, she merely caught my gaze, her infectious smile widening. Then, she giggled.
It took a moment, but then behind me, Harper also joined in, laughing.
“This is not fucking funny, Addy,” one of the shirtless brothers scolded her. “You could have been really hurt.”
“He’s not wrong,” Simon chimed in.
This only made her laugh harder.
And soon, Enzo was chuckling, too.
“Whatisso funny?” Simon asked.
Enzo shook her head, still laughing. “I don’t know… but you have to admit, this is all so nuts.”
And something about Addy’s laugh and the way she bent over, holding her stomach, bouncing with the uncontrollable ill-timed laughter, made me chuckle, too.
“I don’t know, either,” Addy wheezed and wiped a stray tear from her eyes. “It’s just all so ridiculous. By the way, Conrad, meet my brothers—Neil, Liam, and Finn.”
Everyone except her brothers was now laughing. And the laughter increased with the introductions. Finn, the guy in the t-shirt who I’d guessed was Haylee’s boyfriend, even started laughing himself, despite the glares of his other brothers. He shrugged and clasped my hand in a handshake. “What a terrible way to meet all of Addy’s big brothers,” Finn said.
“You are not my big brother. I’m older than you,” Addy said, her laughter finally subsiding.
“Yeah, but I’mbigger. Yourbigbrother.”
“You’re such a nerd,” she muttered.
Finn chuckled and nudged me with his elbow. “I’m her favorite. Don’t let her fool you.”
He clearly seemed like the most carefree of the Evans family siblings I’d met so far. Way more so than Addy. Addy was a lot of things, but carefree wasn’t one of them.
“Okay!” Simon said, clapping to get everyone’s attention. “Addy, you should go home and rest. Can someone run the bar for her tonight?”
Literally every one of her friends and brothers raised their hands.
Addy rolled her eyes, a smile softening the glares she sent her brothers. “I don’t needallof you here. Keith, you’re in charge. How many people do you need to help you tonight?”
From somewhere in the back, Keith stepped forward. “I’m fine alone here, Addy. Seriously, you weren’t even on the schedule for tonight. You were just supposed to drop off the food and go back home.”
