Page 86 of Brides and Brothers
Chapter 32
Camille
Camille woke to arguing outsideher door. She’d fallen asleep reading an online discussion from one of her classes while she waited for her brothers-in-law to come home. Her laptop was still open on her bed, and her neck was kinked. She picked up her phone. It was eleven at night. With a yawn, she slid her feet into her slippers. She padded out of her room in search of the chaos in the kitchen.
“You can give her a chance to explain tomorrow,” Benson growled. His normally soft-spoken voice had risen by several decibels.
“I deserve to know why my arm was broken tonight.”
Camille’s mouth gaped as she turned the corner to see Daegan’s arm in a cast. “Oh no! Did this happen in the fight?”
Daegan’s expression softened, but only minimally. “I fell down the stairs while we escorted Macey’s boyfriend out.”
Camille turned and blanched when she saw Easton’s jaw was yellow and green. She blinked her tired eyes a few times, but his jaw stayed green.
Cade had a faint black eye—ironically, a twin to the bruise on Daegan’s face. How fitting. Benson was the least rumpled, except for the fierce scowl that was normally a stranger to his face.
“You all look like you took bats to each other.”
Easton was the only one who smiled, but his sore jaw made it crooked.
Cade growled, “This wouldn’t have happened if those so-called friends of yours, the ones you attested to being as sweet and innocent as doves, hadn’t cheated on us. And they picked real winners. If we hadn’t shown up when we did, these two”—Cade motioned to Benson and Easton—“would have let Raina and Macey walk out with a couple of punks.”
Camille opened her mouth to respond, but Easton spoke first.
“It’s our fault now?” Easton huffed. “I can’t believe this.”
Daegan’s voice was charged with frustration. “We’re only saying the situation should’ve been taken care of before we even got there.”
“Oh, you guys took care of it, all right,” Benson threw back. “But you could have tried the decent way first and talked to them.”
“What about you?” Cade grumbled. “You didn’t do any talking.”
“By that time, there was only one thing anyone was going to listen to. I did what I had to do to keep them safe,” Benson growled back.
“And so did we,” Daegan said. “Those jerks weren’t going to back off with a polite request.”
Camille leaned back on the counter. “I thought married life was stressful. Dating is so much worse.”
The kitchen went quiet for a moment. She tried to think of a way to pacify the men. She went to the freezer and pulled out several ice packs. The Petersons kept more than a few on hand for sports injuries. As an afterthought, she grabbed a Ziplock bag of frozen cookies. She handed out the ice packs and plopped the cookies into the microwave.
One by one the boys slipped into the kitchen chairs. Camille took that as a cue they needed to talk. She put water on the stove for hot chocolate and carried the cookies over to the table.
Where was Aiden when she needed him? Even Flynn’s presence would’ve been nice, since he hadn’t been involved. Unfortunately, he was meeting Sage’s parents this weekend and had driven to Utah.
“What happened to Trevor and George?” Camille asked, biting into a cookie.
Benson looked up. “They’re about as roughed up as us, but we all agreed not to call the police so long as they never show their faces around Raina, Macey, or any of the others.” He paused. “It was pretty late by the time we got out of the hospital for Daegan’s arm, so we didn’t go back to the apartment to check on anyone.”
“Check on them?” Daegan growled. “They should be checking on us!”
Benson glared at his brother. “The other reason we didn’t go back is because Daegan is too hotheaded to keep his temper in check.”
Daegan stood and pushed his chair back from the table. He tried marching from the room, but Easton grabbed his good arm.
“He’s right,” Easton said. “You and Macey have a good thing going, and discussing what happened before you calm down won’t help anything.”
Daegan probably didn’t like his younger brother telling him what was what, but he stared at the ground without a retort.
