a note. I put it on the kitchen counter. I couldn’t stick around and wait. I was surprised the house was empty, honestly. I had work stuff later, so it was really a quick trip. I’m going to come and see you guys on my next long weekend, I promise. And don’t get pissy with me. You moved a chick into the house and didn’t tell me. I couldn’t even go into my old room and look for my stuff. I didn’t want to invade someone’s privacy.”
“You son of a bitch.” Huck barked out the words and scowled as our eyes met. “You have no idea what kind of mess those stairs caused in this house the last week or so.”
“I was doing you a favor. You should say thank you, you rude asshole.” The other voice scoffed, and I could see that he and Huck were close by how they insulted each other back and forth.
“I’m about to murder you, not thank you.” Huck sighed heavily and sat down on the edge of the mattress. “It’s late. I know you waited to call when you knew I would be home from the bar and that you have to work in the morning. I’ll find your card for you. And I’ll fill you in on the roommate and what’s been going on when you make time to see your friends. It’s honestly too much to get into over the phone.”
There was a long pause on the other end of the line. “Are you guys okay? Do you need me to come back to town?”
I bit back a little gasp at the offer. These guys really were ride or die for each other. Their bonds were unbreakable. I didn’t know much about Fisher, other than he was the oldest of the four of them and that he was working at some kind of development company several hours away in Chicago. The way Huck talked about him, I knew he looked up to his friend, and hearing Fisher offer to drop everything if the boys needed him, I understood why.
“No. It’s better if you don’t come by the house for a bit. There’s some crazy shit going on that has ties to my past and involves the girl living in your old room. Like I said, I’ll fill you in when I see you.”
I sensed Fisher wasn’t satisfied with that answer, but he let Huck end the call with minimal argument.
Huck tossed his towel on the floor and ruffled his dark hair with obvious aggravation. “Well, fuck. It never even occurred to me that Fisher could be the one who came in when we were gone.”
He looked at me with a frown as I squeezed my unruly curls with the towel and asked, “I guess it’s a good thing there wasn’t a stranger lurking around when we weren’t here. But I didn’t see a note anywhere, did you?”
Huck shook his head and stretched his arms over his head as he yawned. “I didn’t. And my guess is that Vernon and Harlen would’ve said something if one of them picked it up. It’s all so damn weird. I asked Vernon to see if he could track down some personal info on Sawyer so we can have a clearer picture of what exactly it is we’re dealing with, but he’s run into a few roadblocks. It ended up being a more difficult task than we originally thought.”
Huck yawned again, and I hopped off the bed, still covered by the comforter.
“Let me change the wet sheets. You need to go to bed. We aren’t going to solve all our problems right now anyway.” It seemed like every time we had a handle on what might be going on, the situation veered in a direction no one could predict.
I yelped when Huck caught the edge of the blanket and pulled me back to the bed, rolling me until I was underneath him. He dropped his forehead until it was touching mine, and I could see he was struggling to keep his golden eyes open.
“I don’t mind that the bed is damp. It’s just a little bit bigger wet spot than normal.” He chuckled at his own joke and flipped us over so that I was sprawled across him. “For the record, that was a really good moment, followed by a really weird one. We’re going to collect all kinds of moments together, Ollie. I promise.”
I wanted to make sure he was comfortable and that I wasn’t