Hayden (A Next Generation Carter Brother #4) - Lisa Helen Gray Page 0,17

over the archway that leads to their small porch.

Growing up, the only thing I hated about this house was that it wasn’t on our street. Before Nan and Granddad died, they lived in the house next door to my aunt Harlow and Uncle Malik, and at the back of the garden was Mason and Aunt Denny’s house. Down from them was our house, and just around the corner, still considered the same street, was Myles and Aunt Kayla’s house. But Maverick and Teagan chose to move a few streets away.

Personally, I think it was because my dad drove him nuts, but no one will either confirm or deny it.

And now, slowly, we’re all moving away. It’s kind of depressing, even if we aren’t far from one another.

Hearing a car door slam, I drop my hand from the front door handle and turn to see who it is. Maddox glares at his sister, Madison, who is giggling away. I take a step down the stairs, waiting for them to acknowledge my presence.

“Holy fuck! What happened to your eye?” I call out, taking a few more steps down when I see how nasty Maddox’s eye looks.

He glares down at Madison, who laughs harder. “Nothing.”

Knowing Madison will tell me, I look to her. “He snuck into Lily’s house last night. Or tried to. Jaxon punched him, thinking he was someone breaking in.”

“He knew it was fucking me. It was payback,” Maddox grouches.

Her lips press together as she looks away, trying her hardest not to laugh. It’s useless though, because moments later, she bursts into laughter once again.

I grin at Maddox, who seems so unhappy, he looks like a lost puppy. He’s probably more bothered that he doesn’t look as good with a black eye and swollen jaw than he is that Jaxon hit him. “What on earth drove you to do that?”

He throws his hands up before dropping them to his sides with a slap. “They took my fucking key. How else was I meant to get in?”

My lips twitch in amusement. “Not what I meant,” I tell him. “She’s married. You can’t go sneaking in anymore. They want privacy.”

He tilts his head, his brows furrowed. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“God, I worry how you made it this far in life. They have sex.”

“Hayden!” he yells, covering his ears.

The front door behind me flies open and I glance over my shoulder to see Dad looking flustered. “What’s—Woah, what happened to your eye?” Dad asks, grinning as he comes to stand by my side.

Maddox looks away, pretending to be interested in the old lady unloading her car, so I answer for him. “He snuck into Lily’s and Jaxon hit him.”

Dad snorts, crossing his arms over his chest. “I would have punched you too, but I’m an arsehole.” He pauses, seeming to think about something for a second. “Then again, if it were me, he wouldn’t have known I was there. I wouldn’t have been punched,” he brags.

Maddox glares. “Are you serious? They’d hear you from outside, old man. And he didn’t sneak up on me. I was drunk, tired and hungry. You know what I’m like when I’m hungry.”

Dad’s stomach grumbles at the mention of food. “Yeah, but you’re still an idiot for sneaking in their house. Didn’t she take all our keys except Teagan’s?”

Maddox pouts, throwing his arms out in a tantrum. “He’s changing everything! She didn’t care if I was there before or if I ate her food. Now he’s there, he’s all, ‘Don’t eat that, we need to go shopping’; ‘You can’t sleep here, we want the night to ourselves’; ‘Maddox, you have your own house to play the Xbox in’. I just want some peace, ya know?”

I shake my head, then roll my eyes when my dad nods in agreement. “I hear ya. Maverick was the same. He would always be, ‘This is my dinner’; ‘Did you take the last pack of Jammie Dodgers?’. I mean, who can eat just one, am I right? And whenever we used to go and see the girls, he’d go on like he was the favourite,” he rambles, then snorts. “I’m the favourite. Everyone fucking loves me.”

I glance at Dad, seeing he’s serious. “Dad, you do realise most of the population want to murder you.”

He glares down at me. “No, they don’t, and if this is about that old lady across the street, I don’t want to hear it. I paid for that pizza. It was mine. And she needs to