Hood River Rat (Hood River Hoodlums #1) - K Webster Page 0,52
friend named Beth. She’s like my chosen mom. Not by blood, but she’s just good people. Even lets me call her Momma Beth.” Kelsey chuckles. “Everyone needs a mom like her.”
“So she’s old?” Hollis teases.
“Hush you,” Kelsey says with a smile. “She’s a grandma. Has like nine grandkids and one on the way. Some of them are the girls’ ages.”
Penny perks up. “Can they come over?”
“Maybe one day. I don’t want to seem like a freak latching onto this woman, but I swear if she wasn’t there, I would’ve quit already. She keeps me sane and hooks me up with good romances. We’ve even gone to lunch a couple of times.”
“You look happy, Mom,” Hollis says. “I’m glad.”
They share a long, heavy look filled with love and I’m jealous. I’ve never had anyone look at me like that before.
And then it happens.
Her gaze turns my way and it’s still filled with pride and affection. “What about you, honey? Things better with Mike? Are you guys happy?”
“I, uh, yeah. We’re good.”
Her blond brow hikes up. “I can tell when I’m being avoided. Is he good to you? He doesn’t hurt you, does he?”
“Nah,” I say with a chuckle. “I could take Mike. He’s great.”
This relaxes Kelsey and she nods. “Good. Maybe we ought to invite him to supper on Wednesday. If there’s anything we can do to help make the transition easier, I want to help.”
“We don’t need help,” I bite out sharply.
Roux glowers at me. “Roan!”
Kelsey simply shakes her head. “Tough luck, kiddo. In this family, you don’t get a choice. We help whether you like it or not. Right, Hollis?”
He smirks at me. “Yep.”
It’s then I realize where he got his annoying do-gooder attitude. Hell, even Ms. Frazier is that way, offering to let me do jobs here to get tutoring for Roux. They’re all so nice. It’s a little jarring considering I haven’t been exposed to anything good in regard to family.
Roux is once again all smiles as she tells Kelsey about a test she aced. Kelsey and Karen both praise her. It warms me to my fucking soul to see Roux getting the attention she deserves.
It’s gonna hurt when all this goes away.
Good things always go away.
At least in Roux’s and my life they do.
“Hop in the shower. You smell like a barnyard animal,” I instruct Roux once we walk into our living room of our garage apartment.
“Punk,” Roux says with a huff. She obeys, though, and bounds off toward her room.
Fuck, she has a room.
I’m still blown away by that fact.
“I guess I’ll go,” Hollis murmurs from behind me. His mom asked if he’d run us home and he happily obliged. I was glad when she told Charlotte she couldn’t come along. I’d wanted a second alone with Hollis.
“I thought you were going to help me study,” I blurt out. “I mean, I don’t want to study, but you said I should.”
He chuckles, the sound deep and throaty. It makes my dick twitch. “You don’t want to study. But, yes, I think you should.” He kicks off his shoes and then plops down on the couch.
I find my backpack and pull out my homework assignment. Rather than make out, like I’d rather do, Hollis jumps right in and starts explaining the assignment to me. I like his voice, so I get lost in what he says. We’ve worked through nearly all the problems by the time Roux gets her ass out of the shower and comes to say good night. The last three problems are torture, but I pay extra attention so we can get finished and move on to other things.
“See, not so diffic—”
His words are cut off when I attack him with a kiss. He smiles against my lips and allows me to ease him down onto the sofa. I kiss him hard and eagerly, making sure to grind my hard dick against his. It escalates until we’re both breathy and stifling moans.
“Want to continue this in the bedroom?” I whisper against his lips.
His fingers slide into my hair. “You can’t fuck me tonight.”
I guess I hadn’t thought about fucking, but now that he’s suggested it, I want it. I’d just wanted to undress more and not worry about Roux coming in.
“Why not?” I challenge, because I live to fuck with him.
“Because it’s been a while since Lucas. And he was my first and only. We just need to…prepare.”
“Just fuck me then,” I offer, though I’m pretty sure that will hurt like hell.