Nash Brothers Box Set - Carrie Aarons Page 0,179

fucking appointment. And I don’t mean a fucking appointment, I mean our appointment scheduled to fuck. You risked my kids seeing you, or the neighbors, to what? Stick it to me? Your ego is really that bruised that I didn’t show up to service you?”

Yeah, it was a mistake to come here. I hold up my hands, feeling the tiniest bit of regret. “Jeez, don’t shoot me. I just—”

She cuts me off. “You just wanted to confront me for not keeping up my end of the deal.”

Someone yells again from the second floor, and the wind goes out of her sails. Penelope looks defeated, something I don’t ever remember her being, not even when she became a widow to three young songs.

“What’s wrong?” I demand more than ask.

The sigh that bursts from those pretty lips is depressing. “My youngest, Ames, he got sick. Puke everywhere. I had to relieve my mother but forgot that I ran out of Baby Tylenol four days ago. And I can’t leave them here, the pharmacy in town is closed …”

Penelope looks like she’s on the verge of a breakdown, and I’ve never seen this confident, brazen woman look so worn down and frazzled.

“Text me what you need. I’ll run to the CVS a town over. They’re open twenty-four hours.” The offer pops out of my mouth before I can stop it.

“I couldn’t ask you to do that. I’ll call Corey or my mother-in-law …”

Pissed that she doesn’t want to rely on the perfectly good offer I just presented, I snarl. “You’re not calling that dickwad, Corey. And Marion Briggs doesn’t need to drive around in the dark. I’m saying I’ll go, so tell me what you need.”

My brothers and I have always hated Corey Watters. He’s a two-faced douchebag who has always sweet-talked from one side of his mouth and cut corners from the other side. Corey is the kid all the teachers loved but would shove you in a locker when their backs were turned. He hasn’t gotten much better in adulthood, and even if she means nothing to me, I hate that he’s around Penelope and her kids so much.

She chews her lips, her eyes darting back and forth from the stairs just behind her and my face.

“I need Baby Tylenol, I’ll text you a picture of the bottle. And some Gatorade, but only the orange kind. Pedialyte too if you can find it. And maybe some Saltine crackers if they have them in stock.”

Mentally, I start a list in my head, remembering everything she’s saying word for word. “Got it. I’ll be back in forty minutes.”

Before Penelope can argue anymore, I’m off her porch and heading for my car.

It only takes me thirty-eight minutes before I get back to Penelope’s house with her list of goods in tow.

And by the way she gingerly accepts the Baby Tylenol from me, you’d think it was liquid gold in that minuscule bottle. She races up the stairs and disappears for a good thirty minutes.

I don’t get a good glimpse of the throw up, or the son who seems to be producing it, which I’m happy for. What I do see are her other two boys, the oldest, Travis, and her middle kid, Matthew. I’ve met them before, obviously, we’ve all lived in the same place since they were born and in a small town like Fawn Hill, it would be nearly impossible not to bump into them.

Before I know it, I’m sitting cross-legged on Penelope’s living room carpet, kicking Matthew’s ass in Madden.

“Dude, you have to watch my quarterback. Pro tip, he’ll make the call and you can respond with the right combination of buttons to block me. Like this, watch.”

I block him, preventing his receiver from scoring a touchdown.

“Woah! Where did you learn to do that?” Travis says from the couch behind us.

Their mother will kill me if I tell them I spent my early hacking years breaking down the codes on video games to discover the best cheats. So I bite back that answer and reply with, “I’m an old guy, I’m supposed to know how to smoke you in video games I’ve been playing since before you were born.”

“Let’s play again!” Matthew cries, his little face so determined to beat me.

I indulge him twice more until Penelope comes down and there is quiet from upstairs.

“All right, boys. Kisses and bed. Please, no arguing with me tonight. Your brother ran me ragged, and I can’t do any more nonsense.”

The boys seem to