Tangled Up In You (A Savioe Family Novel) (7 page)

I stormed my way upstairs to grab my keys from my room. I have to get out of this house right now. If I
stayed, I’d just end up barging into that room and making an ass of myself. I ran out of the house to the garage and jumped on my bike. I sat there for a few moments trying to gather my thoughts when my dad walked in the garage.

“What are you doing, son?” His concern evident in his tone and gaze. He sauntered over to the bike and grabbed the keys from it before I could take off.

I shook my head jaw clenched hands resting on the handlebars. “I dunno, Dad. Dis girl’s got me all twisted and tangled. I tink I know what she is ‘bout den Marie says someting dat makes a little more sense den what I had tought and it has me all confused.” I ran my hand over my face and continued. “I go up dere ta give her da drink and she is in Marie’s room gigglin’ wit Beau wit da door closed. And dat has me so mad I could jus' rip da hinges off and go after dem. I know da two of us have fought ‘fore but dis is da first time I’ve really jus’ wanted ta hurt him.”

My father nodded his head listening to me vent. He lifted his hand and scratched the back of his neck. “Son, sounds like you might have some strong feelings for this girl.”

I snorted. “I barely know her, Dad. We’ve only talked yesterday and today fo’ a little bit.”

“And in that time you have brought her here to meet the rest of the family which you have never done with any girl before, blown off your girlfriend to hang out with her and are jealous over your brother making her laugh.” He leaned against the workbench arms crossed in front of his chest.

Jealous? Could I really be jealous?

             
                                          *****

             
             
Chapter Six

Roxy

I put my phone back in my bag after snapping multiple pictures of Beau’s face in different lighting. The lamp next to Marie’s bed created some interesting shadows. I only hope I can match them on paper. He was standing by the window staring out at the garage when I told him. “You do realize that I think your sister’s little joke or whatever it is, is kinda odd.”

He glanced at me with a half-smile before turning his attention back out the window. “You don’t have any siblings do you?”

“No. I’m an only child” I walked over to the window to see what he was staring at. Marie’s room had an excellent view of inside the garage. Luke was seated on his bike with their father leaning ag
ainst an old workbench talking.

“The four of us have always
given each other shit since… hell since we could walk really. Then when the twins came around we started playing pranks and well cruel jokes on each other. When you told me about Marie’s scheme to make him think you’re seeing me nude. Gawd, I could resist it.”

“But why
would he care if I did or not?”

He laughed and turned toward me. “You really don’t know? He has a crush on you, girl.”

“I don’t think so.” I mumbled feeling my cheeks heat up. He placed his hand on my shoulder and smiled before he left the room. As I stood in the room, I gazed out the window at Luke and his dad talking. Was it possible that he liked me? I shook my head. There is no way. He already has the tall blonde as his girlfriend why in the world would he want someone like me.

             
                                          *****

“
Eva that was possibly the best meal I have ever eaten. I am stuffed.” I sat back in my chair with a hand resting on my stomach. Luke sat to my left, Beau to my right, Marie to his right. Charles and the twins sat on the opposite side of the table. Eva and Nate sat on the ends. Luke had not spoken one word to me since leaving me with Marie earlier. When he came in with his dad from the garage he just glared at Beau went upstairs and locked his door. One of the twins went up his room to get him for dinner and came back down with tears in his eyes. Luke stomped down the steps moments later and sat at the table not saying a word to anyone.

She looked down the table at me. “Thank you, honey. I’m glad you enjoyed it. Before you
leave, I could give you some to take home. Marie told me that you don’t really get a chance to have a decent meal.”

“I would love that. Thank you. Do you need a hand with the dishes?” I asked.

“Pssht. Beau and Charles will take care of it tonight while Marie keeps the twins out of trouble.” She waved her hand dismissing my comment.

Charles gasped in horror. “But it’s Luke’s turn tonight.”

“And he has company over.” She explained.

“Not like he has spent any time with her since she’s been here. Just been pouting up in his room like a kid that had to share his favorite toy.” Ch
arles mumbled under his breath.

Luke bristled at the snide comment practically exuding his hostility. He leaned forward in his chair and growled. “Say dat agin, frère.”

“Boys! If you are going to fight, take it outside. You know it’s not fair to your mother when she has to clean up after your squabbles.” Nate ordered them.

Charles grinned and stood up bouncing around like a boxer before a match. “Come on bro.” He went out the side door into the backyard. Beau and Marie yipped with glee and rushed out after him. Luke took a deep breath, pushed away from the table and headed after the trio.

I looked over at Eva who had her head in her hands muttering, “Just one day. All I wanted was one day with my family with no fights. Is that too much to ask?”

Remi and Dev looked at each other with excitement then at me. They scooted their chairs back and ran over to my side of the table. Remi grabbed my hand. “Come on you don’t want to miss this.”

Dev giggled and grabbed my other hand. “It’s goin’ to be funny.”

Funny? How can a fight be funny?
As they pulled me into the backyard, I saw a homemade boxing ring set up on the other side of the pool. Cool, they have a pool. Charles was already in the ring bouncing back and forth from heel to heel trying to get limbered up. Beau helped him lace up a pair of old boxing gloves. Luke stepped in the other side with just his jeans and shoes on. His hair slowly escaped his usual ponytail as he jerked away from Marie and the gloves she tried to get on him.

The boys hauled me over to a bench beside the ring. “Come sit down.”
Remi pleaded jerking on my arm.

I took a seat in between the two boys trying to keep my gaze away from Luke’s chiseled hotness. Dev scooted closer to me and whispered. “Daddy will only let them fight like this. It gives them esercise and keeps the induries to a miminal. Lea
st that’s what Marie tells us.”

Marie tried to get Luke to put the gloves on again and he shook his head no. Now, I’ve seen the schoolyard fights where people stood in front of each other and wildly threw punches. I’ve also seen a few of those MMA shows where they are in a cage kicking and punching each other with vicious accuracy. Neither of those prepared me for the sight of seeing two guys attack each other. While the twins were shouting encouragement I kept my head down to keep from seeing the violence. The sickening sound of flesh hitting the floor in a thu
d made me squeeze my eyes shut.

A hand squeezed my shoulder. “Honey, you don’t have to sit out here for this. The boys will be done in a few minutes. Why don’t you come inside with me to the kitchen so we can get the ice packs ready for them?”

“Thanks, Eva.” I heard another thud and closed my eyes cringing. “I think I might just head on home though. I really appreciated the dinner it was extraordinary. Can you tell them I said bye? I don’t really want to interrupt… that.”

“Oh, honey you don’t have to leave.” She protested as I stoo
d up to walk back to the house.

“I’m going to have to. It’s going to be getting dark here in a few and my parents don’t like me driving at night. I really did have a good time.” I said as we walked back into the house. She had already packed up a few small containers of food for me to take
and placed them next to my bag.

“I hope you can come by again. Like I said earlier it was so nice having another female in the house.” She gave me a hug and squeezed my shoulders. “Have a safe trip home, Honey.”

                                                        *****

Luke

My knuckles ached in pain. I really should have listened to Marie and put the gloves on. If Charles would have just kept his mouth shut at the table, I would not be hurting right now. Compare me to a child, what the fuck. So what if after the talk with dad I went up to my room to chill out for a bit. I wasn’t pouting that’s for sure.

Charles
lay on the padded flooring breathing hard. I walked back to my corner and glanced over to where Roxy sat only to see the twins instead of her. With a frown, I jumped out of the ring and jogged into the house. “Momma, where’d Roxy go?”

She walked in the living room motioning me to come to the kitchen. “I expected you boys to be at it a little longer. Now sit.” I sat on the stool at the center island. She grabbed my hands and inspected the damaged I did fighting bare-knuckle. “You should have worn those gloves. Your little friend went home when you two started fighting. I think the sights and sounds of the fight upset her.” She dabbed a cotton bal
l soaked in alcohol on my hand.

I hissed at the pain. That burned like the devil. I wonder if I could catch up to Roxy. “How long ago was that?” I asked her.

“Five maybe ten minutes tops. You can wait to talk to her when she gets home though.” She wrapped my left hand in a bandage. “Done. Don’t think about going after her. Your daddy still has your keys.”

I nodded and got up from the counter. My phone was still in the foyer on the table. I picked it up and turned it back on. Phone in hand I went back up to my room and locked the door. Damn, I had six voicemails, eighteen missed
calls and over thirty-eight new text messages. All of them were from Christie.

Christie: How dare you hang up on me!

Christie: Where are you really going?

Christie: I don’t believe that family crap for one minute.

Christie: Luke? Please text me back or call.

Christie: Are you there?

Christie: Baby?

Christie: Hello?

Christie: Baby, come on talk to me. I’m getting worried.

Christie: Fine be that way! If you are just going to ignore me then I’ll find someone else.

If only I could be that lucky. I stopped scrolling and deleted the rest of them. Come on man you can do this. I pulled up Roxy’s number and called.

“Talk to me.”
She answered.

I closed my eyes and unloaded. “Hey Roxy. It’s Luke. I just wanted to apologize for acting like a bit of an ass today. I don’t know what the hell my problem was I just ask that
you don’t hold it against me.”

Her radio played in the background. I heard her take a deep breath and sigh. “Why are you apologizing? You had a bad day. That happens. I actually had fun hanging out with all of you today. Oh and your mom is now my god. I have decided to worship her culinary prowess. A shrine will be erected in her honor when I get home.”

“Ha-ha. I’ll tell her that. If you had fun then why did you leave so early?” I asked stretching out on my bed.

“It’s going to be getting dark soon and my parents don’t like me driving in the dark
. See, the deer population around here when the sun sets look at my car and conspire to jump in front of me. ” She explained.

I looked out the window and saw that the red haze of the sunset. “Yeah, please be careful. Don’t need you wrecking your car because of a few suicidal deer.”

She sighed. I could almost see her rolling her eyes at me. “Yes dad. I’ll be careful.”

“So did you get what you needed from Beau?” I asked trying to keep the hostility out of my voice.

“Yeah, I took a bunch of pictures of his face so I could take my time capturing his eyes. I was just going to sketch them but he cannot sit still longer than a minute or two. I also grabbed a few of the twins, Marie and Charles. I have an idea for something for your mom.”

“Really? What is it?”

Her husky laugh sent an instant tingle down my spine as a wave of lust washed over me. “A collage of all of you kids. Which means I need you.”

I inhaled a quick breath as my heartbeat increased. My body instantly hardened
my jeans becoming too constricting. Her words drove every coherent thought from my head. I tried to clear my throat to keep my voice normal. “Jus’ how d’ya need me?”

“I need you to pose for a few pictures. I haven’t decided on how I want you yet. I guess I could always just position you how I’d like to take them.”

My head fell back on the pillow as I groaned over the images her words created. “Anytime.” My phone buzzed in my hand.

“Are you getting ano
ther call? I could let you go.”

I looked at the screen. Christie. Dammit. That was an instant mood killer. “No it’s just Christie. I’ll call her later.”

I heard the frustration in her voice. “What is her problem anyway? She just came up to me out of the blue and tried to intimidate me.”

“She gets jealous very easily.” Dammit, my phone buzzed again.

“I take it she’s calling again. That’s cool. Go talk to her. I need to concentrate on the road anyway. Laters, Luke.” She hung up before I could stop her.

With a frustrated
groan, I answered Christie’s call. “Yeah?”

“Oh thank god. I was getting worried. Why haven’t you texted or called me back? Still spending time with your family? If not we can always get together. It is still early.” She whined.

“Yes I’m still with my family. No, I don’t want to hang out. Christie, we need to have a serious talk.”

“Oh god you’re breaking up with me aren’t you? Fuck! I knew it. There is someone else isn’t there? How long have you been sleeping with her?” She shouted.

I don’t know if it was just the emotional rollercoaster of a day I’ve had or because I was finally talking with Roxy that made me do it. I took a deep breath and finally ended my misery. “Yes. There is someone else. I’ve been hooked on her for a while now. She in fact just left my house. I am planning on trying to see her tomorrow after church.”

“What!” She screeched in my ear. I pulled the phone away so I could regain some of my hearing.

“You heard me. There is someone else.” I calmly repeated.

“I think I’m going to be sick.” She blew her nose before demanding, “Who is it? What is that bitch’s name?”

“She’s not a bitch.”

“Yes she is. She took you away from me.” She sobbed.

“No she didn’t. You pushed me away with the incessant whining and bitching, going up to random girls threatening them and then spreading rumors about them if they didn’t listen to you. Plus, we have the constant calling and texting every ten minutes. You smothered me. I got tired of it.” I stared at the framed picture Roxy gave me and smiled. “When I first saw her, she entranced me with those beautiful green eyes. Then I started to talk to her I found out she was funny, intelligent, and sweet. She is everything that you aren’t and I love that.”