Just Her Luck (32 page)

Get back!

"Run! You idiot!" I barked at Barry, who just stood there gaping at me.

Reeve got in another shot.

"Reeve!" I shouted on a growl, one arm wrapped around his neck, legs riding his lean hips, other hand slapping at his head. "You!" I slapped him,
thwack
, "Leave!"
I think I got his face,
"Him!" Reeve finally stopped, but just for good measure,
thwack
, "Alone!"

"Get off of me, you crazy hell cat!" Reeve growled, trying to get a good grip on me.

I bit and slapped at his hands, holding on while he swung around wildly, cursing and cussing me, and alternately Barry, to kingdom come, trying with all his might to get me off.

Barry just kind of slunk to the floor, more or less.

He also might have thrown up. Can't be too sure.

I was a little busy defending his stupid honor at the moment.

"Don't you talk about my cousin like that! You dumb assed, cave man throw back!"

Reeve froze.

"You're what?" he choked out, astonished.

I wasn't done fightin' yet, whether he was or not.

I slapped him again, happy when the sound cracked and echoed throughout the room.

"You heard me, asshole! Keep your god damn hands off my cousin!"

"Genevieve!" Ruthie exclaimed, "Reeve! Barry! What on earth are you all doing?!"

Reeve turned, me in tow, and we both realized at the same time that we had an audience.

Probably had for some time.

We both blanked our expressions as he slowly stood straight up.

I hid my face a little behind his head, using him as my own personal shield from all those eyes.

All
of those eyes.

Oh, god.

I winced inwardly.

How many people saw us?

They must think we’re all crazy people.

I carefully slid off his back, surreptitiously trying to straighten my clothes as I went.

Everyone just kind of watched, more or less.

"We were just, uh..." I mumbled, biting my lip.

"This was all just a..." Reeve tried, waiving his arm around, encompassing the three of us.

The woman and man that were screwing like randy wildebeests in heat must have finished, watching us curiously from the hall, their clothes still rumpled and disheveled as they glanced from one another, sharing a look, then back at us.

Sawyer and Bowen were standing with Ruthie, raising a brow each at us as we tried to babble our way out of this.

What the heck happened to them?
I thought as I eyed Bowen's fat lip and Sawyer's puffed up cheek bone.

Did they get in a fight?

I glanced at Barry, then Reeve.

How am I going to explain this?

I glanced and Reeve again and shrugged.

"He did it. It's
all
his fault." I pointed at Reeve, then walked over to Barry, leaning down like I was going to help him, leaving Reeve red faced to fend for himself.

I put my hand on Barry's shoulder and squeezed.

"You better have a good reason for making her wait, cous’."

His eyes widened as I quietly threatened my beloved cousin, menace clearly lacing my tone.

"Like hell am I taking all the blame for all this!" Reeve finally managed to get out.

Thatcher walked in, eating of course, and grinned.

"What did you do
this time
, Reeve?" Thatcher asked, eyeing us.

"Why the hell is it always
my
fault now? Especially when it has to do with
her?"

His head swung around and he looked at me warningly, telling me not to comment.

I didn't even need to, I just smirked.

Bowen chuckled and Thatcher snorted.

"Because it usually is," Sawyer stated calmly, walking over to Barry, offering him a hand up.

Ephraim walked in, accompanied by two older men.

He saw me and grinned, a sweet happy smile that lit up his whole handsome face, almost bowling Thatcher over in his haste to get over to me.

My eyes widened when he got closer.

He tugged off his cowboy hat and leaned down, wrapping his arms around me and kissing me senseless, making me forget for a millisecond where we were as he kissed me hungrily.

You'd think he hadn't seen me for a week, the way he went all gung ho.

A loud throat clearing had him pulling back.

"Hi, baby," he whispered against my ear.

I smiled and tried to get my hands to unhook from his flannel shirt. I didn't even realize I was practically clawing at him.

Whoops.

I was about to say something back, but Reeve made a rude noise, popping the little bubble I'd been encased in.

"I don't think we need another demonstration," Reeve barked, "do you,
sweet thang?"

My face, if at all possible, would have flushed purple if it could, I was so mortified.

Not only had Ephraim's ‘hello baby’ kiss kind of confirmed I was the phone sex operator that shot across the intercom earlier, but Reeve's callous barb just confirmed it to all in attendance.

"You stupid, sorry son of a..." I ranted, fists balled up at my sides.

Ephraim, way ahead of me, had already turned around and socked Reeve in the jaw, sending his eldest brother flying.

“Holy shit,” I whispered, glancing from brother to brother, my jaw sliding open, lips parting to form a surprised little ‘O’.

Well, I didn’t see that coming.

Reeve tumbled off the top step by the door and fell flat on his ass.

Stunned, he sat there for a moment, just cradling his injured jaw.

Ephraim, eyes full of cold piercing blue ice, stormed over to Reeve, looming over him as he glared down at him.

He stabbed a finger at his brother, pointing warningly

"Don't you ever talk to her like that again!"

His voice was a low hostile rumble, vehement in his displeasure, and his hands were shaking, he was so mad.

It was so quiet in the room you could have heard a pin drop.

"You hit me!" Reeve blurted, looking on at Ephraim in disbelief, eyes wide as he tested his jaw out experimentally, carefully wiggling it from side to side.

Reeve glanced at me, but Ephraim put himself in the way to block his view.

I was a little too busy gaping to do much else.

"And I'll do it again," 'E' promised, jaw set, chin set forward stubbornly.

"Just because you two..." Reeve protested.

"I warned you, Reeve, and I'm done. You even look at my girl funny and I promise you, you'll be drinkin' your next meal through a straw!!"

Reeve snorted and got up, swiping at the blood on his lip.

"What makes you think she's
your
girl, Ephraim?"

"What makes it any of
your
business?" I butt in, hands on hips, standing toe to toe with the smarmy bastard.

Like I'll let him talk to
my
boyfriend like that.

Who the hell does he think he is?

Reeve's face flushed pink and his jaw clenched.

"It's my business, if I make it my business," Reeve intoned arrogantly, getting all lord of the manner, his voice quiet and demanding, authoritative and dominant, but said too low for the other guests to overhear.

"Like hell!" I lowered my voice when I realized how loud it was compared to his.

I poked Reeve in the chest, shoving off Ephraim's hand when he went to pull me back to put himself between us.

"You can't talk to him like that," I defended my man.

"I can talk to him however I want!"

"Not anymore!"

"Like hell!"

"More like
hell yes!"

"What exactly are they fighting about?" Thatcher asked thoughtfully, "I got kinda lost when they started the hell stuff."

"Shut up, Thatcher," Bowen said curtly.

"You shut up. At least I don't put people's sex lives on the intercom," Thatcher snapped.

Bowen's fist flying towards Thatcher, was his reply.

"Hey! Hey! God damn it!" Sawyer shouted, trying to break the two up.

"You're ruining your brother's birthday," I hissed low, ignoring Bowen and Thatcher's impromptu boxing match.

Reeve got in my face, leaning down to glare at me.

Ephraim made an unhappy noise, but I put a hand out to stop him.

I can handle this clown.

"Hey, cous, maybe you should..." Barry started, worried.

"Shut up, Barry," I snapped at him, head swinging towards him long enough to get my point across.

He put his hands up and backed down.

"It was goin' just fine until
you
showed up," Reeve accused.

"No," I argued, "It was going just fine until you beat up my cousin for thinking he was my tattooed fuck buddy!" I growled at him angrily.

"You're what buddy?" Ruthie blurted, then burst out laughing.

"When are we gonna eat the cake?" Thatcher cut in, glaring at Bowen, arms crossed over his chest, standing beside the man that had just pulled Bowen off of him.

"Is that all you ever think about?" this was from Ephraim.

"No..." Thatcher said thoughtfully, he looked at me, then Ephraim, then Bowen.

He grinned.

"Nope... now I have a
lot
to think about. A
whole
lot..."

I caught on to that last part and took my shoe off, throwing it at Thatcher's head.

"Ow, shit!" Thatcher cried, gripping his forehead.

The dark haired man with the blonde woman chuckled and grinned.

"Serves you right!" I yelled.

"I was only teasin', honey lamb," Thatcher pouted, rubbing his supposed boo boo, "You didn't have to chuck a shoe at me!"

"You deserved it!"

"For listening to you go to town on Ephraim?" he huffed incredulously.

I shrieked in outrage and partly in embarrassment, but my boys were on top of it.

Thatcher knew he'd gone too far, eyes going wide when two menacing growls rent the air, Bowen flying towards him at the same time as Ephraim.

"Why?" Reeve taunted, "It isn't his fault he heard you to... Fuck! Vieve!"

I took off my other shoe and started beating Reeve with it.

"Let go, you stupid bastard! Not the face!" Thatcher growled, oblivious to my shoe fight with Reeve, kicking his leg out to trip Bowen, dodging Ephraim's fists.

"It wouldn't make any difference," Bowen grumbled, gut checking Thatch, "You couldn't possibly get any uglier and she obviously doesn't like stupid blondes. What's wrong, Thatcher? Can't handle the fact that she might not want you?"

Thatcher bellowed in rage, about to charge his brother, but the two men I'd seen with Ephraim earlier helped Sawyer break them up.

Reeve yanked my shoe out of my hand, and I fell back on my butt.

He pointed it at me.

"This," he said, pointing it at his brothers fighting and then back at me, "Is all your fault. None of this would have happened if you weren't here. You're like poison-
you've spoiled everything.
I can't even go home and relax, because you're there! I can’t go hang out with my brothers and just watch a movie, you're there. You have them panting and fighting over you, does it make you happy? Are you happy
now
, Genevieve?"

I didn't let him know how hard his words hit me, slamming my chest like a ton of bricks, opting for stubborn indifference instead.

I clamped my teeth, grinding them, unable to argue with him.

Sadly, in my mind he had a point, sort of.

In a way, he was right.

They
were
fighting over
me
. They wouldn't be if I had never been here. I'd never seen them really fight like this before either, so that just made things worse all the more.

Am I ruining their friendship as brothers?

Causing problems for them?

"Well?" he demanded.

I didn't say anything, fighting with myself on the inside, waging an internal battle, wondering if I really am causing irreparable damage to his family.

I can't do that to them.

What kind of person would that make me?

They're all so close.

I glanced over at Bowen, Ephraim and Thatcher, all sitting on the couch in the living room.

A pang of guilt hit me.