Page 70 of Lord Have Mercy Part Four: Big Son

I’m a good swimmer, Remy thought, and he was. His heart was still running rabbit-fast from fear and adrenaline after his near-miss with the gator.

But he was a good swimmer.

And Fallon, he’d just learned, was much more afraid of gators than he was.

Twenty

They slept late. Later than they should have, Ava thought, the moment her eyes snapped open and she realized the sun was already bright and warm through the windows. She lay on her back, hips twisted to the side, toward Mercy, arms over her head and feet flexed at an odd angle. Her back felt like she’d fallen down a flight of stairs, and she couldn’t even blame it on pregnancy weight, because she wasn’t showing yet.

Beside her on the spread-open sleeping bag – it was far too hot to sleep with it zipped shut – Mercy snorted, face mashed into his pillow.

Ava turned her head to survey the other sleeping bags. Hers and Mercy’s was laid up on the bed, which was saggier and more painful than she remembered from their honeymoon. Maggie had elected to take the couch, and she was still curled up on her side there, draped with a moth-eaten blanket from the trunk at the foot of the bed. Toly, she saw with faint amusement, slept like a kid, starfished out in his underwear on top of his sleeping bag, long hair caught in his mouth. Devin had his hands folded over his chest like a corpse prepared for a funeral, and only the faint whistling of his nose gave proof of life.

The other sleeping bags were empty.

Slowly, careful not to wake Mercy, and her back flaring in teeth-gritting protest, she turned over, and slowly swung her legs over the side of the bed. She’d slept in her clothes, so she stepped into her unlaced boots, and retied her hair as she tiptoed across the floorboards and then let herself out on the porch.

There was a rickety wood bench on the ground just in front of the rail, and that was where Colin and Alex sat, drinking out of blue stoneware mugs. Reese, Tenny, and Gray were sparring.

Poor Gray was taking on both of them at once – but holding his own. She suspected Reese was going easy on his brother, but Tenny was relentless, insulting and instructing in the same breath.

“…you have to put your hand up here – no, idiot, like this–”

Alex sat nearest her, and turned his head at the sound of her boots on the steps. “Morning.”

“Morning.”

He offered his mug, and she accepted with a murmured thanks. Only to jolt when pink grapefruit juice swept across her tongue instead of the expected coffee.

“You’re not supposed to have coffee anyway,” he said, hint of a smile in his voice.

She flipped him the bird and handed the mug back.

His grin was tired, lazy, a white crescent against his sun-darkened face, and soMercyin that moment that she blinked in surprise before turning back to the action.

Gray dodged a strike from Tenny, but turned in time for Reese’s strike to pull short just shy of chopping him in the jugular.

Tenny made an unhappy sound, and said, “You’re pulling your punches.” After a beat, Ava realized he was talking to Reese.

Who pulled his hand back, straightened, and said, in a too-innocent voice, “Do you want me to actually hurt him?”

“I want you to challenge him,” Tenny shot back hotly, and ran at Gray while he was distracted.

“No fair,” Ava called.

“Life’s not fair,” Tenny said.

Gray’s eyes bugged, but then, to everyone but Tenny’s delight, he gathered himself and turned a backward fall into a backhand spring, and landed lightly on the grass several body lengths away.

Colin gave a two-note, impressed whistle.

Alex clapped.

Tenny shot them two fingers before swiping a hand through his hair and turning back to Gray. “You got lucky that time, just because you–”

Alex leaned in closer and said, “Jesus, he’s like this all the time, isn’t he?”

“More or less. It’s worse with Gray. He has your classic deep-seated inferiority complex that he overcompensates forwith a lot of…” She gestured to him, the way he was still ranting at Gray, hands waving around. “That.” She dropped her voice to a whisper. “I think he’s afraid Reese will decide a brother’s just as good as a husband and dump his ass.”

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