Page 99 of Ugly Duckling
But I wanted to.
I loved him, too.
I got to see Parker, Parker’s wife Kayla, and their two children.
They were the sweetest family ever, and it was more than apparent that they loved Gunner and Lottie like they were a part of their own immediate family.
We’d talked a lot over waffles and bacon, and when they were finally leaving, I was sad to see them go.
But I didn’t have long to be sad because not long after we shut the door on Parker, it opened right back up again to allow Apollo to come walking through like he owned the place.
“I fucking hate DC,” he declared as he came rushing into the kitchen that Lottie, Gunner and I were in. “Give me 635 traffic all day long.” He looked around the room. “Are there any more waffles?”
I pulled one out of the plastic bag I was about to zip up and placed it on a plate before popping it into the microwave.
As I did this, Gunner slid the syrup across to him as he said, “Might as well keep those others out. Webber and Hush are on their way over.”
Hush was Jasper Madden, and the one man in the Truth Tellers that I could say I knew the least.
He was quiet—hence the name “Hush”—and barely spoke even when he was spoken to.
He was very intriguing to me, though.
It was always the quiet ones that surprised you the most.
The door to the house opened and closed again, and then Hush was there.
Lottie, who was busy rearranging the letter magnets on the fridge, looked up and squealed. “Jazzy!”
Hush winked at Lottie. “Hey there, Beanie Weenie.”
“Why do y’all all call her Beanie Weenie?” I asked the room at large.
And why did I just pick up the nickname and roll with it?
“She loves ’em,” Apollo said. “Eats them straight out of the can.”
“Gross,” I mumbled. “How did y’all figure that out?”
“When she was a baby, Audric had dropped her off with us at the clubhouse because he had an emergency job he needed to take at work. She was hungry, and the only baby-appropriate items we had were Beanie Weenies. She loved them, and the rest is history,” Hush murmured.
That was the most I’d heard that man talk ever.
I was impressed.
He had a raspy, deep and strangely melodic voice.
I idly wondered if he could sing.
Based on the timbre of his voice, I bet he could.
“So what brings you here?” Gunner asked as he put the rest of the waffles onto a plate and warmed them up.
Apollo took the first waffle and smothered it in syrup while he started talking.
“Looked into the wreck last night like you asked me to,” he explained. “Aleah was driving.”
I groaned. “Of course she was.”
