Page 4 of Seven Year Itch
“Point taken,” I mumble and take a long, pouting drink of my beer.
Judy walks away, and Luke jacks me in the ribs with his elbow. “What the fuck are you thinking?”
“What?” I ask, shoving him in the shoulder.
“We don’t date local. You know our pact.”
“Our pact.” I point an accusatory finger at Wyatt. “This one pretty much ruined our pact.”
Wyatt grunts and sips his beer, refusing to dignify my accusation with a response.
“The pact was that we choose mountain life over traditional lives,” I remind him even though I know he knows this. “We didn’t even do our annual Dark Night tradition last year because of you.”
Wyatt’s eyes sharpen. “Do you have something to say to me, Calder?”
“Maybe I do,” I reply, pressing my elbows to the table. “But first, do you want to tell me why you’ve been fucking with my dating apps?”
Wyatt’s face twists in confusion.
“I know it was one of you,” I growl and turn a menacing glare to Luke. “Every time I try to change them back, one of you jumps in and just fucks them up even more. Just tell me which one of you did it, and save me the effort of pounding both of your faces in.”
“I don’t even know what the fuck you’re talking about,” Luke replies, scratching his beard.
I open my fucked-up Tinder profile and show it to the two of them. They stare at it long and hard before throwing their heads back to laugh.
“That is epic,” Luke exclaims with a whack on my back. “Whoever wrote that is fucking hilarious.”
“It wasn’t you?” I ask with a frown. “That means it was...” I stare at Wyatt who shakes his head, making it very clear that it wasn’t him either.
“Then, it has to be Everly.” My teeth clench before I take another swig of my beer. The student truly surpassed the teacher. I’d be proud of her if her evilness wasn’t directed at me. “Damn that kid. Isn’t she supposed to be busy at college and shit?”
“She must think you’re desperate.” Luke laughs, and I see that twinkle in his eye that he gets anytime he talks about Everly.
We all get that twinkle, even when she’s being a pain in our ass. She’s the kid our oldest brother, Max, had when he was still in college, so we were all barely teenagers when she was born. In an instant, she became the apple of our eyes and turned us from boys to men.
Now she’s all grown-up and off to college in a foreign country and still managing to stir up trouble from across the pond.
Atta girl, Evie.
And her brother Ethan is going to be ten times worse. He’s eight and recently got in trouble for taking his bicycle to Walmart without permission. Little fucker wanted Pokémon cards and his mom, Cozy, said no, so he just took his bike and pedaled his ass there all by himself. Didn’t even have enough money at the cash register to buy what he wanted, but a sweet old lady in line spotted him the difference. He was halfway back home with his stash before Cozy and Max even realized he’d left. He had to cross a major highway twice on his journey!
I was equal parts horrified and impressed.
Once upon a time, I thought Max’s kids were going to be the only little ones in our lives. Me, Luke, and Wyatt all vowed to stay single and live off the mountain after Robyn fucked with all of our hearts.
Now Wyatt’s messed everything up.
“We didn’t do our Dark Night last year because you wanted us to go to a sex club.” Wyatt’s deep voice reverberates in my ears. “It was a fucked-up suggestion for many reasons, but our pact still stands. Brotherhood, family, and mountain life over all else. Trista and Stevie don’t change that. They’ve just been added to the pact. Unless you have a problem with my fiancée and daughter being a part of our family?”
“You know I love Stevie,” I snap, my hand tightening around my beer. “And your wife gave me Milkshake...” My voice catchesin my throat as I think of my little fuzzball waiting for me back home. “You know I love her for that.”
“Then, what the hell are you whining about?” Luke asks, losing patience with me.
“I need a fucking date for this wedding trip. You’re bringing the lumber chick. What do you call her? Roe?”
“That’s just a nickname. Her name is Addison,” Luke corrects smugly, naming the girl he locked in weeks ago.
She’s the daughter at the company we buy most of our building materials through. I’m tempted to give Luke thedon’t shit where you eatspeech because if he fucks with our lumber supply, we’re going to have big business problems that we don’t need. But I don’t have the energy to tell my younger brother what an idiot he is. I’m too depressed.
