Page 15 of Adam

Midge gives her a look that says she's familiar with Boone's exaggerated ways and then returns her gaze to me. "Well, we're glad to have you. Anything you need while you're here, you just let me know."

"By the way," Midge adds as Boone heads for one of the two commercial grade refrigerators and yanks open the door, "there's a fresh batch of strawberry freezer jam in there and it'll go nice with the biscuits over on the counter." She nods in that direction. "In case you hadn't noticed them."

Whether Boone had noticed or not, I don't know, but the smell had gotten my attention as soon as we entered the room, though I am too polite to ask for one. But if it's being offered, I won't say no.

Boone grabs the jam and biscuits. "There's coffee right there," she says over her shoulder and nods to a Starbucks-worthy coffee station along the wall. "You know how I like mine."

I hustle over and fix two cups for us and follow along behind. I'm afraid I'll get lost in this giant house if she gets too far ahead of me.

I'm eager to tell Kit about my naughty encounter at the hotel, but it's not the sort of thing I want to chat about in front of Midge, so I'm glad Boone's leading us to another room.

Trailing behind her like a puppy, I try to take in the details of the house but she's walking fast. Her legs are much longer than mine and Boone tends to move at warp speed anyway.

We end up in a plant filled solarium-type breakfast nook. Again, I try not to gape, but I'm rather shocked to learn my friend whom I'd assumed was living in a dinky farmhouse filled with straw and animal aromas is actually a resident of the most opulent home I've ever seen.

We get set up at a table and Boone slathers jam on a biscuit and hands it to me.

"Now," she says, "tell me everything."

CHAPTER FIVE

ADAM

"Tell me everything," Caleb says, leaning forward with a glint in his eye. "It's been so long since I've gotten laid, I need to live vicariously through you. Well, you and Deacon. And mostly Deac."

I groan inwardly. Deacon, the fourth remaining member of our family, is a bit of a problem child. Not that Boone and Caleb don't present their own issues too, but ever since the car accident when we lost my parents and brother, he's been on a downhill slide. At first it was too much alcohol and late nights and fast cars. He even broke up with Lissy, and I know he’d planned to marry her. I feel like I failed him in letting it get so bad, but in those first months after our world flipped upside down, we were all shell-shocked and just trying to get through each day. Each hour. Once I got myself together a little bit, I did what I could to help the others. Boone went off to college about as far as she could get from the rest of us, and she seems to have done okay, though I'm glad she's home for good now.

Caleb went quiet. And Deacon. Well, I guess you'd say he got loud. Loud cars, loud music, and loud women.

But it's been a while since he's been on a bender and things are looking up. I can see hints of the old Deac resurfacing.

As though he knows I’m thinking of him, Deacon comes wandering into the billiards room.

"Welcome home," he says and even gives me a smile before he heads for the fridge and brings out a bottle of water and joins us. "Barely noon and you two are drinking. That's a switch."

He raises his bottle in a toast. "Tell us how things went in Ponderosa Pass."

"He got laid!" Caleb practically crows. "Adam picked up a girl."

Deacon leans back in his seat and crosses his arms over his broad chest. "Well, whaddaya know. I believe I'd like to hear about that."

"Me too."

The two of them are getting too damn much pleasure out of all of this.

But not as much pleasure as I got with my little kitten. I still didn't know her name. I guess I never will.

"It's not the sort of thing a gentleman talks about," I say.

"Bullshit," Deacon says, opening his water.

"He's making it up. Nothing happened."

"Nah, look at his shoulders. They're where they're supposed to be instead of covering his ears like they usually do." Deacon gestures toward me with his bottle of water like it’s a pointer.

"You two are the ones who make my shoulders hunch up."

"Well, looks like someone else helped you take care of the stress. I don't need to know the details, but I'm guessing it was quite a night since you haven't balled your hand up in a fist yet and that tends to happen pretty quick once Caleb and I start pulling your chain."

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