Elite (Eagle Elite #1)(40)

****

Lunch felt weird. Mainly because I could tell Chase and Tex felt awkward not having Phoenix there. I’d found out from Monroe that the guys had all been friends since the first grade. This was the one and only time any of them have fought, and clearly, it hadn’t ended well.

Nixon, was late to show up. I played with the food Monroe ordered me and pushed at my temples. A headache was coming on, I just knew it.

My phone went off.

Curious I picked it up. “Grandpa?”

“Sweet pea!” His voice was a bit hoarse. “How is your day?”

“Fine.” I mouthed Grandpa to Monroe, stood up, and walked a few feet away from the table. “Are you okay? Has something happened? Are the cows out?”

“Oh, I’m fine, I just miss you. Which was why I was calling. Do you think you would mind seeing your old man tomorrow night? Grandma's life insurance company needs a signature, and well, you know how I get with doing things over the phone and faxing, so I was going to fly into the city and take care of business.”

“Life insurance, shouldn’t that have been taken care of a while ago?” I asked.

Grandpa coughed. “Yes, well, I wanted to add you to the plan as well. I’m going to kill two birds with one stone.” He chuckled.

I didn’t.

Something was off.

“Grandpa, are you sure you’re okay? You never go into the city and aren’t there some branches in Cheyenne?”

“Listen, I gotta go do the milking. Tomorrow night at seven, okay?”

“Sure, um, yeah—”

The phone line went dead. He didn’t even say he loved me. My stomach clenched. Grandpa wasn’t the type to just up and fly somewhere. Shoot, he wasn’t even the type to take out insurance on anyone.

Dread pooled in my stomach, nauseated I didn’t really want to go back to the lunch table and answer tons of questions about Grandpa.

I bit my lip and sighed.

“Everything alright?” Nixon whispered from behind me. How he was always able to sneak up on me I’ll never know.

For some reason I felt like blurting out my feelings to him, go figure. The one person I should probably steer clear from and I just wanted a hug.

“Grandpa’s acting weird,” I mumbled.

Nixon tensed. “What did he say?”

“Something about Grandma’s life insurance and stuff. I don’t know, shouldn’t he have taken care of that months ago?”

Nixon shrugged. “Who knows, Trace? Sometimes it takes a while to get death certificates and stuff, you just never know.”

I nodded. “He’s, um, he’s flying into Chicago tomorrow.”

“When?” A muscle flinched in his jaw.

“I don’t know. He said he’d see me at seven.”

“Shit,” Nixon mumbled.

“Huh? Why is that bad? He’s my grandpa. He’s—”

“—I know, I just…” Nixon grinned. “I had plans. I wanted to take you out.”

“Well, you can take me out tonight.”

Holy crap did I just say that?

“Did you just ask me out?” He grinned.

“Uhh…”

“Intelligent as well as beautiful. Whatever am I going to do with you?” His thumb rubbed my lower lip. “Fine, Trace, I’ll go out with you. How about six, tonight? Sound good?”

“No, no, not good, wait—”

Apparently I didn’t get a vote. He sauntered off like he just won an Olympic gold while I returned to the table with a stunned expression on my face.

“Sorry.” Chase poured me some water. “Nixon can be a little…”

“A lot.” I nodded. “He can be a lot. A lot of the times.”

Chase threw his head back and laughed. “Yes, yes he can.”

Monroe threw a napkin at his face, or at least tried to. “Hey, watch it. He may be the devil, but he’s my brother.”

“I’m right here,” Nixon said, sounding irritated.

“So, he’s my cousin which gives me familial rights.”

“What?” I shrieked.

All eyes turned to me. Chase shrugged. “I thought you knew?”

“What, through mind reading?” I threw my hands up in the air. “Unbelievable, are all of you related?”

“Oh God, I hope not.” Tex winked at Monroe. Overshare.

“Nixon said you met my dad.” Chase took a swig of water.

“Anthony?” I looked really closely at Chase, it made sense now. Why he and Nixon were so close, and why they had similar features. Chase had dark hair and a muscular build, but nowhere near what Nixon had. He was also missing the lip ring and the all-around wicked glint in his eyes.

Chase cleared his throat. “Uh, could you not stare like that? I’m not as used to it as Nixon.”

“What do you mean you’re not as used to it?”

Chase shrugged. “Simple, I’m not the man-whore of the group. Women don’t gawk at me as much when he’s around. I mean, come on. Look at him. He’s trouble, with a capital T.”

Nixon rolled his eyes. “If you weren’t my cousin I’d think you were hitting on me.”

“If I wasn’t your cousin I just might.”