Hold (Gentry Boys, #5)(26)

Stone stiffened. “Yeah,” he muttered, kicking at some loose chunks of concrete. “My father.”

I wasn’t sure exactly when Elijah Gentry had died. He’d been well on his way for years, the victim of some terrible degenerative disease that took a long time to deliver its final sentence. Everything I knew of him indicated he was a mild-mannered man. And kind, or at least not violent. Somewhere in the hazy annals of history I seemed to recall that I’d seen Elijah with his young sons and been jealous of the tender way he rested one hand on each of their thin shoulders.

Even though it had been at least a few years maybe the hurt was still fresh. Maybe that was the reason why Stone grimaced at the ground.

Or maybe it was something else, like the rusty rumor mill regarding their mother, Tracy Gentry, and my Uncle Chrome. The boys were definitely Gentry, but there might be a genetic debate about which Gentry had done the honors. At least that’s what I’d heard.

I opened up the door to the truck. “Come on,” I said in a halfway gentle tone. “Should get you boys home. School tomorrow, right?”

Stone lost his grim look and became cheerful. “Nope. It’s summer.”

“Right,” I nodded. “I forgot.”

Chase put a hand on the kid’s shoulder. “Come on. We’ll get you home anyway.”

Stone yawned. “Fine. And yeah, I’m over on Citrus Road.” He tossed the remnants of his food in the trash and called to his brother. “Let’s go, loverboy.”

Conway and the girl paused in their tongue fest and stared soulfully into each other’s eyes. Slowly she allowed her legs to fall from his waist and stood beside him as they quietly grasped hands. He whispered something in her ear and she tossed her cloud of light brown hair, giggling. As he nudged her in our direction she shyly hung onto his arm and watched us with soft brown eyes.

“This is my girlfriend,” Conway said proudly. “This is Erin. Babe, these guys are my cousins. They’re the ones who bailed us out tonight. The dude with all the tattoos is Cord. That’s Chase on the far side of the truck. And the big guy is Creed.”

We all waved in turn.

“Nice to meet you, Erin,” Chase said. “You go to Emblem High too?”

Erin tucked her hair behind her ear. Then untucked it. She seemed like the kind of girl who spent half the day doing nervous things with her hair to pass the time.

“Yes,” she said.

“You going to be a senior too?”

She nodded, relaxing a little. “Yeah. I live next door to Con.”

“Been together for two years,” Conway said and I could tell he was as proud of the fact as he was crazy about the girl beside him. He wasn’t a bad kid. Any teenage boy who had already learned how to love would probably end up being okay, as long as he stopped taking shit that wasn’t his.

Erin tipped her head up to smile at her boyfriend and the two of them shared a gooey-eyed look. I knew that look. It was a ‘You’re my world’ kind of a look. The only woman who’d ever looked at me that way was my wife.

“I think I can convince Conway to head up to ASU with me,” Erin said shyly.

“That’s good news,” Cord told them. “I run a tattoo place close to the school so you’d have family close by, Conway.”

“Got to get my grades up a little,” Conway admitted. “But I think I can do it.”

“Of course you can,” Chase agreed with enthusiasm.

“Maybe I’ll come up there too,” piped up Stone. He’d crossed his arms in front of his chest and pasted an earnest look on his face that I could see right through. He thought it was all a big cosmic joke. College, life, love, all of it.

Apparently this Erin girl saw through her boyfriend’s brother as well. She scowled.

“Yeah, right,” she scoffed. “ASU requires better than a D average and a legend of delinquency.”

“Why Erin,” answered Stone, holding a hand up over his heart in a gesture of offense, “I thought we’d finally learned to get along.”

Erin was more of a spitfire than she first appeared. She dropped Conway’s arm and set her hands on her hips, glaring at Stone.

“We’d get along much better if you’d quit dragging Con into your bullshit.”

“What?” Stone sputtered. “What the hell are you talking about? I don’t drag Con into jack shit, sweetheart. Your golden boy can manage his own life, no matter how much time you waste trying to convince him otherwise.”

“Hey,” Con interrupted. He shot his brother a harsh look. “Knock it off, Stone. You don’t mean it.”

“I don’t mean it,” Stone echoed although I wasn’t at all sure what he meant. He obviously had a few personality issues to work out.

“Okay, that’s enough tension,” Chase scolded. “Everyone in the truck, including you, Erin. Since you just live next door to the guys, we’ll drop you off.”

He climbed into the back cab and shut the door, ending any argument anyone might have.

Stone rolled his eyes and hopped in the other side. Cord opened his candy bar and headed to the passenger seat. The happy couple opted to sit in the back bed, Con lifting Erin gently up even though she was probably capable of getting in there herself.

It was a quick drive over to The Hills. When we parked in front of a simple ranch-style house, Stone opened the door. I thought he was going to take off without saying a word but he suddenly leaned back into the seat and sighed.