Risk (Gentry Boys #2)(41)

“It’ll fade,” I said quietly. “They always do.”

He glanced up at me. He seemed sad. I remembered the strange look he’d given me in the stadium after I caught him completing some furtive deal. The Gentry boys were all more complicated than they seemed.

Chase clenched his fist and stared darkly at the table. “You have scars, Truly?”

I hesitated. “Only one.”

He smiled faintly. “Show me.”

“Hell no. Finish your breakfast.”

Creed walked into the kitchen. He was dressed, smelled strongly of soap and looked so damn hot my knees buckled. He scowled when he saw Chase sitting there in his underwear but apparently decided it wasn’t worth hollering about.

Chase stretched and grinned as Creed sidled next to me.

“Truly can cook,” Chase said cheerfully. “You should keep her.”

I blushed and looked quickly at Creed. He had a funny look on his face.

“I’ll try,” he said softly and then nodded to Chase. “Don’t you have class or something?”

“No. I have no class. And neither do you. Are you guys going somewhere now?”

“I don’t know.” I nudged Creed. “Are we?”

“We could take a drive to the mountains,” said Chase.

Creed hissed and glared at him. “Who the hell invited you?”

“Truly did.”

I raised my eyebrows. “I did?”

“Sure. Didn’t anyone explain to you how extraordinarily intelligent I am? I picked up on your sensory cues.”

Creed crossed his arms. “You’re not coming, dipshit.”

Chase was a chronic joker. Anyone could see that. But I thought his face fell a little when his brother growled at him.

“Go get dressed,” I told Chase. “We’ll let you know what the plan is.”

“Ha!” Chase clapped his hands together and pushed his finger in Creed’s face before darting down the hall.

Creed was looking at me in disbelief.

“I can’t help it,” I shrugged. “Rejecting him would be like stepping on a puppy.”

“That’s the problem,” Creed sighed. “No one can refuse that guy anything.”

“Does it really bother you if he comes along?”

“No. You didn’t have to invite him. It was nice.”

I hugged him around the waist. Creed seemed surprised but smiled and put his arm around me. I pushed my face into his chest and inhaled the musky, clean scent of him. He felt so goddamn good. I wanted to stay there forever.

Creed rubbed the back of my neck and let out a contented sigh. “Hey? You still want to hear me sing?”

I smiled into his shoulder. “If you want to sing for me, I’ll listen.”

“Tonight,” he said softly. “I promise.”

Chase was showered and ready within ten minutes.

“So what did we decide?”

“Nothing yet.”

Chase snapped his fingers. “We should go see the fountain.”

“Aw hell,” Creed groaned. “Not another one of your nutty field trips.”

I was curious. “What fountain, Chase?”

“The Fountain Hills fountain. It used to be the tallest one in the world. Guiness Book shit. It shoots up over three hundred feet in the air, operates every hour on the hour and can be seen for miles around.”

“Jesus,” grumbled Creed. “Did you memorize the entire Wikipedia entry?”

“Yes and quit rolling your f*cking eyes, Creedence. Come on, it’s less than an hour away and it’ll be fun.”

“I’d like to see it,” I said.

“You know,” complained Creed. “You’ve already got Saylor wrapped around your little finger and now you’re trying to get in good with my girl too.”

My girl.

Is that what I was? I looked at Creed but he was busy being irritated with his brother. It might have been nothing. An expression, a slip of the tongue.

Creed nudged me on the way out the door. “Okay if I drive?”

I nudged him back. “I thought you always did the driving.”

“Are we being secretly vulgar?” asked Chase as he climbed into the backseat. “Don’t hold back on my account.”

Chase was something of a chatterbox. On the drive to Fountain Hills he told a lot of jokes, most of which were in poor taste. Several times Creed twisted around and yelled at him to shut the f*ck up. I enjoyed watching them together. I also wondered how much louder and more boisterous things became when Cord, their missing link, was added to the mix.

“What’s wrong?” Creed asked me when I’d been quiet for a while.

“Nothing.” I tried to smile. I took his hand and Chase made obnoxious kissing sounds from the backseat. Seeing the boys together had made me think about my sisters, about the easy camaraderie I’d once taken for granted.

“Do you have a girlfriend, Chase?” I asked as a way to change the subject.

“No,” he laughed. “You want to make a recommendation?”

“There’s the park,” pointed Creed, “so where the hell is this epic fountain?”

“You don’t listen, Creedence. That’s one of your many shortcomings. I told you it operates every hour on the hour. It’s half past the hour right now.”