Second Chance Summer(14)

Kenna gave him a pointed look that said, Ask Gray.

Behind her, Gray circled his finger around his ear—the universal sign for crazy.

Jesus. “I’m not playing kindergarten teacher today,” Aidan told them both. “Someone’s going to have to use their words.”

Gray stuffed three pieces of salami into his mouth all at once, and then let out a groan. “Oh, my God—this is the real deal, fully loaded with all the fat and everything. Damn, I almost forgot what I’ve been missing …” More groans and moans.

Aidan shook his head. “You sound like you’re starring in a Red Tube video.”

“That’s because this salami’s almost as good as sex,” Gray said, and the moment the words escaped he whipped around, clearly making sure Penny hadn’t shown up and overheard him comparing their sex life to salami.

Kenna shook her head. “You’re so whipped.” She tugged free from Aidan. “Okay, I’m out.”

“What’s the rush?” Aidan asked. Gray wasn’t the only one worried about her.

She sighed. “I’m not in the mood for another fight.”

Aidan slid a look in Gray’s direction. His brother’s jaw was doing that tightening thing it did when he was pissed and trying to control himself. “Seriously,” he said to them both. “What’s going on?”

“I’m tired,” Kenna said. “I just want to go to bed, but Gray here thinks I’m acting like an old lady and should hit the town.”

After her self-destruction last year she’d turned herself into a hermit. They’d been trying to work on that with her, but the truth was, they just wanted to fix her and she didn’t appear to be in all that big of a hurry to be fixed. “I could give you a ride,” he said casually. “Want to go get a drink?”

“Hell no,” she said. “The last time we had a drink, you tried to give me the sex talk.”

“No, I tried to tell you not all men think with their—”

“Stop!” she said on a rare laugh, covering her ears. “The first time was bad enough.”

“How about if I take you up to Mt. Hennessy?” he suggested.

There’d been a time when she’d loved to go four-wheeling up to Mt. Hennessy with him. The faster they’d gone, the louder she’d laughed in sheer delight. At the top, they’d sit on the edge, their feet hanging over the crevice a thousand feet below and they’d just … be. In a rare moment of openness, she’d once told him that had been her favorite thing to do next to strapping on her board and taking any double X diamond run on Cedar Ridge.

But now she just shrugged her indifference.

“Come on,” he coaxed. “I’ll even yell into the crevice and maybe nearly get arrested by Hud again. Just for you.”

Kenna smiled a little at the memory of Aidan taking her up there last year. They’d taken turns yelling themselves hoarse into the canyons, laughing at the echoes. They’d been so loud that someone had called the cops on them, saying someone was screaming bloody murder. Hudson had responded to the call and been pissed to find two of his siblings screwing around.

“Good times,” he said, nudging her shoulder with his.

Her smile vanished, and she sighed. “Maybe another time.” She met his gaze. “You look pretty done in, A.”

Aidan felt Gray take a second, longer look at him as well. “I’m fine,” he said.

“You’re not,” Kenna said, laughing a little. “You’re as screwed up as I am and we all know it.” She patted his cheek like he was the baby sister. “You do know you don’t always have to take care of me, right? You can work on taking care of yourself.”

With Gray still looking at him like a bug on a slide, Aidan tugged lightly on Kenna’s ponytail and bent a little to look right into her eyes so that she really heard him. “I know I don’t have to take care of you. I want to.”

She sighed again, and he prepared for her to roll her eyes, but then she surprised him and walked into his arms. She even let him hold her tight for a beat before pulling free.

She wasn’t back on the touch train yet either.

And then she was gone.

“Shit,” Gray said, staring at the door. “She’s not getting any better.”

“Yeah, but she’s not getting worse,” Aidan said. He took heart in that.

The front door opened again, but it wasn’t Kenna coming back. It was Hudson. He was in uniform, holding half a bagel and a to-go cup of coffee.

Gray gave him a brows-up glance.

Hudson ground his teeth.

“Yes or no?” Gray demanded. “You play, you pay.”

“Shit,” Hudson said, and looking pained, he kicked off his shoes, shoved the bagel into his mouth, and still holding his coffee, he untucked his shirt. He was leanly muscled, emphasis on the lean. Without the shirt tucked in, his pants sagged down on his hips, revealing a strip of pink satin beneath.

Women’s panties.

Gray grinned.

Hudson shook his head. He’d had to wear the women’s panties or lose a bet. The Kincaid brothers had a long-running joke that had started out with a tie Gray had gotten as a gag gift. It’d had penises on it. Gray loved to have it delivered to either Hud or Aidan, and the rule was that the recipient had to be seen wearing it before he could deliver it to one of the others.