“Riley,” I whispered, my heart sinking. Oh, God, no. It couldn’t be. I started toward him, dropping the hose. “Are you okay?”
He shook his head and when he glanced up at us, I could see the tears in his eyes.
“What’s the matter?” Jayden yelled in his overly loud voice, sounding terrified. I don’t imagine he’d ever seen his brother cry, except maybe at their mother’s funeral.
But Easton knew what it was. He bent over and picked up the Slip ’N Slide and threw it at the garage yelling, “No! No, they can’t fucking make me go! I won’t! I’ll run away, I’ll go to Canada! I’m not leaving!”
He kicked the hose, the dirt, the picnic table, and it snapped Riley out of his paralysis.
Riley start yelling back, “Hey, hey, calm down!” He went over to his brother and grabbed him by both arms.
Easton punched and kicked at him. I bit my lip, no clue what to do. I reached out for Jayden’s hand, needing to get and give comfort.
Riley pinned him against his own chest, getting his leg between Easton’s to prevent him from kicking, yanking his hands down to his sides. “Hey! It’s okay, stop! No one is taking you away from me. Not now. Not ever. The judge gave me full custody of you.”
The breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding escaped my mouth with an audible whoosh. I squeezed Jayden, feeling relief so huge I felt woozy.
“What?” Easton stopped struggling, and Riley loosened his grip on him. He turned around and looked up at his brother. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, I have custody of you. Legally, I’m your guardian and you’re not going anywhere.” He grinned at Easton and rubbed the top of his head. “What do you think of that?”
Easton had tears on his face and he wiped them, sniffling. His voice was shaky. “Oh. Okay. Cool.”
Then Jayden said, “Oh my God, why did you look like that? You scared the shit out of us!”
My thoughts exactly.
“Sorry. I swallowed my gum and I was choking.”
That was the biggest lie I’d ever heard. He didn’t even chew gum. But he obviously didn’t want them to know he’d gotten emotional.
“Well, that’s awesome news!” I said. “We should go out to eat when Tyler gets home and celebrate.”
“That’s a great idea, Jess,” he said, shooting me a grateful look. “So what do we have going on here?” He bent over and inspected the hose. “Huh.”
“It’s going to work,” Easton told him, yanking it out of Riley’s hand and dragging him toward the faucet. His confidence touched me.
“I’m sure it will,” Riley said, helping him screw it onto the faucet. He nudged his brother and gave him a grin. “Dude, Canada? What the hell was that? But I have to admit, it was kind of awesome.”
Easton shrugged. “I don’t know. It sounds far away. And I figured if I got there, you would come and get me, no matter what the stupid judge says.”
That made my throat close up.
Riley held his fist out for him, and they did a bump. “You bet your ass I would. You’re my brother. We stick together. No matter what.”
It was a sentiment that made me love him even more than I already did, and I hadn’t thought that was possible.
Then he finished blowing up the slide while I screwed the other end of the hose into the plastic liner for the slide.
“Turn it on,” Riley told Jayden.
The water shot up, only I didn’t realize there was a sprinkler feature at the end, right where Easton and I were standing. It got us both and I jerked with a shriek. “That’s cold!”
Jayden and Riley thought it was downright hilarious. “Isn’t that the point?” Riley asked.
I stuck my tongue out at him.
While Easton and Jayden stripped off their shirts and started their inaugural slides, yelling the whole time, Riley and I sat down on the picnic table. He lit a cigarette and I didn’t complain, knowing he probably needed something to calm him down in the aftermath of the hearing.
“So what was that about?” I murmured, reaching for his free hand. “You seriously scared the piss out of me.”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. I was so relieved, so excited to get home and tell you all, and then I came around the corner and I saw this . . . I saw this perfect little fucked-up world we have going on here.” He took a drag. “I mean, what could be better than the girl I love hanging with the brothers I’d do anything for? I felt so damn lucky that it just overwhelmed me. This could have gone so much different.”
“I understand.” I did. “And I bet that somewhere up there in heaven, where there’s no heroin, your mom is watching and she’s proud of you and happy.”
He pursed his lips and rested his chin in his palm, smoke drifting over his face, his eyes dark and serious and luminous. “Yeah. You’re right. And thanks for understanding that I don’t wish her dead. I never have.”
“I know.”
“I hit her once,” he said quietly. “She was waling on me, using an unopened beer to just clock me in the head over and over, and I was trying to push her off, and I nailed her right in the face without meaning to. I feel so guilty for that.”
And that was why I loved him. One accidental contact on a woman who had abused him for years, and he felt guilt. “She forgives you, just like you forgive her. Her life was a painful struggle but look at what she left behind . . . you and the boys are a beautiful legacy.”
He smiled. “And you’re beautiful.” Leaning forward, he gave me a quick kiss. “Do you know that I need you? I don’t just want you, I need you.”
My heart squeezed. “I feel the same way,” I murmured. “I feel like with you, I finally know who I am.”
For a second, we just stared at each other, the words settling in, the future mapping out.
He gently kissed me again, then gave me a grin. “Why don’t you go and jump on that slide? I really wouldn’t mind seeing you in a wet bikini.”
“Perv.” Not that I minded in the slightest. We were inching ever closer to total completion of our relationship (read: sex) and all this extended exploration and anticipation had given us an intimacy that I hadn’t even known I was capable of. If he wanted me soaking wet, well, I could totally manage that.
When Tyler got home, he fist bumped all his brothers with a big grin, having gotten the text from Riley. “Hell, yeah,” was his opinion. He rubbed Easton’s head. “I’m going to get you the next Harry Potter book with my next paycheck.”
I was lying on the picnic table getting some sun and I rolled onto my side. Riley was sitting on the bench behind me, his hand lazily stroking my thigh below my shorts.
“Cool!” Easton was a little high on life, running around the yard, soaking wet and clearly relieved. “Riley says we’re going out for burgers and milkshakes!”
“I know. You guys go and change and by the time you’re ready Rory should be here.”
“Rory’s coming?” Easton started doing some sort of jump and spin thing.
“Yep. She figured today is an important day, man, she wants to be here for dinner.”
“Excellent,” I said, genuinely pleased. I missed her and I had a lot to catch her up on. “I won’t be the only chick for a change. Having all these sexy guys around me is starting to spoil me.”
Riley made a rude sound. “If that’s a hint, sell it somewhere else, because I ain’t buying.”
“I am,” Jayden said.
That made me laugh so hard I’m sure my breasts gave him enough jiggle to fuel more than one fantasy.
After an awesome and rowdy dinner at the burger joint we came back to the house, laughing and talking. I hooked my arm through Rory’s as the guys dropped down in the living room on various surfaces. “Come on, I want to talk to you privately.”
“Where are you going?” Riley asked.
“Our room. Rory and I want to do girl things.” I meant paint our nails and gossip.
But he raised his eyebrows and said, “If you two are going to make out, can I watch?”
“Riley!”
“Dude,” Tyler said to his brother. “Seriously?”