Page 117 of The Rowdy Ones

“Forever?”

“And then some.”

“Sit,” Aunt Eve snaps at me. “There.”

Destiny giggles until Aunt Eve smacks at her ass, telling her to help finish up dinner in the kitchen. Aunt Eve returns with a beer for me.

“Thanks,” I say as I take it. “But I can help. Destiny should rest.”

“Destiny didn’t get stabbed,” Aunt Eve growls. “She’ll be fine.”

I don’t exactly hate that Aunt Eve babies me now. It drives Wild insane. Who’s the momma’s boy now? I grin at her and she glowers back. She loves me.

“Meadow, get the oil,” she barks out to one of the twins. “Hurry.”

Meadow scurries off and then returns with a jar of homemade oil. Aunt Eve takes it from her. She jabs a finger at the floor.

“Take your shirt off and let me deal with this,” she grumbles. “Now, Rowdy!”

Bossy as fuck.

Uncle Atticus chuckles from the kitchen. Asshole.

I do as I’m told, only wincing once. As if she knows exactly what muscle is giving me trouble, Aunt Eve attacks that area first with her small but insanely strong hands. We spend the next twenty minutes with her kneading and beating on me while I grunt and whimper. Great times in the Knox house.

Finally, dinner is done and I’m spared any more torture. Once my shirt is back on, Aunt Eve hands me a couple of ibuprofen tablets. Then, like every day since that awful day, she hugs me quickly. I don’t ever get a chance to hug her back because she retreats that fast.

I hate that she still wrestles with the guilt. I’ve told her over and over again I understand how she got confused, panicked, and then attacked. I forgive her. Still, I know she suffers mentally because of it.

“Love you too, Aunt Eve,” I say to her back.

She hisses over her shoulder like a pissed off cat. This amuses Uncle Atticus to no end. I saunter over to him and elbow his gut to shut him up.

“When’s Wild getting here—”

My words are cut off when he bursts through the front door. I haven’t seen him since he joined the police academy. The fucker has been too busy learning how to imprison me for incest.

When he sees me, he yanks me to him for a bear hug. I’m pretty sure he’s been working out more because he nearly crushes me. Soon, I’m going to need to get my ass back to the gym so I can keep up.

Dinner is crazy with this crowd, but I love it. It makes me miss my own family back on the homestead. Me and Dez are planning a trip soon to go see them. Mom is going to lose her shit when she feels the baby move for the first time.

Afterward, me and Wild sneak off to hang out for a bit. We end up sitting in a couple of lawn chairs outside of the RV. He brings me another beer, though it’ll need to be my last if I plan on driving back home tonight.

“He hates when I talk about it,” Wild grumbles as he flips the cap off his beer. “Did you see his face?”

“Your dad?”

He flings the beer cap at me. “Yes, moron. Who else? Forest?”

“Fuck off.”

“When I started talking about it, he changed the subject to football. Fucking football, man. Unbelievable.”

“He’s kind of obsessed with that shit. I don’t think it was meant to be a front against you.”

His eyes dart over to the cabin and he takes a long pull from his beer. “I’m a failure in his eyes.” Then he cuts his gaze over to me. “You fuck your sister and your family has a damn parade for you. Why can’t my dad be proud of me for once?”

I know he’s not actually resentful that my dad is more supportive of me and my siblings, but he’s trying to make a point and I respect that.