Page 17 of The Triple Threat

I was probably overreacting about Bronte’s crush on Jefferson, but I knew her, and she was likely to do something real stupid that would have a devastating effect on all our families.

If for any reason she managed to persuade Jefferson into her bed, there would be no way that all our parents would be able to remain friends. It would cause a huge split in their little group, a group in which most of whom, bar my mom, had been friends since high school; a group who had helped Jefferson through the hardest time in his life.

Mine and Bronte’s dad had stayed with Jefferson for two days while he cried and drank bourbon after Sondra’s passing: they’d been his rocks. Sondra had also been Mom’s closest friend and had been from the minute she’d moved to Dayton Valley to marry Jefferson at twenty years of age. Mom hadn’t been here long either, plus they were a similar age. They became firm friends, welcoming Darcy when she started to date Jim a year later. My mom still to this day, cried for her lost friend. They were a real close group; we’d even been on camping trips together when we were kids. To think that Bronte’s need to bed Jefferson might ruin all of that was totally unacceptable. I had to stop her.

I would have had more faith in Jefferson to keep her at arm’s length if he wasn’t such a dog with the ladies, but he seemed to be on a one-man crusade to bed as many women as breaths he took; evidently where Hunter got it from.

The thought of Hunter made me growl. Mom threw me a look.

“What the hell’s wrong, baby?” she asked as she put a huge plate of chicken parmesan in the middle of the table. “That face you’re pulling is ugly enough to crack a looking glass.”

“Gee, thanks, Mom,” I muttered, picking up my cell and considered calling Hunter, again.

“You know what I mean. Stop splitting hairs with me. So, you going to tell me?”

I looked up at her and pursed my lips as I thought about it. If I told Mom I knew she would help me, and it did look like Hunter was going to be any use at all. I opened my mouth to say something when Dad came into the dining room holding a bottle of wine.

“Hmm, smells good.” He slid an arm around Mom’s waist and kissed the side of her head. “Thanks, sweetheart.”

“Can you go call your brother please, baby.” Mom smiled warmly at Dad, her interrogation forgotten as he took his seat at the head of the table and made goo-goo eyes at her.

They were in a damn romantic mood today and that could be even more annoying than their bickering mood or their horny mood. Romantic mood saw them smiling dreamily, giving little kisses and holding hands at any opportunity. At least the horny mood usually saw them disappear to their room for a few hours which meant I didn’t have to witness their weirdness.

Glad of a few seconds of respite from the smoochy noises as Mom moved behind Dad to wrap her arms around his waist, I went to the bottom of the stairs and shouted for Carter. He had come over for Thursday night dinner and had been taking a call in his old room for the last ten minutes.

“Carter,” I yelled for a second time when he didn’t appear straight away. “Dinner.”

“Okay, okay,” he complained as he emerged from his room. “I’m coming.” He started to descend the stairs as he pocketed his cell.

“Who was that?” I wondered if it was Hunter and he’d actually started with our plan.

“No one you know,” he said as he jumped the last two stairs and ruffled my hair. “A friend.”

His grin was lazy and there was a definite gleam in his eye, which could only mean one thing, it was a girl.

Shit.

I hung back and pulled out my own cell and fired off a quick text to Hunter.

Me: Stop ignoring me you douche. We have a plan to put in place and Carter has just called a girl, so we don’t have much time. It’s Ellie btw.

I looked at the screen for a few seconds to check whether the dancing dots appeared, but there was nothing – Hunter was still ignoring me.

“Ellie, baby,” Mom called. “Dinner is getting cold.”

“Coming.” I glanced at my cell once more and when I was sure Hunter wasn’t going to answer I put it back into the pocket of my sweats and joined my family for dinner.

* * *

“Really, Ellie,” Carter groaned. “Could you not have just stayed home with Mom and Dad?”

Carter had actually taken a call from Hunter over dinner asking if he wanted to meet at Stars & Stripes for a beer. I’d seen it as an opportunity. An opportunity to see Hunter and ream his ass out for ignoring me, and then to get him to start the damn plan. What the plan was, I had no idea, but I’d think of something. In the meantime, he could start by bigging up my friend to my brother at any chance he got.

“I have a late shift tomorrow and I feel like a beer. Plus, you did see that Mom had her hands down Dad’s pants while he was washing the dishes, didn’t you?”

Carter shuddered. “Ugh, they’re fucking forty-eight, they need to stop all of that shit, it’s gross. What is it with all the old folks around here? They’re a bunch of horn dogs.”

“I know, although it is quite sweet that they still find each other hot.” I looked out of the window and smiled as I thought about our parents, knowing that they’d probably be making the most of their alone time. I knew I should have left home by now, but apart from the fact I was too lazy to look for and move into an apartment, I loved my Mom’s cooking too much. Also, I hated being on my own and Bronte had made it pretty clear she wasn’t leaving her pink princess bedroom until the right man came along. Getting her as a roommate wasn’t going to happen.