“She acts like we can’t hear how often she uses her vibrator.”
“I know, right? It’s about time she gets the real thing.”
“I mean, we’re both having sex more than her.”
Oh fuck. “Your mom home yet?” he just about shouted.
Both froze, tilted their heads and listened.
“Ooo. I think she is. I hear Uncle Rick and he sounds pissed,” Josie said.
Fuck.
Maddie nudged her. “Let’s go save Mom and grab the crutches so we can move Shade into her room.”
“It ain’t—” he started one more time.
They were gone.
Thank fuck.
Chelle could deal with her girls. Once she was done dealing with her brother.
He told her it wasn’t a good idea for him to stay with her. The last twenty minutes proved it.
Once he talked to Chelle, he would have his brothers come get him.
Chapter Twenty
Shade’s brothers did not come get him. Of course, Chelle wouldn’t hear of it.
Instead, after Chelle got rid of Rick, Maddie brought up her crutches, adjusted them to his height and all three Goodsons moved his ass right into the master bedroom and into Chelle’s bed.
He stopped saying, “It ain’t like that,” when Chelle came into the spare bedroom before the girls did and told him about the conversation she had with them.
The whole time she was getting him up to speed, he wondered if they also told her about how they were having more sex than their mother. Shade wasn’t fucking bringing it up, but maybe she should know.
But, for fuck’s sake, that wasn’t his business. Just like it wasn’t his business on how she dealt with her brother, who slammed the front door hard enough when he left that the windows rattled.
Yep, that wasn’t his fucking business, either, and if she wanted to tell Shade about it, that would be up to her.
Though, he really wanted to punch that motherfucker in the face for disrespecting his sister by slamming her front door and storming out. Especially with the girls in the house.
Not that Shade was going to complain about being moved, but he was happy to see Chelle’s bedroom was the shit. As in good shit. It was large with a high ceiling and a huge master bathroom he’d be able to move around in easier on crutches. Her bed was huge, too, compared to the one in the spare bedroom. That kind of sucked since he couldn’t fuck her in it right away. He’d put that on a to-do list along with all the ways he was going to do her in that big bed.
She had loads of over-stuffed pillows which she propped behind his head and under his leg, along with a decent-sized TV on the wall with all the streaming apps. The room even had French doors leading out to a tiny balcony over-looking the backyard.
She announced it was her favorite room in the house and he could see why. With the way she had it decorated he knew instantly she’d done it herself. He didn’t know shit about decorations or color palettes, or even furniture, but the second he hobbled into the room, he felt like she’d wrapped her arms around him.
He didn’t think he’d ever want to leave it. Especially after she brought him up dinner on a tray and sat with him while he ate.
He tried to concentrate on the food, but it was difficult with her sitting next to him, looking as hot as fuck as she did in a pair of snug yoga pants and a sweatshirt which fell off one shoulder. It sucked not being able to mess up her hair and put a flush in her face like always happened after fucking her at The Grove Inn.
“You okay with this?” he asked around a bite of chicken stuffed with ham and cheese. It was fucking awesome. In the weeks he’d known her, she hadn’t made one bad meal. The woman could satisfy him in both the kitchen and in the bedroom.
“If I wasn’t, I wouldn’t have moved you in here.”
“Figured you didn’t want your girls to know.” He forked the last green bean into his mouth.
“I didn’t, but...”
He swallowed and stabbed another piece of chicken. “But they’re fuckin’ smart and figured it out.”
“Apparently, I raised spies.”
Shade grinned and scooped up a forkful of the best mashed potatoes he’d ever eaten. “They like that their mother’s gettin’ dick.”
“Not just any dick. Your dick.”
“Even better.”
“They actually high-fived me downstairs and had the gall to tell me I won’t have to buy so many batteries anymore.” The corners of her lips twitched.
Shade tried not to snort mashed potatoes through his nose. “Hopefully, they didn’t share that ‘til after your brother left.”
Chelle sighed and scrubbed a hand over her eyes. “I’ll work on Rick.”
“Why? He don’t have to like it. He don’t have to like me, either.”
She bugged her eyes at him just like Maddie had earlier. “He’s my brother.”
“So?”
Her mouth dropped open. “So? So, I rely on him.”
“For what? Your girls are practically grown.”
“He’s still family and he cares.”
“While that’s fuckin’ great, he shouldn’t be gettin’ involved with who you wanna fuck.”
She opened her mouth, snapped it shut and, after a few more seconds, finally said, “He worries about me and the girls.”
“Stop makin’ excuses for him, Chelle.”
“If it wasn’t for him...” She glanced away.
He put the tray aside now that his stomach was full and grabbed her hand, pulling it into his lap. “If it wasn’t for him, what?”
She closed her eyes and whispered, “He was my glue.”
Her glue. There was only one reason to need glue. “Why were you broken?”
When she didn’t answer, he studied her profile.
Yeah, it was still painful. It was why she didn’t talk about her husband. It made him think the man didn’t die that long ago. That it was still fresh.
Though, the girls didn’t act like it. It seemed strange that they would take the loss of their father a lot easier than Chelle would take the loss of the man she had those children with.
He whispered, “Tell me about him,” giving her fingers a squeeze.
Her head snapped back to him and she frowned. “Who?”
He took his time and formed his next words carefully. “The man in the picture on your mantel. The man who slid a ring on your finger. The man whose children you carried inside you. The man you loved. The man who ended up breakin’ you so your brother needed to be the glue that kept you together.”
“He didn’t mean to break me.” She closed her eyes and he actually felt her pain in his own chest. He only wished he could take all that pain from her instead of her feeling it, too.
“Never mind, Chelle, don’t gotta tell me.”
Her eyes opened and he could see the shine in them. He didn’t want to cause her to cry. Not now, not ever.
If just thinking about him hurt her this badly, talking about him would only be worse. Which is why she never mentioned him.
“I think I need to explain because then you might understand why Rick is so,” she sighed, “Rick. Why he’s so protective. Why we ended up here, in Manning Grove.”