But it was Mrs. Crusie who said, “I’ve never seen my son so comfortable with a woman before in my life. And saying that, I’ve seen him with a lot of them. But you, my girl? You’re special. I’ve never in my life seen him act the way he’s acted with you over the last hour. Not once.”
I felt my insides warm.
“I think it’s the pain meds,” I hedged, not wanting to think too much into what I was feeling.
Because thinking led to thoughts of ‘what was to come’ and I didn’t know what was to come for us.
Croft was an enigma to me. A beautiful trophy to look at, but never to touch.
And he might’ve given me the time of day today, but I wasn’t kidding myself. Just because we had sex didn’t mean that he would be there forever and ever.
It meant for now.
Which sucked because the more time I spent with him, the more I realized that he did mean the world to me.
That he was special.
That… I loved him.
Shit.
“I ordered pizza,” Mrs. Crusie interrupted my thoughts. “I hope that you like pepperoni, because that’s all anyone in this family likes. The weirdos.”
I snickered. “I actually like just about anything on mine. Though, admittedly, meat lover’s is my favorite.”
“Oh, thank God.” Ezra groaned. “I thought I was going to be stuck eating pepperoni pizza for the rest of my life. With you here, we can share a large now and I won’t feel bad.”
I grinned. “Next time.”
He winked.
“My kids and husband are weird,” Mrs. Crusie continued. “But I’ve gotten to the point where I just go along with it, because it would take me a week to get through a pizza on my own. And I guess Ezra just wasn’t enough of a reason to get the good stuff.”
I snickered at Ezra’s look. “I resent that.”
“So tell me about your cruise?” I suggested. “I heard that there were some storms.”
Ezra wrinkled his nose as Raleigh started to laugh.
“Storms are an understatement,” she said. “There was a tropical depression that turned into that hurricane that barreled down the coast. The ship was rocking so bad that at one point we almost went vertical. Did you know that everything in a ship is nailed down besides food, drinks, and whatever the passengers bring on board? You want to know why? So they don’t fucking die.”
“Language,” Mrs. Crusie admonished her daughter.
“I almost died. If that’s not worth a fuck, I don’t know what is,” Raleigh countered.
“It was pretty bad,” Mr. Crusie admitted. “There was one point on that last day that I seriously thought that I might not make it home. The worst part was knowing that my grandson was on board with me. That was fucking awful.”
They were silent for a few long moments, and I thought about my own parents.
With them both being dead for a while now, I only had Flint to think about. But just the thought of Flint and Camryn being on a ship that might sink made me feel somewhat sick myself.
The doorbell rang, saving us from any more talk about death and almost death.
Ezra got up to get the door and came back with four pizza boxes.
He set them out on the table between all my chairs, and I felt for the first time that my living room furniture was being put to use.
It made me feel good to have everyone here.
Flint and Camryn, when they made it over, just didn’t completely fill the room like the Crusies were doing.
Pizza was passed out, and a slice was handed to me from Raleigh.
I took a bite and moaned.
“Oh, man,” I groaned as I ate. “I haven’t had anything this good in a while.”
Pizza was a no-no when you owned a CrossFit gym.
At least, according to Flint it was.
I tried to set a good example, but when I was in the privacy of my own home, sometimes that didn’t happen.
Ezra chuckled. “It’s been a while for me, too. Though these last few days I’ve eaten more than I have in the last few months.”
“I heard that cruise ships will do that to you,” I admitted, taking another bite.
A pepperoni slid off and landed directly on Croft’s forehead.
He blinked his eyes open and stared at me.
“What is that?” he asked, his eyes crossing trying to see what was on his forehead.
I snickered. “A pepperoni.”
I leaned forward and sucked it up into my mouth, causing him to groan. “Nice.”
He slowly sat up, and when I say slowly, I mean like an old man slowly.
He wiped the grease off of his forehead with his good hand and then reached forward for a piece of pizza with the other.
He stopped midway and changed hands.
“I can’t believe that you were shot,” Raleigh mumbled around a bite of pizza. “Have you heard anything more on who might’ve done it?”
We were both shaking our heads before she could even finish.
“Nope,” I grumbled. “We just know that the man that broke into my place—or tried to—and his shooter are one and the same.”
Everyone stopped eating.
“Someone broke into your house?” Raleigh gasped, leaning forward, pizza all but forgotten.
I nodded. “Well, kind of. Yes? They stole my laptop and were gone before Croft could make it over here.”
“Wow.” Raleigh shook her head. “And when did that happen?”
“The night before I was shot,” Croft answered as he brought the pizza to his lips and took a hefty bite. “The only thing anyone knows is that the shooter ran toward a motorcycle and took off. That could be anybody. I know of four people that ride motorcycles in this neighborhood.”
I winced.
He was right.
“Alfie does, too,” I confirmed.
Croft looked at me. “The nerd.”
I rolled my eyes. “Very original.”
Croft smirked before taking another bite of pizza.
“You know,” Raleigh said. “Croft was a nerd when he was younger, too. He was also in the band. He wasn’t nearly as cute as he is now.”
“Raleigh…” Croft warned her.
Raleigh ignored him, though.
Instead, she focused on me.
“He also didn’t kiss a girl until he was a sophomore in college,” Raleigh continued, looking at me with a sinister smile on her face. “He used to be known as…”
Croft hit her in the face with a piece of pizza.
The pizza slid all the way down to her lap. Her face covered in sauce, she looked freakin’ hilarious.
My mouth opened as I turned and looked at Croft. Croft who was calmly reaching for another piece of pizza as if he hadn’t thrown the last one at his sister.
“You did not just do that,” Raleigh squeaked, picking up the pizza she’d been hit with and taking a vicious bite.
“Children,” Ezra started.
“Gavin was my mediator,” Mrs. Crusie sighed. “These two always fought like cats and dogs. Gavin was the one that got along with them both, and then made them like each other as long as he was around. It’s always been like this. And, just sayin’, but Raleigh was the one to give Croft that awful nickname, so I can see why he doesn’t want it mentioned. It practically ruined Croft’s senior year of high school.”