Chapter Seven
“I thought only high school kids did this shit.”
Adam unhooked the last black tube and tossed it into the back of his truck. “They do. But I get the feeling Grant is trying to recapture his glory days.” And maybe Jules, too.
Quinn snorted. “The more I hear about this guy, the more he sounds like a winner.” He looked around. “Where’s Daniel?”
“He’s busy.” Or, more likely, he didn’t want to see his cousin and Adam putting on a show for a guy he hated. Adam was sorry he felt that way, but he’d seen the look on Jules’s face when he walked into her shop today. Grant got under her skin in a bad way, and watching the light in her eyes dim had grated on Adam something fierce. There was enough bad shit in this world without that asshat making her feel like she was lacking.
Adam wasn’t exactly a white knight, though. He was taking advantage of her with these “lessons.”
Which made him no better than Grant, in the end.
Adam looked at his hands. He had calluses across his palms from rope burns, and there was the scar on his right ring finger where he’d broken it in a truly impressive way after being thrown from a bull with the name of Satan’s Revenge. He’d only managed four seconds that ride, but it had been more than worth it.
What he wouldn’t give to take it back and know he’d been by his mama’s side when she found out about the cancer instead.
“You okay?”
He blinked. “What?”
Quinn looked distinctly uncomfortable to be shucking aside the joking demeanor he preferred. “I don’t know, man. You just seem kind of lost since you got back into town. Is it your mom? I know she’s sick—”
“She’s fine.” He wasn’t ready to admit that she wouldn’t even talk about the cancer with him. Not now, not like this. There would come a time when he’d have to sit her down and force it out of her, but he sure as fuck wasn’t ready for it yet. Really, he should thank Jules. When they were together, he was able to forget his fear that one day he’d wake up and his mama would be gone for good.
He realized he’d spoken too sharply and sighed. “Look, it’s complicated and I’m not handling it well.”
“No shit.” Quinn hesitated. “If you need anything—anything at all—I’m here. You know that, right?”
“Yeah.”
“And Daniel is, too, even if he’s got his own shit he’s dealing with.” He held up a hand before Adam could ask. “It’s the same old, same old. He was never the same after John died and Hope left. The man has one foot in the grave, and it’s by choice.”
The car crash affected them all. Everything changed after that night, and little of it for the better. Adam wished there was something he could do for Daniel, but the truth was that he had more than enough shit to deal with on his own. Fuck. He swiped a beer from the cooler in the back of the truck and opened it. “What a trio we make.”
“Speak for yourself. I’m the normal one.”
Quinn was as normal as he could be after having walked away from his oil tycoon of a father—and his family’s fortune—to be a cattle rancher. Adam shook his head. “Whatever you have to tell yourself to sleep at night.”
“Like a baby.” Quinn closed the tailgate. “So is that mean little redhead coming?”
“Don’t know. She doesn’t seem like the type to be into this sort of thing.”
“You mean she’s like a vampire who’ll burn up in the sun and probably feasts on the blood of innocents? I totally agree.”
Adam snorted. “You enjoy pushing her buttons.”
“More than I should.” He laughed. “I can’t help it. It’s too easy to get a rise out of her.”
“Get your ass in the truck or we’re going to be late.”
Ten minutes later they pulled up in front of Jules’s shop. He stopped the truck and froze when Jules and Aubry stepped through the door and onto the sidewalk. “Holy fucking shit.”
“You can say that again.”
“Shut up.” He couldn’t take his eyes off Jules. She wore a pair of cutoff shorts that might’ve been the same ones from the other night, but this time, there were ties peeking out the top on either side of her hips. It was like seeing the tip of a present he was dying to unwrap. Adam’s cock jumped to attention as his gaze coasted up her stomach to the tiny black triangle bikini covering her breasts. There was nothing overtly revealing about the cut of the suit, but it had him fighting not to kick Quinn out of the truck and drive her off to somewhere they wouldn’t be interrupted so he could explore those scraps of cloth at length.