Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 87367 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 437(@200wpm)___ 349(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87367 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 437(@200wpm)___ 349(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
He turned, looking between me and the guy in his arms, whom he released. “Oh…um…this isn’t what it looks like?”
“You have a boyfriend?” asked the guy he was making out with before huffing and storming off.
“Boyfriend? What?” Dwain was clearly disoriented, and by the smell on his breath, I knew it was from more than the tongue-swap with the guy who’d just ditched him.
“What in the hell are you guys doing here?” I asked.
Dwain’s expression shifted from disoriented to angry in an instant, the veins in his neck pushing forward. “I knew you and Walker were up to no good. I could see it on your faces when you were heading out. Then Lee and I got in the SUV and followed you to the Mitchell place.”
“You followed us?”
“Of course we followed you. Headed a little farther down the road past the Mitchell place and watched to see what mischief you were up to. I knew you guys were lying when Walker said you were frog gigging. When was the last time either of you even had frog legs for dinner? You think I’m an idiot? Don’t answer that.”
“Well, you asked.”
“No. I mean…oh fuck…” His gaze trailed off as his face flushed. “I’m gonna be sick.”
Lee grabbed Dwain and pulled him toward the restroom.
I turned to Cohen to find that Walker and Isaac had come over to see what all the fuss was about.
“The hell?” Cohen said.
“We were fucking followed,” I explained.
“I think you guys might need to be studied for the supposed gay gene,” Isaac noted, which would have been much funnier if I wasn’t still seething from discovering that Dwain and Lee had followed us.
Goddammit.
After some fussing and discussion, we all agreed it was best to call it a night. Walker, Isaac, Cohen, and I had Ubered from the Mitchell house, and on account of Dwain having commandeered Big Daddy’s six-seater SUV, and Lee not having anything to drink, Lee acted as DD while we lugged a moaning, sickly Dwain back to Buckridge.
Walker and I flanked him on either side in the middle seat, ready to call for Lee to stop the car if he needed to throw up again, as he’d done three times back at the bar.
“Running around behind our backs, making out with a Mitchell. Don’t think I won’t tell Big Daddy.”
“Yeah, you ready to tell Big Daddy about your little boyfriend tonight too?” Walker asked.
“Shut your damn mouth, traitor.”
Despite our “betrayal” against the family, I knew Walker was right, and that, considering what Dwain had been up to, it wasn’t likely he’d expose us, since he’d have to give up the reason he knew what I was doing to begin with.
“Hey,” Isaac called from the front of the car, turning back to Walker. “Does this one talk?”
Through the rearview mirror, I saw Lee open his mouth to speak when Dwain interjected, “Of course he talks!”
Lee pressed his lips together, which I knew he was perfectly happy to do anyway.
An amused chuckle came from Cohen in the back seat. Damn, he was really getting one hell of a crash course in O’Ralley family dynamics.
“Oh, here I go again…” Dwain leaned toward Walker, who scrambled to open the window.
“We shouldn’t have put him in the middle,” Isaac warned belatedly.
After that we had to rethink our strategy and stop a few times for Dwain, but we finally managed to get back to the Mitchell house.
It took most of us to get Dwain through the front door, but he had a bit of a fit, drunkenly thrashing about before falling to the floor.
Isaac pitched in to help him back on his feet. “Jesus, there are four of us. How can it be this hard?”
“Easier than tipping a cow,” Walker said.
Isaac’s jaw dropped. “I’m pretending that’s a metaphor for something else.”
Walker and I eyed one another, chuckling.
“He’s a traity-traitor,” Dwain told Lee as he and I helped him onto the sofa. “I can’t believe we’re in the enemy’s house.”
“We’re only here,” Walker began, “because you’re rambling like a buffoon and we can’t risk you blabbing everyone’s secrets, including your own, bro.”
Dwain growled before making a familiar sound that prompted me to warn, “Don’t you dare throw up on me.”
He looked to me, an indignant expression on his face. “You touch me, you get thrown up on!”
I was certain that made sense in his drunk brain, but considering I already had my arm around him, I couldn’t make heads or tails of it.
As he landed back on the sofa, he muttered, “That guy said I’m a bear…a sexy bear? What the hell? Bears aren’t sexy, are they?”
“Oh, they can be,” Isaac assured him, all smiles.
Dwain’s eyes just barely opened as he looked at Isaac. “Howdy, I’m Dwain.” He reached for Isaac, but Walker slapped his hand. “I think you’ve touched enough boys for the night.”