Need Us (16 page)

Maggie is a very heavy sleeper, so she doesn’t even flinch. “Mom, give me a minute,” I whisper. No need to get Ashley involved in this conversation. She’d only make it worse or some shit.

Mom nods and leaves the room. I quietly pull my clothes on and head out of the room, closing the door behind me. I pat the picture of Trey, my mom’s long dead boyfriend; it’s actually a ritual I have. I feel like he’ll bring me good luck, considering he’s the first guy to win over my mom.

I find her sitting in the kitchen with a sad look on her face. In fact she’s got tears running down her face. I sigh and sit across from her on the bar. “I know it’s a big deal, but I don’t think it’s worth crying over.”

She reaches across the space and puts her hand on top of mine. “I just wasn’t ready, baby. I wasn’t ready to see you like that, not that I would ever be, but I should have expected it. I thought I saw her car down the road.”

“You expected to find us like that one day?” I ask confused. That’s a pretty big expectation.

She nods and wipes away some more tears. “You two, you’ve always had it. Even when you were both tiny, it was there. It wasn’t always sexual, at least, I fucking hope not.”

I raise an eyebrow and cross my arms over my chest, leaving my mom’s hand to fall to the bar top. “What have we always had?”

She gets up off the bar stool and crosses over to look out the window over the sink. “This connection. I don’t know what started it. But even when both of you were little, you’d follow each other around. And as you got older, you’d always be looking for her and she’d be looking for you. It honestly scared me quite a bit.”

I think about what she says and I find she has a point. It has always been there. I think that’s why I always knew where Mari was going to be. I had to hide it from Mari because she’d either make fun of me or get jealous.

Wait…

“Is that why Mari and Maggie hate each other?” I feel like all the blood has drained from my face. I can’t be the reason for that. I just can’t be. That’s ridiculous.

Mom looks at me over her shoulder and gives me a smile. “Among other things. But yes, I think that’s the reason it all started. They didn’t, and don’t, know how to share you.”

That just seems like so much wasted time. The two of them have a lot in common, I hate that they can’t be friends because of me. “Are you going to tell Dad?” I ask. My dad is a big guy and he scares me. I don’t think he’d actually hurt me, but since Maggie is his best friend’s little girl and his son took her virginity; I might be looking for the fight of my life.

“Nope. You two are. You two are going to sit down and tell your fathers together. You two need to stop hiding behind closed doors and come out in the open. Relationships are no fun when they’re secrets.” She leaves the sink finally and comes around to my side of the bar. She wraps her arms around me and puts her nose in my hair. I have to smile at that. She says she has to get a big whiff of me or she might forget what I smell like before I’ll let her hug me again. “I’m not so sure either of your fathers will understand but I’ll be there and so will Aunt Paisley. We’ll set them straight.”

I nod and leave the kitchen after I let mom hug me again. I know I’m eighteen years old but sometimes you just need to hug your mom. Maggie is still asleep when I get back to my room. I lay down softly next to her and just stare at her. And I know, I know that I’ve always loved her. I was just scared. Scared of our parents, scared of what Mari would think. But mostly I was scared because I shouldn’t have felt so strongly for this girl when I was so young. I wanted to live my life, you know? Not spend it with one girl, but even I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t ever be with anyone else. I feel it down to my bones.

Maggie shifts seconds before her eyes open. The blue-green orbs look at me and while she doesn’t smile, her eyes do. And that’s when I blurt it out like a fucking girl. “I love you, Maggie.”

She sits up so fast I’m worried she’ll get whiplash. I sit up myself and just stare at her while she stares at me, both in silence.

Then she does something she’s never done before. She leans into me and puts her head on my shoulder. “I’ve been waiting for you to figure that out.”

I grin and look down at her. “You have, have you?”

She nods and gives me a little smile back. “I knew it a few weeks ago. Mari was bitching at me for something; I probably stole something and couldn’t find it to return it. But that doesn’t matter.” She laughs against me and I vow to always find a way to make her laugh, because it’s such a magical sound. “Then you walk by and somehow I just know. You looked at me and smiled. Not your wicked grin, but a real smile like you were happy to see me. Then you grabbed my hand when Mari wasn’t looking and I just knew. It’s taken me a lot not to just blurt it out.”

I raise a brow. “Maybe you should have. I hate that I had my head shoved so far up my ass.”

She rises in front of me and cups my face. “You would have ran in the other direction. I know you though, I knew you’d come around soon enough.”

“I guess we can thank my mom.” I raise my hands up and wrap them around her wrists. “She walked in while you were asleep. She’s making us tell our dads.”

“You don’t have anything to worry about.” She laughs at my confused expression. “A long time ago, Daddy told me you were the only boy he’d trust me with. I don’t think he was talking about the sex thing but you get the point.”

“Oh so this should be fun? Are you serious right now? They are both going to kill me,” I tell her as she drops her hands from my face and moves off the bed.

She makes sure she’s looking in my eyes while she pulls her jeans back on. “I love you, Maximus. I have my entire life. He’ll get over any hang-ups he has real fast. I have the man wrapped around my finger and I have since the day I was born.”

I love to hear the story about how the four of us were born. You see our three sets of parents were pregnant at the same time. Mom went during the baby shower that was being thrown for all three pregnancies. Aunt Rach went during Channing and Paisley’s wedding. And Paisley went during their honeymoon.

I get off the bed and lean in and kiss her softly. “God I hope that’s fucking true.”

Mari

My parents seriously gross me out. I swear every time I walk into this house they are making out somewhere. It’s a wonder Max and I don’t have three hundred brothers and sisters. But I guess you can control that kind of thing if you try hard enough. They just can’t seem to control their hormones. They are middle aged and have two eighteen-year-old kids. You’d think they’d stop kissing and touching once they hear a door open or close.

I put my hands on my hips and clear my throat. Daddy finally looks up at me and grins like the idiot he is. “Mari, baby. When did you get home?”

I roll my eyes. “Like ten minutes ago. I’ve been clearing my throat the whole time.”

Mom giggles and moves away from my dad. He sticks his tongue out at me and leaves the room. Mom’s stirring a huge pot and I nearly groan. When she’s cooking in that pot that means the entire family is coming over for dinner. “Max and Maggie finally came out of the closet didn’t they?” I sneer and finally drop my purse on the counter. The damn thing is heavy.

Mom’s mouth pops open and she looks at me funny. “You knew? And you didn’t tell me?” She has a point really. I’ve known pretty much since it happened. And I do tell Mom everything. Only this was Max’s secret. And we made a pact when we were little.

Always tell the truth. Never spill a secret.

Now, Max isn’t lying because I’ve never directly asked him about Maggie. I’ve always hounded Maggie about it. I should really stop being so mean to her. She’s going to be my sister-in-law one day just you wait and see. I just don’t like having to share my brother. And ever since he started screwing her, I’ve been left out more. Though that’s a part of growing up.

“Who’s all coming?” I ask, directing her attention somewhere else. I love both my parents with all my heart but I’m not talking about Max’s sex life. I don’t even want to think about Max’s sex life.

Mom purses her lips at me but I just smile and sit down at the bar. “Pierce, Rachel, Seth, Channing, Paisley, Ashley and Damien. I’m sure Rachel will call Asher and he’ll show up. Hopefully he’ll bring BeeBee and the baby. I haven’t seen him in a few weeks.”

With Ash and Damien coming I should probably run upstairs and change. They might bring someone with them, like they usually do. Oh what am I saying? I know he’ll be here. He wouldn’t miss a night to show up at my house and drive me crazy all night because he’s a douche like that.

We’ll get to him later.

I leave my bedroom door open while I’m in the bathroom. That’s how I hear them when I come out of the bathroom. I race to my bedroom door and see them in Max’s room. Dancing around like a couple of idiots. I can’t help but smile though, considering my brother looks so happy.

They make the oddest couple though. Max is a preppy jock asshole. Maggie is the depressing emo artist. They have nothing in common but sexual chemistry. And I’ve known that since Maggie grew boobs and Max noticed. “You ready to finally admit you’re screwing each other?” I call out across the hallway.

They both stop and look up at me. Maggie narrows her eyes at me but I just tilt my head and sneer. It’s what I usually do. She leaves my brother’s arms and crosses to the doorway. “How did you know?”

I raise both of my eyebrows and look like I’m surprised by the question. “How did I know the two of you were deeply in love? Because I have eyeballs. Anyone can see that you know each other’s bodies. It’s actually quite disgusting.” I smirk at my brother and then slam my door shut.

That’s something it’ll take me a while to get over. He left me out of that part of his life. He includes me in everything else, but when it comes to Maggie, he keeps it all bottled up inside. It’s why I resent Maggie so much. Hell, at this point if he had opened up about it, I could have told him ages ago that he was in love with her. And that I’m happy for him. You see in the end, I don’t care who he dates, just as long as she loves him and is a good person.

Maggie I’ve known all my life. I know she’s a good person and I know she loves my brother. So I’m fucking happy for him. I’ll have to be friends with Maggie now. I can pull that off too because we were friends when we were little kids.

Seth walks up the stairs about the time I’m going down them. “Why, it’s my favorite cousin ever!” I scream and throw myself at him. He grins like the dork he is and catches me. He is so handsome I can’t stand it. All that dirty blonde hair and those warm brown eyes. Plus, he looks exactly like Uncle Pierce and Uncle Pierce is simply gorgeous.

“Did they finally spill the beans?” Seth asks as he sets me down.

“Yup. Or Mom walked in on them sleeping in his bed together. Then they confessed their love for each other and now they will be happy forever.” I shrug because it’s life and I wish nothing but the best for them.

Seth hugs me again. “It sucks letting him go, doesn’t it?”

I nod holding back tears. He’s my twin brother and I love him. He’s half of me and he always has been. “Yeah. But I let him go two years ago. It just took me this long to figure it out.”

Seth smooths the hair out of my face. “She’ll take good care of him. And one day he’ll feel like this too, when you find someone.” He smiles at me and I feel so much better.

“You give good smiles,” I state, grinning like an idiot. Seth will bring that out in people. The bastard.

“Mari.” At the sound of his voice I stiffen in Seth’s arms. I hate the way he says my name, yet it sends exciting chills up and down my spine.

Seth notices and gives me a questioning look. I shake my head at that one. Jamie Daniels AKA Diablo is the one person in the entire world I never wanted to see again yet I couldn’t wait to. That’s what happens when you let someone in and they break your heart.

“Jamie,” I say back, looking at him over Seth’s shoulder. His black hair is gelled away from his head and those blue, blue eyes look back at me with all the desire in the world. “I fucking hate you,” I state, giving him a calm look so he knows I’m fucking serious.

Seth’s jaw drops open and I lift a hand to push it closed. Jamie gives me a tired look and moves up the stairs. “I’m going to steal her away for a second.” He nods at Seth who just rolls his eyes and goes back downstairs.

“I was talking to him. You know it’s seriously rude to cut someone off like that.” I’m posturing of course because I see Seth everyday of my life. He’s always around when I need him and vice versa. You grow up like all of us did and you get to be a close-knit group. It’s not a wonder that Maggie and Max are in love. Everyone in this family is in love and those two are products of their parents.

We enter my bedroom and he shuts the door before slamming me up against it. His eyes stare into mine but I don’t let him have an inch. You can’t pull the kind of shit that he did and expect me to just get over it. “I’m sorry,” he whispers seconds before he decides now would be a nice time to kiss me.

Only I won’t fall for that trick because my IQ is pretty high. I move my head and his lips find my cheek. He sighs and finally moves away from me. He knows me, just like I know him. We’ll always end up at a stalemate because neither of us will ever give in.

“You know sorry isn’t good enough.” I fight back tears as he stands in front of me. He’s too old for me, he’s too good looking for me and he’s too much of a bad boy for me. I didn’t want this for myself but he fell in front of me and I never wanted to look back. “Nothing you say will ever be good enough.”

I pride myself on being a strong person and I find that it’s actually true. When he broke my heart, I didn’t let it show. I kept on keeping on but now it’s so hard to do that. He doesn’t come around unless Ashley comes, probably because he knows it would bring up too many questions.

“I’m sorry. I thought we were done. You said you weren’t ever coming back.” He lifts his hands to run them through his slicked back hair. When he’s done the strands stick up in all directions. “I thought we were over.”

“What are you talking about? We are done. Hello, you slept with another girl. Excuse me but I’ll never get over that. I’ll never trust you again and I pretty much wish you would die.” None of that is true though. I already forgave him. And I trust him with my life; I just don’t trust him around other women. There is a difference. You can be a good protective man and love someone but you can still break hearts by not being faithful.

“That day. You said we couldn’t do that anymore.” He’s the one who looks broken now. But I don’t really care.

I shake my head. “See, I guess it was okay then.” Though he has a point. I did say that. I just didn’t expect him to move on so quickly. Hell, the only reason I caught him was because I left my fucking cell phone there. I went back to get it four hours after I left.

“It’s not okay. I just couldn’t handle the fact that you didn’t want to see me anymore.” I hate that I hurt him. I hate that he hurt me but there’s nothing I can do about it. “You can’t be mad at me because I moved on when you dumped me. That isn’t fair.”

I shake my head. “Less than four hours later? Really? Way to move on super fast.”

He groans and before I know it I’m pushed up against the door again. “You are the reason my heart beats, Goldie. I think about you all the fucking time. I have for months. You left me and I couldn’t handle it.” He uses his hands to force me to look at him when I try to look away. “I love you. I had to get it out of me, but I couldn’t. That sweet butt didn’t help. Nothing helps but seeing you.”

I close my eyes and grit my teeth. I want to blurt out how much I love him. But that’s the reason I broke up with him in the first place. What would I do with him? He’s a biker boy and I’m a preppy rich girl. Besides, I was so sure he didn’t feel the same way.

“Listen to me, Goldie. I’m so fucking in love with you. The sun and moon rise out of your ass for me. I can’t live without you.” I listen to him but I try so hard not to.

In the end I didn’t have a fighting chance considering. He’s a gorgeous man and when he tells you he loves you, you have to believe him simply because you know what kind of man he is.

I open my eyes and look at him. “That’s why I left you. You said once it got to be too much, I could end it. And when I had to get up and force myself to leave, I knew it was too much. I didn’t ever think for one second you felt the same way.”

He gives me his grin. One eyebrow goes up along with one side of his mouth. It’s fucking sexy. “So you do love me?”

“Yes, I love you.” His lips touch mine softly, barely touching. His body moves in closer to me until we are pressed tightly together. Then he kisses me harder, his tongue sliding into my mouth, demanding I play along. When his hands start to slide up my stomach, I pull away from him. “We can’t do this now. My entire family is downstairs.”

“Come to my house tonight then,” he asks while he kisses my neck and slides his hand around on the skin of my stomach.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s all about the sex with you. Horny bastard.” He chuckles at me and I smile.

“You’re the only chick that could get away with calling me names,” he says moments before someone knocks on my door.

I feel my eyes get wide and I know our time to hide is about to end. Seems my brother’s bad mojo got spread to me. Though, to be honest, I didn’t really think I would be with Jamie ever again.

I make him stand back and open the door, only to see the most over-protective members of my family standing there. All glaring at me like I was the one who wanted to get caught or something. “Umm, Jamie. I think now would be a good time to run.”

“Boy, you better get out here,” Damien says with his teeth clenched.

“Okay. Let’s hold on a second here,” I say to all the angry men standing at my doorway. “I’m eighteen years old. And he never touched me before I turned eighteen.” I almost point out that Max couldn’t even wait until Maggie turned eighteen before they started screwing, but that goes along with the fact I don’t spill my brother’s secrets.

My dad, who looks the most pissed off, crosses his arms over his chest and glares down at me. “How long exactly has this been going on then?”

I feel my cheeks heat at the way he says that and the way everyone seems to be staring right at me. Then all of a sudden Max comes out of nowhere and stands in front of me. Plus, Jamie walks out of my bedroom because he finally got around the door I’ve been blocking. They stand in front of me and I almost smile.

“It’s none of your business Dad,” Max states with his arms crossed over his chest. He stands shoulder to shoulder with Jamie. My sexy biker boy next to my preppy ass brother. What a pair they make.

Dad narrows his eyes and looks down at my brother. “I’m about fed up with all the secrets around this house. You two don’t have to keep all your relationships secret.”

I poke my head in between my brother and my on again boyfriend. “Um, yeah we do. Considering every penis-wielding member of my family is standing in front of my door ready to beat up my boyfriend. It seems a little extreme if you ask me.”

“We’re just getting a feel for the guy,” Channing states, glaring at my brother. They will have their own reckoning in a little bit I assume.

I roll my eyes at that remark though. “Please. You’ve all known Jamie since the day he was born. Quit acting like I brought him home from the bar or something. He’s not a piece of shit and he treats me good. Well, most of the time.” I have a problem when I get agitated. I blurt out things I really shouldn’t.