Bobbie grinned. Food was one of Buck’s favorite subjects. “You’ve always been good at eating,” she replied, then reached down between them and gave his semi a gentle squeeze. “But now I know your mouth and stomach aren’t the only parts of you that are overachievers.”
Buck looked pleased with himself, then praised her back. “Nah. You make it easy. And…of course there’s the fact that I love you,” he added cheekily. “That makes everything so much better.”
Bobbie sighed and shook her head stubbornly. This was the second time Buck had declared his love today, and even thoughshe was moving close, she still wasn’t ready yet to give heart over to him completely.
“I’ll take your word for it,” Bobbie forced a smile. “Now. About that food…”
She was just about to move when Buck’s cell phone chimed from the floor where he’d tossed his pants.
“You want that?” Bobbie asked.
“Yeah. I should take it. It could be Mason or the chief with an update.”
She scrambled off Buck, retrieved his phone, then went back to the bed to sit beside him where he’d propped himself up on pillows.
Buck grunted, looking at the screen. “Tex,” he mouthed to her before connecting. “Hey, Tex. You have something for us?”
Bobbie watched as Buck nodded. “Yeah. She’s here. I’ll put you on speaker, then we’ll wait.”
Buck pushed the appropriate button and filled Bobbie in. “Tex wants a five-way conversation with Mason and the chief also involved. It’ll take a minute for him to add them to our chat.”
“Okay,” Bobbie agreed, then greeted the man she’d liked the minute she’d met him. “Hi, Tex.”
“Hi Bobbie. I have news, but we’ll wait until everyone is here, if that’s okay.”
“This is your fishing expedition,” she agreed easily. “Which means you’re in charge.”
“Thanks. Or maybe not, once you hear what I have to say. I don’t?—”
“Mason here,” Buck’s brother came on the line.
“Ildavorg.” The chief chimed in a second later.
“Okay.” Tex took over again. “Now that we’re all here, I need to tell you that we’re dealing with a whole lot more bullshit than we thought.”
Bobbie couldn’t say she was surprised. Her brothers had always been sketchy.
“But let me start seventeen years ago,” he prevaricated.
Bobbie sputtered. “Seriously? Seventeen years ago? I was fifteen or sixteen then.”
“Right,” Tex agreed. “That was the year your parents took off, leaving you and your brothers to your own devices. Am I right?”
“You are.” Bobbie didn’t like to think about those times too much. Even though her parents had been drunks, and fought all the time, they’d still been…well, her parents.
Remembering those long-ago days made her melancholy. Especially since they hadn’t all been bad. At least in comparison to what Bobbie had endured once her asshole brothers had taken over.
Their mother was never up in the morning to see Bobbie off to school, but in the afternoons when Bobbie came home, before her mother began drinking heavily, there had been love and dysfunctional comradery between them. At least Bobbie thought so. Looking back, they’d had some nice times; some shared laughs.
Their father was a big man. Gruff, and a bit on the slovenly side, he’d never shown any overt affection. He’d had two redeeming qualities that Bobbie could recall. The man was employed as a lumberjack for a logging company up north, and even though he hit the bottle hard once he got home, he never missed a day of work and always provided generously for his family. His other positive attribute? He was ultimately fair in everything he did. When he moderated between Bobbie and her brothers, he always came to an equitable agreement or solution to whatever was occurring.
Yeah.The pairhadleft like cowards, but Bobbie had come to the conclusion, as she’d aged, that they’d left because they knew they were toxic to their family.
But Tex was talking again, and she needed to pay attention.
“…they took care of a few legalities before they disappeared.”
“What legalities?” Bobbie asked. He was clearly talking about her parents again.
