Page 16 of Apex of the Curve
He nodded carefully and said with a grunt and a sigh getting up, “Then you already know what it is and you know I’m right. You just don’t wanna hear it.”
I hissed out a disgruntled chuckle and carried on washing and rinsing the bowl I had in my hands.
“Either get over here and dry or fuck off,” I told him.
“And away I go,” he said with a shrug, and he fucked off toward the living room. That’s just the way we were. Brothers via the club more than father and son, then again, he hadn’t been around to be a father much after he’d been sent up.
I was just finishing up drying and stacking things in the cupboards when my phone rang. I picked it up from where it was blaring Wardruna on the kitchen counter and answered it, even though it was an unknown number. I had a sneaking suspicion I knew who it was.
“Hello?”
“Hi.” Her voice was soft and nervous at the same time. She cleared her throat and said, “Amber said you called?”
“Yeah, I’m here washing up these dishes, getting ‘em put away. I wanted to say thank you, they’re real nice. Definitely way too much, though. You shouldn’t have.”
“You didn’t have to do what you did either,” she murmured, and I chuckled.
“You’re not the first, baby. You won’t be the last, either. That’s just to say it’s what I do.”
“Oh, well, you’re a kind man, Fenris… consider it a kindness for a kindness.”
“You make these?” I asked abruptly, dying to know.
“Oh, yeah… it didn’t exactly come up in conversation, but it’s what I do.” She laughed a little nervously and said, “It was one of the few things my mom and I could bond over.”
“I know that feeling,” I said and glanced behind me at the open archway into the living room. I couldn’t see my dad seated in his chair with the back of it to the other side of the wall that separated the dining area from the living room. I knew he was listening. I would have been listening too.
“Anyway, I hope you enjoy them,” she said, and I chuckled.
“Dad had his coffee in one of the cups before I could even ride up. The man never met a coffee mug he liked until yours,” I said. “Just nothing out there big enough.”
“I could make a bigger one,” she said laughing, and I laughed with her.
“No, God, please no,” I said.
“Well, alright then. I would have happily taken the challenge.”
Seemed to me she had plenty of those lately, I didn’t want to add any others so as much as I wanted to get to know Ms. Aspen Lawson, I took my dad’s warning to heart and let this long ship pass me by.
“I’m sure you would have, but there’s no need. Like I said, this was really too much. I didn’t do anything special.”
“On the contrary,” she said softly. “You did. At least to me. Thanks for reinforcing my faith in humanity.”
“Shit, I wouldn’t want to do that, now,” I joked.
“Why not?” she asked curiously.
“Because then you might really get hurt. Just do me a favor,” I said. “Stay safe for me.”
There was a long pause and finally a reserved, “I’ll do that.”
“Right, well, call me if you need anything,” I said. “I mean it.”
“I will. Thank you again, Fenris.” She said my name like she was still trying to get used to it.
I smiled and said, “You too, Aspen. Have a good night.”
“You too.”
