Of course he was okay. He’d beenfinefor weeks now. His dad, his sister, his little brother. Maybe they weren’t yet. Mom’s presence still coated every square inch of the family home. They all missed her like a missing limb. Fuck, it didn’t take a therapist to figure out his first knee surgery failed because his heart was too damn broken to let the rest of him heal. “Yeah, I’m fine.”
“Okay. See you in the morning,” she closed with a regretful brightness in that unshakable pleasantness.
He looked to the forest beyond, the orange glow of the sun threatening to knock him down with a scorching summer heat if he didn’t get his ass in gear. “See ya.”
“Okay. Later.” She hung up. He almost wished she’d get it over with on the phone, but she’d want to do it in person. To make sure he was actually okay. As if coffee and pastries would soften the blow.
They’d been hot and heavy in high school, never apart. When he’d come home to Foothills after… everything, reconnecting had seemed obvious. He stretched out his stiff limbs and took off down the road at an easy pace, not wanting to re-ignite the swelling that had nagged at him for a solid week after he’d run on the bum knee too hard a few weeks back. Foothills needed a gym. He was a sprinter, dammit, and his knee didn’t tolerate this sort of shit anymore.
By the end of the two-mile loop, about all his joints could handle today, the sun had warmed the cedar boughs that canopied the last of his path. Pungent, the earthy scent welcomed him home. He swung open the front door, kicking off his shoes. They landed with a spin in the basket. After wiping the briny layer of sweat from his forehead before it dripped into his eyes, he skated across the linoleum floor to the foot of the beige-carpeted stairs.
Zoe, his little sister and bossiest of the Halseth clan, pierced the air with her shrill voice. “Don’t you think about taking all the hot water.”
He stopped mid-step, hovering before daring to climb the next step.
Like a cranky apparition, she popped out from the pass-thru to the kitchen. She held her coffee a few inches below her lips and glowered through the steam. “Finbarr Halseth. If you take another thirty-minute shower like you did yesterday, I’m going to kick your ass and you can do all the cooking tonight, as I’ll be too frozen to move.”
Finn angled his head and looked down at her. “I’m so sorry, your highness. My physical therapist thinks hot water will help relax my muscles. Unlessyouwant to tend barandman the kitchen tonight?”
She glared into her coffee, then back at him. “Just no jerking off in there.”
From deep in his throat, his laugh echoed out loud. “Never. But I am investing in a lock for my bedroom door and will be perfectly willing to tell Pops about Josh Stevens and the car incident.”
“You wouldn’t,” she growled, expression pure pout, her brown eyes heavy with menace.
“Then let me take my damn shower.”
“Fine,” she muttered, spinning around on her heel and heading back for the kitchen.
Still chuckling, he hobbled up the stairs. He dropped his clothes on the bathroom floor and turned the faucet to steaming. Flipping back the blue flowered shower curtain, he stepped over the beige bathtub wall and into the shower.
Ahh, he sighed as the hot water drenched his skin. As soon as he got downstairs, he was propping his knee up with a big-ass icepack until he had to leave for work. Aiming the showerhead as high as it would go, he ducked his head and let the water stream down his body.
Grabbing his cock, he relaxed in the steam of the shower, tracing his thumb over the shaft… then remembered his sister’s threats.
Fine. He missed living alone. With an unlimited budget and on-demand hot water.
Finn shut off the water and stepped out, his knee a bit looser than it had been that morning. Day by day, he regained mobility. He pulled on a pair of jeans and aHalseth’s Smokehouse and Pubblack t-shirt, then hobbled half-speed down to the kitchen for a cup of coffee and a long ice on that knee before his shift started.
Tracewouldbeupearly with apology coffee and pastries for them both. Bright eyed and bushy tailed to put him at ease, even for the somber occasion. Finn’s alarm squawked rhythmically, shattering the tranquility of the sun-drenched morning. Hauling his ass out of bed, he limped across the bedroom and silenced the alarm. The first few steps were always the roughest before things loosened up.
He’d have to look for a place with enough room to add a gym or something; he was going nuts in the cramped space, his equipment boxed up in the garage. Pops was in better shape than he was these days, but Pops had full access to the high school gym as the football coach.
The moment he reached the bottom step, the doorbell rang. Like clockwork. He unlocked the front door and greeted his coffee date.
Standing adorably sincere in pink capris and a black summer sweater, Trace held out a travel mug she’d brought from home. He smiled and accepted the ordinary brew. She knew he wouldn’t have wanted the fancy shit from the coffee stand that was laced with sugar and sweetness.
“Good morning,” she said. Without a hint of make-up this morning, she looked so much like the girl he’d loved so long ago. Clenching tight in his chest, his heart contracted in anticipation of another blow.
“Morning. Come on in.” He led the way through the entry to the kitchen. “Warm out there?”
“It’s pleasant. Want to sit outside?”
He nodded, opening the slider and motioning for her to go out first and choose her seat. No way in hell he was having this conversation in the middle of the family kitchen. Evan would already be at work, but Zoe and Pops would be able to hear every damn word if their bedroom windows were open. Oh well. Save him the explanation when they interrogated him later.
Trace followed the winding gravel path through shrubs overgrown with blooms every color of the rainbow that his mother knew by name and personality to the small table in the middle of the rose garden. Damn, he ought to get out here and prune. Brenda would be so disappointed in the overgrown mess now that she wasn’t here to tend to it. Not that anyone shared her green thumb, but he’d look it up and see if he could figure it out.
She set out a paper bag on the table. “Mom sent along a dozen of your favorites.”
