The Mane Squeeze. Shelly Laurenston
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Название: The Mane Squeeze
Автор: Shelly Laurenston
Издательство: Ingram
Жанр: Короткие любовные романы
Серия: The Pride Series
isbn: 9781617738593
isbn:
“Like hell I don’t!”
Gwen threw up her hands and headed toward the bedroom. But Mitch caught hold of the back of her jersey.
“Wait, wait, wait.” When she spun on him, he quickly released her. “Wait. I just want to talk. Let’s start over and talk. Calmly. Okay?”
Deciding a little rational conversation with her brother couldn’t hurt, “Yeah. Okay.”
Lock reached for his cell phone and brought it to his ear. “Yeah?”
“Good morning, son.”
“Hi, Mom.”
“I need a favor.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Are you awake?”
“Of course I am.”
“Is there salmon?”
“Covered with honey,” he sighed.
“Lachlan MacRyrie! You wake up this instant!”
Lock’s eyes snapped open and he realized he was yet again not in his dream river eating salmon and taking cell phone calls from his mother while in bear form. “Dammit.”
His mother laughed. “You sleep like your father. It took me years to realize that he didn’t have some sort of brain disorder, but simply was never awake when I began speaking to him in the mornings.”
“Sorry, Mom.” Lock sat up, yawning and scratching his head with his free hand. “What’s up?”
“I need you to go over and check the house this afternoon.”
Lock smirked. “Check the house or check Dad?”
“What do you think? New workmen mean new curiosity. And you know how your father is.”
“I’ve got some work to do here, but I can be there about lunchtime.”
“That’ll be fine. And make it sound like you’re simply visiting. I don’t want him to think we’re checking up on him.”
“But we are checking up on him.”
“Yes. But we don’t need to say that out loud, now do we?”
“No, ma’am. We don’t.”
“Good. And I appreciate this.”
“No problem. It’ll get me out of the house for a few hours.”
“Sounds like you’ve been working too hard again.”
“Eh.”
“If you went back to school and got your master’s, you could be doing something you actually enjoy doing.”
Lock frowned. “Which is…what exactly?”
“Teaching at university level.”
Lock’s eyes crossed. “Yeah. And I get along so well with kids, too.”
“You’d make a great professor. I don’t know why you insist on sticking with this ridiculous course.”
“Because it pays well.”
“First the Marines, now computers. All that intelligence going to waste.”
He must still be half-asleep, because he could usually steer his mother off this deadly topic long before she ever got there. Besides, he didn’t need any reminders of his parents’ disappointment with where his life was headed. And he didn’t look forward to the day they found out that creating software was only so he could earn money, retire, and finally do what he really wanted to do.
“Are you afraid to ask us for help? Is that it?”
“Mom.”
“I don’t know why you think we wouldn’t help you if you needed it.”
It was too early in the morning for this conversation. He hadn’t had his coffee or his honey bun yet. “Mom, can we talk about this later? Or do you want me getting to the house closer to four?”
“No, no. Lunch would be better. Who knows what damage that man will do by four? We’ll talk more later.”
“Great.” They both disconnected without saying good-bye—not because they were angry, but because his mother considered it a waste of words—and Lock got ready to face the day…and his dad.
Sissy and Ronnie headed down the hallway back to the suite Sissy shared with Mitch and, apparently now, his sister. Thankfully, there were four bedrooms in the suite, and like the cat she was, Gwen stayed mostly to herself, so Sissy doubted it would be too bad.
As they paused outside the suite door, Ronnie and Sissy stared at each other a long moment before Sissy unlocked the door with her keycard and pushed it open. She paused briefly in the doorway, shocked at what she was seeing, before she marched right across that room and got between Mitch and Gwen.
Not an easy task with Gwen standing up on the table so she could tower over her brother while she screamed in his face and Mitch screamed back. Plus there was finger-pointing going on, Gwen’s looking much more lethal because they had those excessively long and painted nails. Sissy had never seen the siblings act like this toward each other before. She hadn’t known it was possible.
“Y’all stop this right now!” she screamed over their yelling.
“Stay out of this, Sissy!”
“Yeah, ho-billy, stay out of it!”
“Hey!” Mitch bellowed. “Watch how you talk to her!”
“Fine! Then I’ll tell you to kiss my motherfucking—”
“Hey!” Sissy tried to cut in, but it was too late. It had turned into an embarrassing spectacle of a slap-fight. Horrified that one of her Pack could see this display from Sissy’s mate, Sissy again got between the two, shoving Mitch back. “Cut it out!”
Panting rapidly, the siblings glared at each other over Sissy’s head.
“Is this any way for a brother and sister to act toward each other?” she demanded.
Mitch’s brow went up as he looked down at Sissy. “I can’t believe that you’re throwing that particular argument at my feet. Or do I need to get out the football helmet you keep mounted on our bedroom wall as a reminder?”
“Let me rephrase. Is this any way for a brother and sister who like each other to act? Now I want y’all to stop this foolishness right now before someone—” most likely me “—gets hurt.”
“Fine.” Gwen said first. “I’ve gotta get to work anyway.”
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