Читать книгу Forever - Karen Hopkins Ann - Страница 15

8

Sam

I set the bowl of ice cream down to answer the door. Who the hell would be knocking at this late hour? I wondered. When I looked out the window and saw that it was Hunter, I relaxed and opened the door. With Rose’s situation, I was always ready for the worst.

“Hey, bro, what’s going on?” I asked Hunter as he slid past me to stand in the foyer.

“Is Rose home?”

I ran my fingers roughly through my hair while I quickly thought of an answer. I certainly wasn’t going to tell him that she’d been knocked up by Mr. Suspenders and was off on some sneaky liaison with him that Summer had hatched. No, the less Hunter knew, the better, but I was still majorly bummed that things hadn’t worked out between him and my sister. Hunter was a good guy, especially now that he’d quit drinking.

“She’s out with Summer, doing some girl thing.”

“Do you mind if I hang around for a while and wait for her?”

He didn’t exactly sound like he was begging, but his eyes were for sure. Damn, under the current circumstances, having Hunter in the house when Rose returned could be a national disaster in the making.

“Uh, man, I don’t think that’s such a good idea. She just got home last night and she’s still settling in. You know how temperamental she is.”

Hunter smiled. “Yeah, I do, but I don’t mind if she has a meltdown. I need to talk to her.”

Part of me was becoming aggravated that the guy wasn’t listening to me, but the other part had to respect his persistence. It was just a shame that he didn’t have a chance now.

“Look, it’s your skin that’s going to get chewed up and spit out if she comes home in a mood.”

Hunter followed me into the family room, and we’d barely sat down in front of the TV when Summer and Rose came through the door.

Summer shot me a look that gave me the heads-up that she was upset with me, but Rose didn’t even take the time to look my way before she began her barrage.

“What’s he doing here? Are you insane or just stupid, Sam?”

“Hunter’s my friend, and he can come by whenever he wants.”

“Oh, is that so? Even with everything going on, you’d do that to me?”

I glanced at Hunter’s look of shock and Summer’s narrowed eyes. I was screwed no matter what I said.

“So, I guess things didn’t go so well with your meeting?” The words tumbled out of my mouth without much thought. I really just wanted to get back to my bowl of ice cream and the episode of Swamp People, but it was unlikely that would be happening anytime soon the way Summer was glaring at me.

“Can you ever just keep your mouth shut?” Summer growled.

Rose turned and ran from the room. Summer paused long enough to shake her head at me and mutter something that was mostly unintelligible, except for the word idiot, before pursuing Rose. Their stomping feet could be heard going up the stairs before a door slammed shut.

“That didn’t go well, did it?” Hunter asked quietly.

I thought for a second and said, “Actually, it could have been much worse.”

“The night isn’t over yet,” he said as he walked past the couch toward the stairs.

I leaped up and followed him.

“Where are you going?”

Without slowing to glance my way, he replied, “I’m going to talk to Rose.”

“Are you nuts?”

“No, I’m perfectly sane, just in love.”

I grabbed Hunter’s shoulder as he began climbing the stairs, stopping him.

“You couldn’t possibly fall in love so quickly,” I argued.

“Some people do. It might not be your thing, but give me a break here.”

“Trust me, I am. You don’t want to go up there.”

“Just try and stop me.”

Hunter’s eyes held a cold glint that I hadn’t seen before. The dude was dead serious. I lifted my hands in the air and backed down the step.

“I warned you.”

I returned to the couch but purposely left the door open. Hunter was still my friend, after all. I was expecting to have to rescue his ass in a few minutes, anyway.