“Your little sister,” he tried again, leaning against the back of the sofa with his long legs outstretched and those ugly boots crossed at the ankles. “Anyway, Keira had to get her kids to school and I was here early because my pick up had a flat this morning and the only ride I could manage had to be in Lafayette by eight.”
Something about this guy got under my skin. Maybe it was how relaxed he looked, how he moved around the house like he’d seen everything in it a thousand times before. I didn’t like the constant smirk or how nothing seemed to get to him. I had a good eighty pounds or so on this guy and I wasn’t going out of my way to be friendly. Riley-Hale Intimidation 101 that my father had instilled in me since I was sixteen and desperate for his approval. Still, this Colson guy didn’t flinch, didn’t seemed worried in the least that I wasn’t friendly.
“So, who was the girl?” he asked, walking around the sofa to sit, propping one grimy boot on the coffee table.
“No one you need to know about.”
“Okay, man. I got you.” He sat up, as though he thought readying himself for a pounce was necessary. “Relax. She’s not my type anyway.”
Dumbass. Aly was fucking flawless. She was everyone’s type. This asshole just didn’t want me thinking he had ideas about her. Not that it mattered. She wouldn’t give a redneck like him a second glance no matter if he looked like something out of an old sixties Western.
“I wouldn’t give a fuck if she was and neither would she. Trust that shit.” I moved to the column, leaning against it like I’d taken Colson’s advice and relaxed a little. But my guard was up and it would stay there as long as this guy was in the vicinity.
Sometimes you meet people and they just don’t mesh with you. Something about them grates your nerves, has your instincts warning you that that person meant trouble and it wasn’t the sort you could easily be free of.
I was protective of my family, sure, especially my mom, but this went a little deeper. I just couldn’t put my finger on why.
“I got zero time for hook ups. Your mom keeps me real, real busy.” That he added with a little too much sarcasm, like he thought it was funny to get me worked up. This idiot was clueless if he thought making jokes about my mom, no matter if they were harmless or not, was epically stupid. My father was still possessive as hell when it came to Mom.
When I cocked my eyebrow at him, Colson didn’t bother hiding his smile which only annoyed me further. “Take it easy, dude. I’m just messing with you.”
“That is not a good idea, dude. Not today.”
He messed with his hat a little, shifting it between his hands before he slid it on his head. “Well, I can see that, but if you want my advice…”
“I don’t.”
Colson lifted his hands, a mild, disinterested surrender that I ignored. I was ready to kick this guy out of my folks’ house, tell him to come back when my mother’s voice carried from the other side of the front door.
“No, I told you ten a.m. Kona, are you ever going to write appointments down?” Then her voice went silent before she made a sound loud enough for me to hear. “What the hell happened to the door? Son of a…”
“Mom, in here,” I said, swinging the door open before she could investigate it fully.
“What the hell is this?” She nodded to the broken pane and glanced at me, rolling her eyes when the voice on her cell sounded. “The pane is broken. What? I don’t know. God, Kona, no.” She looked at me, nodding to Cass who stood behind me. “Ransom, what is this? Did you do this?”
“Yeah.”
“Actually, it wasn’t him,” Colson jumped in, with a damned twinkle in his eye, “it was the girl who stormed off that did it.” My blood boiled when he outright laughed.
“It’s fine. Yeah, okay, baby. Don’t forget…okay.” Mom ended the call and slipped her cell into her purse. “Aly?” she asked me, coming fully into the house. It was then that she noticed the lingering mark of Aly’s slap on my cheek. She put her hand on my chin and turned my head to look at the red welt that was still somewhat tender. Who knew the woman could pack such a wallop? But I lifted my chin away from Mom, and ran my hand across my cheek.
“It was my fault. The door and the slap. I pissed her off. The door probably just slipped out of her hand.” I took my mother’s kiss, careful on my other cheek, as she patted my chest. “I’ll pay for it.”
“I'm not worried about the door, or your cheek—or your pride,” she said. “I’m more worried about you and Aly.”
“Uh, Keira, I’m gonna go set up in the studio,” Cass interrupted not waiting for my mother to answer him before he disappeared down the hallway toward the home studio my mother had built years before.
“I don’t like that guy,” I told her. Walking with her into the living room. “Something about him is off.”
“Now you sound like Koa.” She bent down, grabbing my sweaty shirt off the floor before she tossed it at me. “You boys are territorial.”