CHAPTER SIX
Ky
I couldn’t sleep. The bed was soft and comfy. The sheets were like velvet on my skin. The air was cool in the room. But still, I couldn’t sleep. Maybe it was that it was too quiet. Living among my brothers and their craziness at all hours was something that I’d gotten used to. Sometimes I didn’t even see my bed until the sun was coming up.
I had no idea what was going on. This was fucked up on so many levels. My sister, yeah, I didn’t even know where to begin with that. There was a talk coming and I dreaded it more than anything. Well, almost anything. I would have said that seeing Chris every day might have topped that. But it wasn’t about him, or rather the mixed-up thoughts I was having about him. Right now I needed to focus on Ingram.
Should I have been shocked that she was seventeen and pregnant? Maybe if I hadn’t known what she’d come from. It wasn’t unusual for someone that young to already be married and popping out baby number one. That was just the normal thing back there.
What did surprise the fuck out of me, was the fact that she was here and even more than that was the fact that she had left that place. It wasn’t something people did and I knew it wasn’t done easily. Yep, I needed answers and a lot of them.
She needed rest, and that was the only thing keeping my ass planted in this bed. I didn’t have much experience with pregnant women—thank fuck for that—but I knew they required more care than normal. I couldn’t imagine having to take care of yourself and grow something inside of you was an easy thing to do. It looked like I had a lot of things to learn.
So, that was when I pulled out my phone and started looking for answers to questions the Internet could answer for me.
Damn, there were a lot of things that pregnant women couldn’t eat. Or do. And a lot of things that could go wrong. I knew I was going down a dangerous rabbit hole, but I couldn’t stop. I needed to know everything. Fuck, I needed to be prepared for anything. I was sure she didn’t have a clue about most of these things, especially the food stuff. And what about taking prenatal vitamins? I would bet that she didn’t have a clue about that.
With a heavy sigh, I killed the screen on my phone. Reading had only made me more on edge.
Ingram had come to me. She’d made the journey to find me despite how hard it was for her. I needed to step up and be the brother that she could actually count on. It mattered that she was here and I knew it was going to be a long road to wherever the hell we’d end up. But I vowed, in the early hours of that sleepless night, that I’d be there for her through every step. I knew it wouldn’t be easy, but I was never one to take the easy path.
As the room started to lighten with the first rays of the day, I heard someone moving around. They were trying super hard to be quiet, but since I was awake, I heard everything. It might have been Ingram and knowing she was in a new place and situation, I decided to roll out of bed and make sure she was alright.
The house was still dark when I crept out of my room. The stillness led me to think that I’d been imagining things. Ingram’s door was closed and I figured she was still sleeping.
It wasn’t until I walked into the main part of the house that I realized it’d been Chris that I’d heard. His shadow figure moved away from the house, board tucked under his arm as he made his way down the beach.
I tried my best not to cringe. In all honesty, I got a little bit of anxiety every time I watched him run and thrust his board into the oncoming waves as he dove on top of it. I had a great respect for the ocean, enough to realize the dangers that lurked within her depths. It wasn’t something you could control, and I think that was what made me uneasy the most.
But I had to hand it to him, he controlled that board with a mad sort of grace. I’d been to the beach a few times with Brand and a few others when they hung out with Chris. I watched him with a weird sort of fascination. He may have been born and raised a mountain boy, but he carved the water like he was made to do it. It was beautiful, for lack of a better word.
Forcing my feet to move away from the wall of windows, I flopped down on the couch and grabbed the remote. I flipped through the channels until I found something that halfway caught my attention. I kept the volume on low as I moved to the kitchen to make a cup of coffee. Chris had one of those single serve machines, but he had one of those reusable pod things. I could respect that and oddly, it didn’t surprise me. Thank fuck he had a dark roast sitting there next to the thing.
I turned around and leaned back against the edge of the counter. I liked the openness of his place. It was bigger than anything I’d ever known, but still smaller in comparison to the houses that surrounded it. In all honesty, it was the perfect amount of room. The walls were white, but it didn’t feel bland and boring. There was a strange personal feel to the place and I attributed that to the decor that made up the place. The soft, overstuffed couches that looked so inviting that you couldn’t help but want to flop down on them. The happy yellows, purples, and blues that were splashed everywhere.
I had to hold back a chuckle thinking that it looked like a designers first attempt at trying to impress someone. But at the same time, it felt very homey. Maybe it wasn’t my style, but I could respect it all the same.
“Hey,” Chris said a while later as he walked through the back door.
The sun was up and if I had to guess, I would have said it was over an hour after I’d sat down with my cup of coffee and tried to focus on what was on the TV.
“Hey,” I parroted, flicking my eyes over to him then back at the screen.
I wasn’t trying to be a dick, but I knew that was how I was coming off. If I could only explain what was going on in my head to him then maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. But the thing was, I couldn’t even explain those thoughts to myself, so there I was, stuck and just awkward. Oh, and looking like the biggest asshole ever. Chris had taken Ingram and me in, no questions or expectations whatsoever, the least I could have done was make the dude feel like he didn’t need to flee his own house.
“Did I wake you?” His voice held a heavy concern.
“No,” I answered in a hurry trying to ease the situation. “I was already awake. I wasn’t sure if it was Ingram I heard and I wanted to make sure she was okay.”
“Oh, yeah. Makes sense. I’m sorry, I get up at the ass crack of dawn and go out there. I don’t even set an alarm, I just always seem to wake right as the day starts to turn light.”
“I’m not used to it being this quiet,” I said as he flopped down on the couch beside me.
I tried like hell not to feel the heat radiating off of his shirtless body and tell myself that he probably wasn’t naked under the towel that was wrapped around his trim waist. I needed to get a grip on things, and fast.
“Yeah, I’ve been around enough to know that some of you guys like to party hard.”
I huffed out a laugh. Sometimes I was one of those guys.
“That is true,” I said with a nod. I held up the remote. “Here, you can change it. I just kind of had it on for background noise. I have no idea if you like to watch the news or anything when you’re…”
I let the words trail off as my mind raced to think about the things I did know about Chris. I hated that I suddenly realized that I knew him, but not that many personal details. I mean, sure, I didn’t know that many about most of the guys in the club either. Like I didn’t know if Brand ate breakfast the moment he woke up or waited until after he’d showered. Or if Mouse preferred one type of woman over another. And hell, I had no idea if the prez even took women back to his place, let alone had sex. Suddenly I felt a bit selfish and stuck in my own little world.
“Nope,” he said, snapping me out of my heavy thoughts. “I usually come in and make something to eat, then shower. Such an exciting life I live.” I could hear the humorous sarcasm in his tone.
My head turned and I met his eyes.
“As long as you’re happy, that’s all that matters. Not for nothing, dude, but you seem pretty happy to me.” My response was something I hadn’t meant to say, but it was truthful, nonetheless. He did seem happy and almost like this was the life he was meant to have.
“Yeah,” he said, his head tilting back as his eyes looked up at the ceiling. “It’s pretty fucking perfect.” He let out a short laugh.
There was a long moment of silence as we both watched the shore out the windows before us. I half wished that Ingram would rouse and give me an excuse to break away. But then again, that was also an awkward situation.
“This is weird for you,” Chris said and though it should have been more of a question, the tone of it made it feel like he was making a statement pulled from my soul. I didn’t say anything because that would be admitting too much. “You should start with getting her checked out, make sure everything is alright not only with the baby, but with her. I don’t know what’s going on, and I’m not asking to know. But I will say this, then leave it at that, she needs to know she’s safe and welcome here. That she will be taken care of no matter what.”
He shoved off the couch and wandered into the kitchen, leaving those words to sink in. He was right and I wasn’t even hesitant to agree.
“How do you like your eggs?” Chris called out.
“Over easy,” I answered automatically.
“Toast?”
“Yeah.”
“White, wheat, or sourdough?”
That was when my head cocked to the side and I stared at him blankly. He was holding a skillet in one hand and an orange spatula in the other.
“Whatever the fuck you’re having,” I said shaking my head at him with a what the fuck look plastered on my face. “And I swear I will fucking throw one of these surf magazines at you if you ask me if I want bacon or sausage.”
His soft chuckle danced across the room and into my ears. That was when I cracked and was glad that my face was turned away from him because I couldn't stop the smile slowly spread across my face.
“You don’t have to cook for me,” I said as a sudden wave of something I couldn’t explain ran through me.
“I know.” His words were slightly drowned out by all the shit he was moving around.
“It’s fucking weird.”
“No, it’s not,” he replied like it was as simple as letting myself believe it wasn’t.
He didn’t say anything else while he worked and I didn’t even try to open my mouth and fight the silence. Using the TV as a distraction, I flipped through the channels until I found something I might have been able to focus on.
“Good morning,” Ingram said softly as she padded across the wood floor. She took a seat beside me, leaving a cushion’s distance between us.
“Mornin’, Ingram,” Chris called out, his voice soft and soothing. “Are eggs okay?”
“Oh, yes,” Ingram said, perking up and sending a wide smile his way.
Then she was up, heading towards the kitchen and asking if she could help cook. Of course, Chris said no. Then he was asking if he could make her an omelet, and proceeded to give her an insane list of veggies for her to choose from to put in it.
“Come eat, Kynas—Ky,” Ingram called out. I could hear the hesitation in her tone and the shaky unsureness in her choppy breath.
I didn’t have to look at her to know that her eyes were closed and that her mouth was moving as she silently repeated ‘Ky’ three times in a row. And as I turned my attention to her, I found out I was right. Though she was all grown up, it seemed like some things hadn’t changed.
Chris moved about like nothing was out of the ordinary, setting steaming plates around the table and going back for utensils.
“I, um, have to get to work,” I said after I had cleared my place. I paused, looking at Ingram wondering what the hell I was supposed to do with her.
I felt safe enough leaving her here with Chris, but she wasn’t his responsibility. He’d already done more than enough by giving her—well, us—a place to stay. I didn’t need to put any more of this on him. Who knew, maybe he had to work today, anyway. I wasn’t sure I should leave her alone and didn’t have the first clue how to handle this situation.
I honestly sucked at this. Figuring things out right now was making my brain stall out.
“I don’t have to be in until five tonight,” Chris said looking at me then moving his gaze to Ingram before he spoke again. “I was going to run a few errands. If you feel like getting out, you can come with me, Ingram. It’d be nice to have the company.”
“Um,” I said in an attempt to tell him that he didn’t have to go out of his way like that and all, but Ingram cut me off.
“That would be very nice.”
“Awesome,” Chris replied.
“Here,” I said, pulling my wallet out of my back pocket then snatching up my debit card. “Get some clothes and whatever you need. You didn’t bring shit with you and I imagine there are…things…that you might need and all.”
I didn’t have the first clue what I was talking about. I could only think that she would eat more than a normal woman given that she was eating for two. And then she would need clothes and all that bathroom shit chicks had to have. I didn’t want her to feel like she had to go without and I didn’t want Chris to feel like he had to do any more than he already had.
Ingram came here to find me. For whatever reason, she needed me to take care of her. We may have been estranged, but deep down she was family. I wasn’t about to leave her out in the cold without anything, no matter how much her showing up was messing with my head.
I stomped off to my bedroom without giving her a chance to protest.
After I was ready to head out, I left the safety of my room. I heard the two of them chatting while the sound of the water running let me know they were cleaning up the kitchen.
“Ingram,” I called out while I waited to flee at the front door.
“Yes?” She rounded the corner and walked my way.
“No one knows,” I said as low as possible. “Don’t…don’t say anything, okay?” I may have been pleading with my tone.
This wasn’t something I wanted to ever bring up with anyone. I’d kept it to myself for so long that it almost seemed like a distant dream.
Her eyes widened and she rolled her lips between her teeth as she nodded.
“Okay, I will not say anything.”
I gave a firm jerk of my head as if to say thanks. Then I turned the handle and tried to make my escape.
“Kynaston,” she called out, her hand landing on my arm. “I am not as sheltered as you might expect me to be. There was a boy. He…was on the outside. He showed me things.”
I jerked back like I’d been slapped in the face.
“Is this,” I pointed to her stomach, “his?”
“Oh, no.” Her head shook as her eyes dropped to the floor. “You should go to work. You would not want to be late.”
Then she stepped back and the door closed practically in my face.
I left, a bolder sitting in my gut. She was going to tell me what the fuck was going on, I’d make sure of it. I may not have wanted to know, in fact, I would put money on it, but I couldn’t let the unanswered questions go on much longer.
I had the day. Just one shift to lose myself in work and try to get my head on straight enough to handle what was ahead. Today was going to suck, I knew that fucking much.