Chapter 33

Chapter Thirty-Three

Knox

I jab my finger in the direction of Riggs.

Then Lake.

Then Leo.

“You breathe a word of this to anyone…” I threaten.

“Dude,” Lake mutters. “We’re all a part of this. It gets out and we’ll never live it down.”

Leo nods his agreement.

“Yup,” Riggs says, repositioning the laptop.

“Okay, now that the threatening is out of the way,” Ella says, her voice slightly tinny as it plays through the speakers on the computer. “Can we get down to business?” She yawns. “It’s late and I have Donna in the morning.”

“ Cherié , we can do this another time,” Riggs interjects, looking ready to slam the computer shut and kick us all out of his room.

“Pish,” she says. “How long can it possibly take to teach you guys this?”

“You might be surprised,” Leo says dryly.

I glare at him, not needing his snark right now.

“Is there a reason no one has threatened me with silence?” Storm pipes up from the chair we’ve set up in front of the computer’s camera.

“No,” we all say in unison.

If there’s one thing that we know about Storm, it’s that he’s loyal.

A good friend.

And someone who, once his trust has been earned, will keep our confidence, no matter the situation.

Case in point?

Since he’s the only guy on the team with long hair, he’s been called into service.

Yup. He’s willingly sitting here with three of his teammates, my sister on video call, and surrounded by a plethora of hair paraphernalia that Leo picked up from the drugstore around the corner waiting to get his hair braided.

Yeah, if any of this gets out, we are so totally fucked.

“We all know,” Ella says through the video call, “that you’re a sweet little innocent baby.”

Storm scowls at her. “I’m twenty-four.”

“Like I said.” She winks at him. “A baby.”

His scowl deepens. “That’s not exactly a?—”

“Let’s get on with this,” Riggs interrupts. “God knows how long it will take, and Ella needs to get to bed.”

“My bossy, grumpy hero,” she trills, holding her folded hands against her chest and fluttering her eyelashes at the camera. “However did I live without you?”

“You didn’t,” Riggs says. “Not really.”

The air tightens in the room, and I know that we’re all feeling the same thing?—

The utter truth in those words.

Well all , maybe, except for Storm, who glances over his shoulder at us and asks, “What?”

“Nothing,” Lake mutters, lacing his fingers together and stretching them out in front of him. “Let’s do this already.”

Thankfully, if there’s one thing that my sister is serious about (besides the people she loves), it’s hair. “Right,” she says, turning so her back is to the camera and lifting a comb. “The first thing you’ll do is section the hair like this…”

I pick up the comb on this end of the video call, try to mirror her movements, and within five seconds of sectioning I know this is going to be a long ass night.

“Fuck,” I say, grasping at the strands, trying to match my sister’s movements and knowing I’m failing hopelessly.

Her sections are smooth, with even edges.

Mine are…

A mess of uneven lines and tangled hair and?—

“Ow!” Storm cries.

“Jesus,” Lake mutters.

“You’ll want to be a little gentler,” Ella says, turning to study me through the screen. “Kids generally have more delicate scalps than adults.”

I freeze. “I could hurt her?”

My sister’s face softens. “Knox, honey. A little tug on anyone’s scalp”—she narrows her eyes at Storm, who’s rubbing the side of his head—“won’t truly hurt anyone.”

Storm drops his hand. “Says who?”

Leo slugs him. “Dude. It’s hair. Shut up.”

“Okay, ready to go again?” Ella asks.

I nod, going gentler this time—because I won’t hurt Evie, I fucking won’t . As I make this attempt, I don’t miss Lake, Leo, and Riggs leaning in, paying closer attention this time as Ella orders me to run the brush through Storm’s hair and then goes through the sectioning again, this time even more slowly.

“Good,” she says when I finally manage to separate Storm’s hair into two relatively even portions. “Now, take the clip and use it to hold the half you’re not working on out of the way.”

It takes an unreasonably long time for me to accomplish that.

But I do.

“Good,” she says again. “And now you’re going to separate that section into three parts…”

After much cursing, many failed attempts, and Leo helping me hold one of the strands, I finish one braid, tilting my head to the side and studying my handiwork.

“It’s not…” Rigg trails off, probably struggling to find something nice to say about the lumpy, uneven mess.

“Great?” Lake says.

“That bad,” Leo says at the same time.

I glare at Lake, nod in approval at Leo.

“You’ll get better the more you practice,” Ella says. “Now, get going on the second half, yeah?”

Storm groans but dutifully holds still as I work through the second half, and my sister is right.

My second attempt is far better than the first, and I don’t even need Leo’s help.

“Good, hon,” she says once I’ve finished and figured out how the tiny bows work—and yes, I’m very aware of how ridiculous the lot of us must look just now, Riggs and Lake debating the merits of the right choice of bow—bright pink vs multicolored vs extra super-duper glittery while Leo sits on the edge of the bed, stretching a random elastic on his fingers, out and in, out and in.

“Can I take them out now?” Storm grumbles.

I nod, see Leo surreptitiously snap a pic with his phone, and smother a smile.

Blackmail material.

I like it.

“Okay, boys,” Ella says on another yawn. “Have fun playing dress up. I’m signing off.”

I thank her, and Riggs snags the laptop to give her a more private goodbye as I start tugging out the bows and elastic, unraveling all of my hard work in far less time than it took in the first place.

Riggs tosses the closed laptop on the bed and starts shoving the hair stuff in a bag.

But when I’ve finished undoing the braids and Storm goes to stand up, Lake clamps a hand on his shoulder, pushing him back down into the chair. “My turn.”

We all gape at him.

His mouth hitches up. “I need to know too.”

That gaping doesn’t subside.

“Nova’s pregnant.” His smile deepens because… still gaping. “And if we’re having a girl then I need to know enough to pull my weight.”

My eyebrows are at my hairline.

Leo’s frozen like a statue.

Storm’s eyes are wide.

Riggs unsticks first. “Congrats, man,” he says, yanking Lake into a hug and pounding him on the back.

That gets us moving and then we’re all hugging and exchanging our congratulations and…

Braiding each other’s—cough, Storm’s —hair.

It’s a long way from a puck bunny in a hotel bar, but as I watch Lake struggle with the strands, contemplate bow placement, Leo and Riggs (and Storm) advising him in the process, I can’t help but think…

It’s a thousand times better.