Chapter 08

This one,” Nolan announced with a silly grin as he plopped a bright red cowboy hat on my head. I made a face. Red was not my color. Neither were cowboy hats. From the look on Sam’s face behind him, it didn’t look good on me.

“I think this is a Finn accessory.” I laughed and dropped it on Finn’s head as he passed.

“Oh, yeah!” Finn exclaimed when he stepped in front of the mirror. I didn’t know why but it worked for him. Maybe it was the sugar stick he had jammed between his teeth or the big belt buckle he’d bought at the last souvenir store we’d been to. But somehow, as he shook his hips and admired himself in the mirror, it worked. The bright color complemented his dark hair and those Byrne blue eyes. “This is going on the list of things I need.”

“God, he’s never going to take that shit off,” Sam muttered. I glanced at where he stood, arms crossed as he leaned against a mirror. I watched as he ran his hands through his hair and scrubbed his face. The exhaustion around his eyes was worrisome, even as he offered a smile when he caught me looking. I knew Sam was struggling. I just had no idea how to help.

“Hey!” Lucas shouted from across the store. A mop-head of dark curls popped up over a display, his smile way too excited for whatever he was about to say. These boys. “You need a fringe jacket!”

“Yes!” Finn replied and hurried across the store.

“No one needs fringe,” Nolan whispered.

“I don’t know. If anyone’s going to pull off fringe, it’d be Finn,” I said.

“I’m not sure that’s a compliment.” Pulling out another shirt, he sighed as he stared at it. Maybe not stared at it but rather through it. He was acting so odd.

“What’s wrong, Nolan?” I asked and took the shirt from him. Good thing too. He couldn’t pull off distressed tie-dye. “You’re acting weird.”

“You know I hate these things.” He shrugged. That part was true. Nolan wasn’t a social butterfly. He liked small groups, and that was it. Anything bigger was out of his comfort zone. His social anxiety could explain his odd behavior—it didn’t feel like the reason, but it could’ve been.

“Well, let’s go over the schedule.” I stopped everything to give him my full attention. “Just the next few days, complete with escape plans and safewords.”

“Safewords?” He cocked a brow. “Do I need a safeword?”

“I think every smut writer who hates socializing should have a safeword,” I shot back.

“I vote for custard,” Sam chimed in as he strolled past. “Pudding? Pie?”

“Oh, fuck.” Lucas joined us. “Did you see the diner with the state’s best pie sign?”

“I doubt it’s the best pie,” Finn retorted.

“The state’s best pie, idiot.” Lucas slapped him on the shoulder. “Not the best pie according to Finnegan Byrne.”

“Maybe we should road trip the best pie places in all fifty states.”

“You’d have to fly to Hawaii,” Nolan said. “It’s no longer a road trip if you get on an airplane.”

“Let’s get pie before we go to the clubhouse. Hell, we’ll get dinner and pie,” Sam suggested, and I frowned. All their detours were messing up the plans I’d made. How was I supposed to prepare for anything when a Byrne kept throwing a wrench in my plan?

“To pie!” Finn shouted. He started for the door, but Sam grabbed him.

“Buy the fucking hat or put it back,” he said.

“Oh, shit!” he exclaimed and disappeared deeper into the store.

“He’s going to buy that fucking fringe jacket,” Sam stated.

“Yes, he is,” I agreed. “We’ll meet you down the street, okay?”

“Make sure the jacket matches the hat.” Lucas grinned. “Or not. Both would be fucking funny.”

I waited a little impatiently for the chaotic Byrnes to make their way out of the store. I loved the lot of them, but man, they were a lot to handle on vacation. When we were alone in a store of distressed tie-dye and fringe clothing, I took Nolan’s hand and gave it an affectionate squeeze.

Nolan wasn’t like his brothers. Loud and involved wasn’t his thing. Quiet and alone was. I liked to pull him out of his shell when I could, but multi-pack functions weren’t the time nor place for that.

“Okay, what’s the schedule for the next few days?” I asked.

“Drinking. Way too much drinking,” Nolan murmured. Yeah, he wasn’t much for alcohol either. “Tonight they’re doing fight club and drinking. Bonfires, food, and all that.”

“Plus side, that’s easy to escape from.”

“Yeah.” He nodded slowly. “Tomorrow is hanging out at the clubhouse bar until the nighttime scavenger hunt.”

“Again, we can easily slip out for a while. We can take a walk or hide in our rooms.”

“Yeah. And then another day or two of drinking and bullshit before going to the Ironwoods. When we leave is up in the air,” he said. “Depends on how much everyone is drinking. This year will be different with the Lochlans too. Cade is coming.”

“And Isla,” I added in.

“Yeah, her too.” He looked away, but the little blush of pink on his cheeks wasn’t lost on me. Did he like her? Could he like her? Nolan had come out as asexual to me years ago. It was our secret—though, I was fairly certain his brothers had pieced some of that together. The lack of dating history and fake sexual history was a pretty good indication. Which made the blush interesting.

Note to self: come back to that one.

“Nemo,” I suggested.

“What?” Nolan frowned, snapping back to attention. Those midnight eyes settled on me with confusion. “Why Nemo?”

“They have to rescue Nemo… the slightly awkward clownfish. You’re my slightly awkward clownfish, Nolan,” I told him. “Our social safeword can be Nemo.”

“I don’t know how to take that,” he whispered, and I patted his arm.

“It’s a compliment,” I said. “It’s an easy one-word option. Just say it and I’ll get you out of there.”

He fussed with the hangers on the rack, spacing them out. There was that guilt-ridden expression again. An uncomfortable feeling settled in my stomach. Nolan didn’t lie to me, but it sure as hell felt like he was.

“I appreciate you,” he replied. “You’re my best friend, Ginny.”

Yeah, that wasn’t helping me feel better.

“I appreciate you too, Nolan. Now, let’s get out of here before I end up buying a jacket I don’t need.”

Damn it.I was squashed by Byrnes, and I didn’t like it. And an obscene amount of pie. No, we couldn’t try just one kind of pie. We had to try all the pies. All seventeen dang flavors—who even liked rhubarb pie? Finn. The answer was Finn.

Finn apparently couldn’t get enough rhubarb pie and decided he wanted to take an entire one to go because that was what the Fall Games needed. Except the diner had to make him one, so we had to wait.

That led to Sam ordering more fries and appetizers.

I had my moments for sure, but I wasn’t an idiot. The Byrnes loved the Fall Games. This was the trip of the year. So, the fact that we were wasting time in the diner told me they were doing their damnedest to not go. That didn’t sit well with me.

“Okay,” I said, putting my fork down. “You boys seem to forget that I grew up with all of you. I know when you’re full of bullshit and not. What’s going on? Why can’t we go to the clubhouse?”

The actual hemming and hawing that spread around the table between Sam, Finn, Lucas, and Nolan was upsetting. They exchanged glances before everyone ended up staring at Sam.

“Fine!” Sam threw his hands up in defeat. “Fine. Look, Dec asked us to keep you out for a bit.”

“Why?” I frowned. Did he not want me there? “Did I do something wrong?”

“No! No. No, no, no. No, not at all,” he answered quickly. “It’s just… Raven’s been having some issues sleeping lately with the second anniversary of her husband’s death coming up.”

“What?” That was news to me. Why hadn’t she told me? Honestly, I’d never thought to ask her, and that was on me. I should’ve paid more attention.

“Again, he told us, not her,” Sam replied. “It’s just… she’s already having trouble sleeping, and all this travel over the next few weeks won’t help. He wanted to get her settled in, get her familiar with where everything is, and come up with some kind of game plan for… in case.”

In case she sleepwalked. And in case she shifted out of control. My mouth popped open slightly. Oh, no. New town, new place, new wolves. That probably wouldn’t go over well with her wolf.

“He and Cole worked up a way for her wolf to have an escape route and all sorts of shit,” he continued. Grabbing his fork, he took a bite of pie and sighed. “But you know how Raven is when it comes to all this. We’re not supposed to know, and you… well, you’re not known for being very good at keeping secrets around Raven.”

I wanted to argue, but that was a fair point.

“The only reason we know is because Declan asked us to help him run his business,” Lucas chimed in. “He’s taking two weeks off for the Fall Games and going back at it when we get back into Cedar Harbor. But a few weeks later, he’ll be taking more time off to spend with her. They already had to deter her family from coming to visit. It’s just a lot, and he’s relying on us to make sure his business runs smoothly while he and Cade take care of her.”

I knew about her family, and it broke my heart for her. It’d been a huge ordeal. Her parents wanted to come visit, see Cedar Harbor, and meet Declan, but they couldn’t be around Raven when she slept in case something happened with her wolf. I understood why Declan insisted on the rule. It just didn’t make it any easier.

“It’s not you, you know that, right?” Nolan asked softly, his shoulder bumping into mine.

“I know. I just wish I knew how to support her better,” I admitted. “It just sucks.”

“Yeah, it does,” he replied. “But just be there for her however she needs. And just have fun. And maybe give her a safeword for an escape.”

I laughed. There was no way I was bringing up safewords to Raven. I’d probably find out something about Declan that I didn’t want to know.

“And try the rhubarb pie,” Finn said with a grin.

“No one likes rhubarb pie,” I shot back.

“I should make a video of me making rhubarb pie,” he mused. “Rolling the dough… kneading the dough… shirtless. Yeah, that’d go over real well.”

“Fucking manwhore,” Sam muttered, shaking his head. “Just keep your goddamn pants on and don’t burn down Mom’s kitchen.”

“Or,” Lucas said, “tell us when you’re going to film this naked endeavor and I’ll take the backside rendition.”

“I have a nice ass.” Finn shrugged. “No one’s going to argue. I do squats.”

“You’re a scrawny little shit with a flat ass,” he retorted. “No one’s impressed by that shit.”

“Lord help me,” I whispered and rolled my eyes. I tuned them out because the debate about the shape of Finn’s ass wasn’t something I wanted to partake in. Instead, I took out my phone to message Raven because screw what the Byrnes had to say.

How drunk is everyone already?

RAVEN: Okay LOOK.

That start.I laughed because I could only imagine what was going on.

RAVEN: My fiancé is half naked—which I am absolutely a fan of. Gray sweatpants are God’s gift to women everywhere.

Amen to that.

RAVEN: But Roan threatened to grab my ass to get Declan to fight him, I threatened to kick Roan in the nuts, Axel did something called the lumberjack tackle, Declan wrestled Axel, Roan is calling Cole “Daddy Cole”, Declan is buzzing hard, I’m buzz-buzz-buzzing, and Declan looks fucking HOT in gray sweatpants.

Let the Fall Games begin. Lol.

RAVEN: OH MY GOD, GINNY! Everyone keeps saying that!

It’s a thing.

RAVEN: Oh, and Alice punched Roan.

Why??

RAVEN: He called her hot mama.

That man has no filter.

RAVEN: It’s fun to watch him squirm around Violet though.

Violet’s there? He must’ve owed Sawyer something to have to bring her.

RAVEN: Holly is the clubhouse commodity, Declan is HOT in gray sweatpants, and I’m trying to talk him into getting on a motorcycle.

I snorted. There was no way Declan would ever get on a motorcycle. It was too dangerous. If he ever did, we’d all film it.

RAVEN: Cade will be here in a few hours, Isla will be here tomorrow, and you need to be here now.

RAVEN: I neeeeeeeed you

RAVEN: I neeeeeeeed you

RAVEN: I neeeeeeeed you, Ginny!

We stopped for pie. I’ll be there soon.

RAVEN: OH! Bring me pie!

What kind?

RAVEN: Cream pie!

I smiled at her innuendo. She was so much more than buzzed at this point.

I can bring you pie.

RAVEN: Can I show off my fiancé in gray sweatpants? He’s God’s gift to meeeeee!

Let me think about that…

No.

Definitely don’t need you to send that.

RAVEN: Hurry that sexy ass up and come drink with me. I need my chaos partner.

I’m trying. Never get in the way of a Byrne and pie.