SWNOVELS Unravel Me: Chapter 34
“Pink’s my favorite color.”
“It’s one of mine too.” It wasn’t up until four months ago, but now when I think of pink, I think of everything bright, fresh, and captivating. I think of Rosie.
But instead of telling this preteen girl that, of all the options I was presented with earlier today, I chose to dress as the pink crayon because the color reminds me of the fistful of hair I had in my hands this morning while Rosie took my cock as far down her throat as she could, I settle on: “It makes me happy.”
The girl in front of me grins as I take my picture from her hands and uncap my marker. “My name is Skylar.”
“Skylar,” I repeat, scrawling her name across the picture before signing mine, finishing it with my jersey number. “Here you go, Skylar.” I dump a whack of candy in her plastic pumpkin bucket. “Happy Halloween.”
“Thanks!” She looks at Jaxon, her eyes moving over him with disgust. “I don’t like green. It reminds me of puke.”
Jaxon crosses his arms over his green chest, and his green crayon-tip hat dips down over one of his eyebrows. “Yeah, well, I don’t like butterfly queens. They also remind me of puke.”
Skylar gasps, the tip of her tall butterfly wings smacking Jaxon in the chin when she twists and storms off.
“You fucking suck with kids,” I say under my breath as she tosses him one last glare over her shoulder, one he gives right back.
“I’m good with Ireland. She only cries, like, thirty percent of the time I hold her, and she laughs when I blow raspberries on her cheeks. And Connor’s, like, my best bud.”
This is true, but it might have something to do with the fluffy cat Jaxon brings over to my house every time he comes to visit. Jaxon loves showing off all the tricks he’s taught Mittens, and Connor loves to roll around on the floor with Mittens and Bear. He even calls his stuffed kitty Mittens now.
“Why the fuck am I dressed as a crayon?” Jaxon grumbles, tearing open a mini–Kit Kat. “And why the fuck am I the only one who wasn’t allowed to wear pants with my costume?”
I don’t know, but he looks hilarious in his green crayon dress, with his green crayon-tip hat, and his hairy legs on display. “It’s Carter’s world; we’re all just living in it.”
“Did he tell you what costumes he’s making us wear tonight for trick-or-treating?”
“He says it’s a surprise.”
“He said the same to me, but then he did this high-pitched giggle, promised it would be ‘spicy,’ and then ran away.”
I’m as scared as everyone else. We haven’t been home and game-less on Halloween in five years. That Halloween, Carter made us all dress up as Britney Spears. I still have nightmares of seeing him in his schoolgirl outfit. I was stuck in red latex, Garrett was dressed as a sexy stewardess, and Emmett was nearly naked with a stuffed snake around his neck.
We did win Best Group Costume that night, though, so…
“I heard about the Britney Spears debacle,” Jaxon whispers. Frightened eyes bounce between mine. “This year will be better, though, right? Because he has a kid now? So he won’t be so…Carter-y?”
Before I can answer, a microphone screeches. Jaxon and I look up, watching as Carter—dressed as a purple crayon and with his purple-crayon daughter strapped to his chest—steps onto the stage set up out front of the arena doors.
“No,” Jaxon murmurs as a screen is lowered behind Carter.
“He’s really doing it,” I whisper.
“I thought he was joking,” Garrett mutters, appearing on my left.
“Someone call Olivia,” Emmett mumbles, on Jaxon’s right. “He needs to be stopped.”
“Is everyone ready for Vipers Karaoke ?” Carter calls out at the gathering crowd. To our horror, they explode with cheer. “Twenty dollars gets you the song of your choice here on stage with a Viper of your choosing—”
“What?” Jaxon gasps.
“I did not agree to this,” Garrett growls.
“No,” Emmett groans.
“Holy fuck,” I sigh.
“—and all the proceeds go back into the community to help fund sport programs for underprivileged youth. So multiple songs are not only welcome but encouraged .”
Jaxon pins his arms across his chest. “Nobody better pick me, ’cause I ain’t singing.”
A small girl wearing a sparkly pink dress with a fluffy skirt and a tiara approaches Jaxon, tugging on his crayon gown with her gloved hands, batting her blue eyes. “Excuse me, Mr. Riley. My name is Mia and I’m a princess. I wanna sing a princess song with you.”
His eyes melt as he stares down at her, and when she clasps her hands and hangs her head in defeat, Jaxon groans. He takes her hand in his, pulling her toward the stage where Carter waits with a shit-eating grin.
“C’mon, Princess Mia. Let’s go pick a princess song.”
Thirteen. That’s the number of songs Jaxon’s sung this afternoon.
“He acts like he’s not one of us,” Carter muses, watching as Jaxon wraps up his performance of Moana ’s “How Far I’ll Go” with a girl dressed exactly like her. “But I knew he was a Puck Slut from the moment he stepped off that plane from Nashville a year ago.”
Garrett pulls off his blue crayon hat and messes up his hair. “When can we go home? I wanna take Jennie to Pound Town once quick in Carter’s bathroom before we go trick-or-treating.”
Carter shoves his elbow into Garrett’s rib cage.
“Ow ! I’m telling!”
“I’ll chop off your dick if you touch my sister in my bathroom.”
“You can’t.” Garrett gets this slow, smug smirk on his face, and his chest shakes, already laughing at his own joke. “It’s her favorite ride, right along with my face.”
Jaxon thumbs at Garrett as he rejoins us. “Where did the balls on this one come from in the last year?”
“Jennie,” Emmett and I answer simultaneously.
“I just know she’s gonna look sexy in her costume. I won’t be able to resist her.”
I arch a brow, peeking down at the photo on my phone, the one Rosie sent me a half hour ago, after they left here and went back to Carter and Olivia’s. It’s a group shot of the girls and Connor, and they’re all dressed as different animals and bugs.
I flash my phone at Garrett. “She’s a butterfly.”
“A sexy butterfly.”
“You’d fuck Jennie in a garbage bag.”
“As if you wouldn’t fuck Rosie in one.”
Touché. “Jennie’s not gonna wanna touch you in your crayon dress.”
He gestures aggressively at himself, runs his hands over his crayon-covered hips. “Jennie’s gonna be all over this.”
“Uh-huh.”
He jabs his finger into my chest. “Just you wait. She’s gonna be begging for me. I’ll have to tell her no.”
Jaxon snorts a laugh. “As if you’d ever be able to tell her no.”
Carter’s chest puffs. “Yeah, I gotta tell Ollie no all the time.”
Everyone laughs, except for Carter.
“What? I do!” He frowns, hands on his hips. “Well, I could if I wanted to. I just never want to.”
“You absolutely could not ,” Emmett argues. “Not even if someone paid you.”
“Wanna bet?” Carter pulls a wad of cash from his wallet. “Five hundred bucks says I can.”
“Oh, I’m so in.” Garrett holds up his own money.
Emmett crosses his arms. “What are the terms?”
Carter thinks for a minute. “No-Nut November.”
“No-Nut—” I bury my face in my hand. “What?”
“The terms are simple. Five hundred bucks each, and we’re all betting on ourselves. No sex, no jerking off, no nutting—period. We start tomorrow, November first. Whoever lasts the longest gets the pot. Twenty-five hundred dollars.”
My face is still in my hands, so I drag them down it in slow motion. “I can’t believe we’re having this conversation dressed as crayons.”
“I can’t believe I’m not wearing any pants,” Jaxon says, and then, “I’m in.”
“You ?”
“What? I’m not in a relationship.”
“You still fuck nearly as much as the rest of us,” Garrett argues.
Jaxon runs a palm down his proud chest. “Yeah, I’m hard to resist.”
“I’m absolutely not in,” I tell them.
“Aw, come on,” Carter whines.
“I just started having regular sex a month ago. I’m not about to give it up.” Also, I’m kinda scared of Rosie. She likes to be fucked to sleep the night before a big surgery, or an important test. It helps her unwind and take her mind off it, otherwise she’s up all night hyperfocusing. She also likes morning sex, and shower sex, and the other afternoon I fucked her on my kitchen counter while Connor was napping upstairs. I’m not gonna be the one to take that from her.
“Then bet on me,” Carter says so simply, like it’s…logical. It fucking isn’t. That’s why I snort the loudest, most incredulous laugh. “I won’t let you down, Adam, I promise. Plus, we’re on the road fourteen days in November. Which means I only have to resist Olivia for sixteen days. I can do it. I can.”
He sounds so confident, it’s both comical and sad. After all these years, Carter thinks I don’t know him. After all these years, Carter doesn’t know himself.
“No.”
“Don’t bet on me,” Emmett says. “I know exactly how this is gonna go when I drop this on Cara. Hint: not fucking well.” He shakes his head. “And goddammit, I love my wife, but I am terrified of her.”
“You can bet on me,” Garrett assures me. “Don’t worry. Jennie’s not the boss of me.”
I blink at him. “My money’s on Jaxon.”
“Fuck yeah !”
Carter stretches his arms overhead. “Yeah, just wait ’til the girls see us in the costumes I picked out for us tonight. They’re gonna be on their knees, begging for a piece.”
“Are you—”
“Yes.”
“Adam.” Rosie folds her lips into her mouth, but it doesn’t stop her laughter. It shakes her entire body instead as her eyes roam down my body, then back up. Down again, then up. Down once more, and finally that laughter breaks free. “I can’t handle this,” she cries, hands on her face, and I’ll tell you this: she’s definitely not on her knees, begging for a piece.
She’s so fucking adorable in her ladybug costume, and I’m…I’m fucking…God, I can’t even say the words.
Somehow, Carter’s found a way to top the Britney debacle.
There’s a manly shriek from the downstairs bathroom, and I know Jaxon’s just discovered his fate.
“I’m not wearing this!”
“You have to!”
“I’m not dying my hair!”
“It’s just colored hair gel! It’ll wash right out!”
Rosie and I exchange a look. “Ginger.”
She peeks over her shoulder, then steps toward me, pushing me back into the bathroom I just stepped out of. “You know,” she murmurs, trailing her hand down my cropped orange tank top, over my bared abs. “I think this suits you. Orange might be your color.”
“I’m gonna be fucking freezing.”
She smiles, pressing herself against me, sweeping her mouth over mine. “I’ll warm you up after.”
“That reminds me, Carter wants to do No-Nut November. No sex for the whole month.”
“But I start a new rotation on Monday. I’ll be up all night overthinking everything if you don’t put me to sleep. And also, just no.”
I chuckle, kissing her pouty red lips. “I may have let him talk me into this ridiculous fucking outfit, but I will not let him talk me out of you.” My eyes go to my reflection in the mirror, and I sigh at all the orange. I’d rather be in my crayon costume. “Do I look okay?”
Rosie presses her lips together and nods. “Mhmm.”
“That’s not convincing.”
“Well, I love you anyway.” Slender fingers lace through mine, and she tugs me out of the bathroom.
All eyes lift to mine, and Carter, who’s wearing a purple dress with a black lace overlay, spreads his arms wide. “Ehhh! There he is!”
The girls explode with laughter, and Rosie finally lets hers go beside me.
“Aw, c’mon!” Garrett throws his arms in the air. His blond hair is pulled into high pigtails, and he’s wearing a skintight pink dress and knee-high socks with his runners. The finishing touch is the gold choker around his neck that says BABY. “Adam got to be Sporty Spice and I’m stuck as fucking Baby Spice?”
Emmett gestures at his gold spandex jumpsuit. “Fuck off. I’m fucking Scary Spice. I’m wearing fucking spandex .” He aims a pointed look at his crotch and drops his voice to a whisper. “You can see everything .”
Cara rubs his chest. “And we love it, baby.”
Connor peeks up from the mat he’s playing on with Ireland, his eyes lighting. “Woooah-ho-ho! Dada! Orange Dada!” He leaps up, toddling over to me, strokes a hand over my orange cargo pants, and grins up at me. “I lub you, orange Dada.”
“I love you, too, Mittens.” Mittens because he’s dressed as a kitten, and he’s been walking around calling himself Mittens.
The basement door slides open, but nobody comes out. Then, after a minute, one running shoe appears, followed by a Union Jack sock, attached to a long, hairy leg. Slow as molasses, Jaxon steps into the hallway, clothed in red booty shorts and a matching tank top, showing off a sliver of his torso, and his brown hair now shines a vibrant red.
“Nobody say a word,” he mutters, walking into the silent kitchen with his head down. “Not a fucking word .”
The slow clomp of his shoes sounds against the kitchen floor as all eyes follow him. When he pulls a beer from the fridge and starts to down it, the snicker-snorts start, choked and muffled.
Jaxon closes his eyes and drops his head back with a groan as laughter explodes around him. “Fuck it, I don’t care. I look fine as fuck, and everyone knows Ginger Spice was the hottest Spice Girl.”
“Okay, well—” I gesture at myself “—it was clearly Sporty Spice.”
“No way,” Garrett argues. He twines a tiny pigtail and pops a hip, pink lollipop in his hand. “Baby Spice, all the way.”
Emmett gestures aggressively at his outfit. “I’m in. Fucking. Spandex .”
“You’re all wrong,” Carter says. “It was Posh Spice. She was the hottest one. That’s why I’m dressed as her.” He points his foot in his runners, and my eyes go to the black string he has laced up his calves like some sort of decoration. When he flexes one calf, the string breaks. “Aw, damnit. Ollie ! My muscular calves broke my string again!”
“Well, stop flexing them!”
“I can’t simply stop flexing my muscles.” He shakes his head and scoops up Ireland, who’s dressed as the world’s cutest puppy. “C’mon, puppy girl. Let’s get you into your Posh Spice costume.”
Olivia plants her fists on her hips. “She’s happy in her puppy costume.”
“She wants to twin with Daddy, though. Yes, you do, little princess, don’t you? Daddy even got you a leather jacket to keep you warm.” Despite Olivia’s protests, he heads down the hall with Ireland in his arms, singing “Spice Up Your Life” as he goes, and ten minutes later, he returns with his Posh Spice twin, except she’s still wearing her puppy ears.
He holds her out to Olivia. “Compromise.” Leaning into me, he hides his whisper behind his hand. “If I only have one night left, gotta make it count.”
He doesn’t only have one night left; he knows it as well as the rest of us do, including Olivia, who rolls her eyes and whispers something in his ear, something that has his eyes bulging as we all head toward the front door.
We stop on the front porch for a photo op—several, actually, until Carter’s satisfied—then head down the street, one terrifying group that definitely shouldn’t ever be seen in public.
But as I look around at my friends, the way everyone simply accepts their place in this unit, how permanent it is, I know this is everything I’ve ever wanted out of life. Family who chooses to stand next to you every day, even when you’re a six-foot-five man dressed as a Spice Girl and embarrassing the fuck out of yourself.
I look down at the tiny hand in mine, his other hand tucked into his mama’s as we walk down the street, and fuck , everything just feels so damn right in this world.
Rosie’s gaze slides to mine, cheeks flushing when she catches the goofy smile stuck on my face. “What?”
“I love our family.”
Her eyes move over our people, and she smiles the most beautiful smile. “Connor and I are so lucky to be a part of it.”
Cara pops her head over her shoulder. “And we’re so lucky you two are a part of it.”
ME
Where is everyone?
I’ve been at the rink for fifteen minutes now, getting ready for our morning skate, and the other four still aren’t here. I’d like to hear their excuses, since fucking my wife/girlfriend/random girl I met at the gym all morning can’t be any of their reasons. No-Nut November commenced nine hours ago. I’m the only one with a license to be buried nine-and-a-half inches deep inside my woman.
And I was, in case anyone was wondering. Rosie and I got up with the sun, and coffee on the balcony turned into…well, fucking on the balcony. Sue me for not wanting to take advantage of a gorgeous sunrise over the mountains.
The door to the dressing room opens, and Jaxon walks in, hair a mess and sunglasses on, Starbucks in his hands.
He sinks down beside me with a sigh, stretching his legs out and crossing one ankle over the other. “Sorry I’m late. I slept in. It was amazing. Maybe a break from sex is what I needed.”
“It’s been nine hours. I don’t think you can deduce that yet.”
“Feel like I can.” He sips his coffee and eyes me. “You got laid six ways to Sunday. You lucky fuck.”
Before I can answer, the door swings open with so much force, it bounces off the wall. Carter strides in, his fly halfway undone and his shirt on inside out. He pulls a wad of cash out of his pocket and slaps it down on the bench beside me.
“I’m out.”
“You’re out?” I throw my arms out wide. “It’s been nine hours!”
“Ollie put her bumblebee costume back on this morning, except without a top and no panties on under her tutu.” He laughs, running a hand over his mouth. “We played this game where she—”
The door bangs open, and Garrett waltzes in, whistling. He tosses a stack of bills down, and Jaxon gasps. “You too?”
“Jennie got a new toy. Said she didn’t need me anymore.” He shrugs. “Had to show her that she does, in fact, need me.”
This time when the door opens, it’s a slow creak. Emmett sticks his head in, peeking in before he ambles on in, running a hand through his mussed blond hair. “So, uh…how about that No-Nut November, huh?”
“Carter and Garrett are both already out.”
“Oh, thank fuck .” He counts out his money, adding it to the pile. “Well, it started with Cara refusing to dismount me at midnight. Then I argued that it didn’t count because we started before midnight, so technically , it was Halloween sex. Then she said, ‘Technically , Emmett, I don’t need you to make myself come.’” His eyes glaze over. “She popped on that fucking audiobook they’re listening to, and started…she started…she spread her legs and I…I…I tried. I really tried.”
Garrett squeezes his shoulder. “I know, buddy. I know.”
Jaxon leaps to his feet, tossing his arms overhead. “Are you fucking kidding me? Was I the only one taking this seriously?” He scoops up the money, aggressively tucking it in his pocket before he points a finger at them, one after the other. “Fuck you. Fuck you. And fuck you.” He points at me. “Thank you for believing in me, but fuck you, too, because you had sex and I had none.”
“Okay, so. Hear me out.” Carter braces his hands out in front of him and grins expectantly. “Destroy-Her-With-Your-Dick December.”
Silence hangs in the air for only the briefest of moments. Then, suddenly, the empty spot on the bench where Jaxon’s winnings just were is overflowing with a fuckton of cash all over again.
“I’m in.”