The Blue Collar Bachelors Box Set: The Complete Blue Collar Bachelors Series by Cassie-Ann L. Miller

Author:Cassie-Ann L. Miller [Miller, Cassie-Ann L.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, mobi
Published: 2019-02-22T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

Ben

"Some things never change, huh?"

I slide the metal prongs of the fork out of my mouth as the sweet, syrupy taste of cooked apples invades my tongue. Fuck, that's good. I take half a second to swallow and only then do I lift my eyes to my mother's smirking face. "What things never change?"

A hearty laugh pours out of her chest. "I say 'pie' and you come running."

I scoff, pretending to be appalled by her self-satisfied tone. "So, this was a bribe?" I wiggle the container in my hand and the decadent goodness bounces from plastic wall to plastic wall.

Her eyes dance. "I wouldn't call it a bribe. ‘Bribe’ is such an ugly word. ‘Incentive’, maybe." A network of lines shows up on her face when she laughs.

My pace stalls completely and I clasp my hand on her shoulder to stop her. I know my mother and I know that she's only half-joking. She hates asking for help. It's like she thinks that her rare requests are a burden on Madden and me. They're not. We’ve got her back. I just wish she'd believe us. But the fact that I’ve been so doggedly focused on work lately only adds to her hesitation to reach out for help. Well, since I screwed up the meeting in the hospital’s auditorium, I’ve been rethinking my priorities. Especially since a certain stubborn, doe-eyed brunette is back in town. Maybe I need to lay low at work for a while.

I turn her to face me. "Incentive? Mom, when something is wrong, you call me. Or Madden. We don't need incentives or bribes or—"

"I know, I know,” she says snappily, her gaze falling instantly to the floor.

She called me this morning on my day off and asked me to swing by to help her get Clyde to the hospital. I didn’t hesitate. For family, you never hesitate.

She shrugs out of my grasp. All levity has disappeared and now, all I see in her blue irises is distress. “It's just that, you and your brother are busy with work. And Clyde isn't your father. And—"

"It doesn't matter that Clyde isn't our father. He's family and if something is wrong with him, I want to know. And Madden feels the same.” I pull in a deep breath and the pungent Iodoform hospital-smell is so thick in the air I can taste it. “You don't need to be going through this shit alone."

I bite down on my tongue, silently wishing I hadn’t let the swear word slip. My mother is as sweet and wholesome as the apple pie she’s so famous for baking. The last thing I want to do is offend her sensibilities.

Her gaze lingers on the ground and I know that after all these years, she still feels guilty. Clyde and my father had the type of friendship they make movies about. Golf partners. Drinking buddies. Die-hard Packers fans in a town full of Chicago Bears enthusiasts. They were both lieutenants on the fire department, friendly competitors in the running to be the next captain.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.