I Burned Down His House (Love at First Crime Book 3)

by Jessica Frances

  “You’re okay.” I jump up when he tries to grab ahold of me, but Grayson, as limber as ever apparently, leaps over the back of my couch and catches me in his arms, quickly trapping me to him before he gives me a noogie, which takes me straight back to when we were kids.

  “Get off me, you asshat!” I wave my arms around, trying to dislodge him, but it isn’t until I free my arms that I am able to give him a purple nurple.

  He cries out, shoving me off him and covering both clothed nipples with his hands, looking ridiculous.

  Having thought that, my once nice ponytail feels out of place, along with the hair I can feel falling down the sides of my face. We both undoubtedly look silly right about now.

  “No fair. You know how sensitive these guys are,” he whines.

  “Ew, I don’t know that, and I wish I didn’t now know that.”

  He glares at me, not that he has much heat behind it. “Shut up.”

  “No, you shut up.”

  Grayson’s duffle bag suddenly rings, forcing us to drop our staring contest so he can grab his iPad. Calling him is Mom, so we both settle on the couch to take her call.

  Mom and I sometimes talk face-to-face on my phone or laptop, but I generally prefer to speak just through a regular call. I get less commentary on how I’m dressed and how I look.

  “Hey, Mom,” we both say together.

  She claps her hands in front of herself, looking delighted to see us … for all of three seconds.

  “Have you two been fighting?” Her stern tone breaks over us, another thing that takes me back to when we were kids. Dad always let us be, while Mom had the job of disciplining us whenever we took things too far.

  “No,” we answer again in unison.

  “Why is your hair in that state?” she questions me, and I quickly pat down the matted hair.

  “Grayson is still a child,” I mutter.

  “Me? You’re the one who gave me a purple nurple! Who even does that anymore?”

  My eyes widen. “Only after you attacked me and tried to create a bird’s nest on top of my head!”

  “Yeah, well, you were asking for it by teasing me! I know I’m your favorite!”

  “I see nothing has changed!” Mom snaps, drawing our attention back to her. “Do I need to come over there and give you both a smack and a time-out?”

  “Actually, I think Grayson could use a—”

  His elbow steals the breath from my lungs and stops me from speaking.

  “We’re fine, Mom. Just having some fun.”

  She eyes us warily, but since we both put on our finest smiles, she gives us a small shake of her head and lets it go.

  “Where is Joey? I want to meet him. You haven’t both scared him off, have you?”

  “He’s at work still.”

  “Don’t worry, Mom. I’ll put him through his paces; make sure he’s treating our girl okay.”

  “I’m not your girl. I’m a fucking grown-ass woman!” I snap at him, having heard similar comments from all my brothers for most of my life.

  “Language!” Mom snaps, not that her tired rebuke has ever stopped any of us from cussing in front of her, even to this day.

  “Sorry, Mom,” I mutter, hating how much that puts a damper on my grown woman comment. “Joey isn’t here for you to interrogate, scare away, or for you to put pressure on him. We’re just starting out, and I don’t want either of you to wreck this or make things weird.”

  “Honey, if he can’t handle Grayson, then he has no hope in handling the rest of your brothers.”

  I hate that she has a point. My other four brothers are either married with kids, or close enough. They are settled, law-abiding citizens who appear completely normal, until my love life becomes involved.

  After what happened with Jarrod, all my brothers flew down to face him. There were words, there were punches, and there were restraining orders issued. It was one huge mess. And while that was rather extreme, they made things hell for me when it came to dating. I may be an adult in the eyes of the law, but in their eyes, I am their baby sister and every man who wants to sleep with me is clearly the enemy.

  If Joey isn’t scared away by my family, then he must be a unicorn and protected at all costs.

  “I won’t be too hard on him,” Grayson promises with a sinister smile.

  “You better not be, or you can sleep outside … with Karma.”

  “Where is this dog? I haven’t seen her, and I’m incredibly loveable,” Grayson asks, craning his head and looking around my living room, as if she would be quiet up until now.

  “She’s outside. Go let her in so Mom can see.”

  I smirk as he bounds up from the couch, racing toward the back door.

  Karma is incredibly excitable, and when she’s been outside for the day, she is basically a wrecking ball to the first person she sees. I don’t warn Grayson about this, and enjoy his expletives as Karma gives him a warm welcome.

  “How are things going with Joey? I trust you took my advice?” Mom asks, bringing my attention back to her.

  “Yes, Mom. We decided to see where this goes, but we’re taking things slow. I’m not sure meeting the family was exactly what I wanted to happen a week in, but, oh well.” It’s too late to stop this now. If things were going to progress with Joey, this would be happening, anyway.

  Besides, a small part of me is interested to know how he will react. If Joey hasn’t dated a woman longer than a few weeks at a time, then it’s reasonable to assume meeting the family has never come up.

  How will he handle meeting mine?

  If he’s going to get scared off, I would prefer it to happen now rather than a few months down the road.

  “Grayson is a sweetie. I’m sure he and Joey will become best friends.”

  I only just hold in my snort. Grayson is anything but a sweetie. But, as Mom’s youngest boy, he’s always gotten away with the most. Every fight he’s gotten into has never been Grayson’s fault. Every failed test at school had more to do with poor teaching, and nothing to do with Grayson skipping class.

  He erupts into the room with a barking Karma hot on his tail, and when he dumps his ass next to me on the couch, Karma takes it as an invitation to leap on top of us both, giving our faces and bodies enough licks and slobber to have us both needing a shower.

  “Karma!” Mom squeals through the iPad.

  Karma turns at the sound of her name, giving Grayson and me enough time to wipe our faces.

  “Your dog is nuts,” he hisses at me, turning to see Mom making faces and cooing sounds at Karma.

  “She’s Joey’s dog,” I mutter on reflex.

  To be honest, once Joey’s house is rebuilt, which I have no idea what is happening with that since I forgot to ask and Joey hasn’t kept me up-to-date, I need to work out some sort of sharing system with him for Karma. I will miss not having her around, and I refuse to give up walking her every day. Except when it’s snowing, then I will be okay to forgo her walks.

  Mom talks to Karma for longer than she talks to us, and by the time we say our goodbyes, I’m tired.

  After I take a quick shower, Grayson washes off Karma’s slobber next while I make up the couch for him and place spare blankets on the coffee table.

  With us both yawning in our pajamas, Grayson hugs me tightly. “Good to see you, sis.”

  “I’m glad you’re here, too,” I whisper back.

  I fall asleep feeling content, happy to have my brother with me, and briefly speculating over what kind of trouble he will cause while he is here.

  Apparently, I don’t have to wait long to find out.

  ***

  Something smashing wakes me up. I feel groggy and slow until I hear another crash that causes me to jackknife up.

  What the hell is going on?

  I glance at the clock, seeing it’s almost four in the morning.

  Is someone breaking in?

  Another crash gets my feet moving. Grayson is out there. I’m not leaving him to face whatever
is happening alone.

  I grab my phone, dialing Joey’s number as I go, and just as I reach the end of the hallway, listening to the grunts and groans, a phone begins to ring.

  There is a pause in the shadows movements as I flick the light switch to see Joey has Grayson in a headlock, along with a cut down his own cheek. Grayson already has a bloodied nose and split lip. Both their clothes look disheveled with tears.

  “What the hell is going on?” I gasp, ending my call to Joey, which also ends the ringing coming from his cell that is laying on the floor.

  Karma comes charging in now, leaping at Joey in her excitement to see him, which means he lets Grayson go so he can catch her.

  “This asshole jumped me!” Grayson growls, rubbing his throat.

  “Who the hell are you and what are you doing in Teagan’s house?” Joey demands, managing to not look too ridiculous since Karma is jumping all over him.

  “I’m her brother, asshat. Who the fuck are you?”

  “This is Joey, Grayson!” I yell, mortified that this is how they are meeting. “I’m sorry,” I rush to say to Joey. “Grayson turned up unexpectedly just tonight. I forgot to mention it to you.”

  “This is Joey?” Grayson snaps, his gaze raking over Joey in a new light. He doesn’t appear impressed.

  “Joey Kim.” He offers his hand out to Grayson. “Sorry about the headlock.”

  “Just the headlock? Man, I’m pretty sure you fucking broke my nose,” Grayson retorts, leaving Joey’s hand hanging between them.

  “Nah, not sorry about that. I thought you were breaking into Teagan’s house. There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do to protect her, even breaking your nose.”

  When Grayson’s eyes narrow on Joey, I’m not sure if he’s impressed with his answer or thinks it’s bullshit.

  “Then how come you’re sorry about the headlock?”

  Joey smiles at him, making his lip bleed more. “I realized you weren’t a thief by then, and that you had shit fight training. I could have knocked you down in three seconds, but decided to dish out a little more pain. Hence, the headlock.”

  “Joey!” I gasp, not liking that at all.

  Grayson, however, appears appeased by that answer, finally accepting his handshake.

  “Okay, I can hold off on passing down judgement just yet. Grayson Bevon.”

  “Also, couldn’t give a fuck what you think of me. Pretty sure her opinion is all that matters.” Joey nods at me.

  While that is sweet of him to say, I’m not amused.

  “How about you guys stop this macho crap and start cleaning up my house. And can you do it quietly? I’m trying to freaking sleep.” With that, I storm off, incredibly annoyed, but more so at myself since I completely forgot to warn Joey what to expect when he got back. This could have all been avoided if I had just sent a stupid text message.

  “I see she’s still grumpy in the morning,” Grayson grumbles, just before I hear what sounds like glass clattering.

  “I don’t know. She’s usually happier to see me in the morning. It must be you.”

  “Shut up, man. She fucking loves me. I’m her favorite brother,” Grayson growls. Even from down the hall, I hear no fire behind it.

  “Oh, I thought you introduced yourself as Grayson earlier. You must be Chester if you’re her favorite.”

  I bite my lip to stop my laugh from coming out, finding it hilarious that Joey was quick enough to say that. I don’t think I ever mentioned the small rivalry my brothers have over who is my favorite, but after my talk with Grayson earlier, he couldn’t have picked a better time to say this.

  “Fuck you, asshole. I’m her favorite, and the fact that you don’t know that means you don’t mean jack to her.” Grayson is on the defensive.

  “I don’t know. I mean, she’s talked to me a lot about her four favorite brothers. I’m not sure she’s ever mentioned a Grayson.”

  I creep back down the hallway, wanting to see them interact. I just make it in time to see Grayson take a swipe at Joey. He hits him in his stomach, but before I can make a sound of protest, Joey is laughing his ass off.

  “Now I definitely know I don’t like you,” Grayson grumbles, a small smile on his lips.

  Oh, my God. They are getting along! They are joking around together! After just trying to beat each other up!

  What is happening?

  How can this go from the worst introduction ever to going better than I could have hoped?

  I sneak back down the hallway, listening to them still bickering and joking around as I crawl back under the covers. I can’t stop the smile from gracing my lips.

  When Joey eventually enters my room, his footsteps unsure as he makes his way over to my bed, I reach out and grab his shirt, pulling him onto the bed and kissing him thoroughly. He doesn’t appear fussed that his lip was injured in the scuffle with Grayson. And he doesn’t take long to take over.

  With me under the covers and him sprawled out over them, we kiss long and hard until we are breathing heavily and cursing the fact that Grayson is only feet away, way too close for anything more to happen between us.

  “Well, that was quite the greeting. I came in here, half-expecting you to kick me out.”

  “Why?”

  “Your brother is sleeping on the couch. I figured you did that because you wanted me in your spare bedroom.”

  I shake my head, not that there is enough light in here to see much. “I only did that because it felt wrong to kick you out of there since I already burned your place down.”

  “In that case, move over.”

  I roll over to the side, and as soon as Joey is under the covers, I scoot back over and into his arms.

  “I guess this changes our morning plans,” he mutters.

  “Yeah, sorry about that.” My disappointment matches his. “I had no idea he was coming. And I did mean to send you a text to warn you, but we got distracted, and then it just slipped my mind.”

  “It’s okay. Scared the shit out of me when I saw him moving around in your kitchen, but it all turned out for the best.”

  “It did?” How can Joey and Grayson fighting ever be for the best?

  “Yeah, your brother got a few shots in. Pretty sure he would have wanted to do that anyway, so at least now he had a good excuse.”

  “Grayson wouldn’t want to hurt you,” I rush to defend him. Now, if Joey hurt me in the future, that would not be at all accurate.

  “That guy loves you to bits. Of course he wants to beat the shit out of me.”

  “Well, I would appreciate it if you could refrain from doing that, or giving him the option to do that to you.”

  “I am happy to oblige.”

  “Good.”

  We lie in silence as I rest my head on his shoulder and breathe in his familiar scent. This is quickly becoming my favorite place to be.

  “You’re not mad that he’s here, are you?”

  “This is your house, Teags. You can have anyone here you want.”

  “I know, but for the moment, this is your home, too. I don’t want you to think I’m pushing you to make this into something more. I really didn’t know he was coming. When I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do about you, I called my mom. She ended up speaking to Grayson, who packed his bags from wherever he was crashing and made his way over here.”

  “Teagan, I’ve already told you this is something special. Whatever is happening between us, it already feels different. Good different. Meeting families was going to happen. And to be honest, the idea of meeting all your brothers at once was pretty daunting. This way, I can get Grayson to see I’m not some asshole, and then I’ll have him on my side. That feels like a good thing.”

  “You already have my mom on your side, too,” I tell him.

  “Good to know.”

  “What about your parents? What are they like?”

  “They’re nice enough. Talk to my mom about grandbabies and you’ll win her over instantly. Win my mom, and you’ll instantly win my dad.” />
  I smile, liking that about his dad.

  “That’ll be easy. I want lots of kids,” I say, realizing too late what I said out loud. If I was unsure about meeting family being too soon, then kid talk is definitely way too soon.

  It’s like the universe and myself are setting me up to mess this up.

  “You do?”

  “Yeah, I mean, I come from a big family. I like kids.” I sound meek. I wonder how long before Joey starts running for the hills.

  “I like kids, too,” he finally replies.

  I’m not sure what he means by that. As in, he likes other people’s kids because he can hand them back after a short while, or if he means one day he wants to have kids because he likes them? Either way, I’m too chicken to ask and he doesn’t care to elaborate.

  “Go to sleep, Teags. Our morning plans changed, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t going to be busy.”

  He’s not wrong. As soon as we wake up, Grayson begins a new interrogation of Joey, asking him a million questions between breakfast and lunch. I can tell Grayson approves of Joey’s answers.

  By the time Joey makes him a huge steak sandwich with so many fillings they are already falling out the sides, he’s basically won Grayson over completely. However, as soon as he leaves after lunch to go back to work, Grayson’s approval of him dims.

  “Does he always leave alone you so much?”

  “He has work,” I defend.

  “Still, it’s not much of a life. You sure you want to hitch your wagon to someone with such shit work hours?”

  “It’s not always like this. They’re working a big case at the moment. Once that goes away, this will die down a little.”

  I speak like I know what I’m talking about, when truthfully, I have no idea. I assume Joey’s work schedule isn’t always so full-on, but who knows? I’m sure a lot of his clients need him for odd hours.

  How will I feel having many nights alone? How will we manage if we do go down this road and kids become involved? Ava and Zander seem to make it work, but I might need to inquire as to how they do and how that works for her.

  When I was married to Jarrod, I felt more emotionally alone, though he obviously spent enough time away from me to carry on an affair. With Joey, maybe I wouldn’t feel emotionally alone. Maybe I would be physically alone.