Page 51 of Long Hard Road

“Oh shit. Your family is totally going to know we were doing something up here.” She put a hand on her flushed cheek. “I can’t face them like this.”

Her distress was utterly adorable. “They’ll probably be able to smell it on me,” I said, bringing up my hand that was still coated in her arousal.

“You have to wash that right now.” She grabbed my other hand and started tugging me toward the nearest bathroom. “I can never show my face around your family again.”

“Relax, Madison.” I laughed as she turned on the faucet for me. “They will not be able to smell your orgasm on me. I was kidding. For all they know, we’ve been thoroughly examining the pictures in Mom’s gallery wall.”

“There’s a gallery wall?” Her green eyes were bright against her red cheeks. “With pictures of a young Nate?”

I went ahead and washed my hands even though I had no problem having her scent on me. “I’ll show you. I was a cute kid.”

After drying my hands, I pulled her down the hallway toward my parents’ bedroom. The entire left side of the hallway was covered with framed pictures. Most of them had been hung up by my mom years ago, but Dad had added some himself in recent years.

“Wow.” Madison stared at the wall like it was an art display in a fancy museum. “That’s a lot of family pictures.”

“Is it?” We had always taken pictures at holidays and birthdays, plus on family trips or at important events. None of it had seemed very excessive to me, but maybe other families didn’t document their lives so thoroughly.

“I think my parents had us take two family pictures in my entire life.” She pointed to one where we were gathered around a cake. “Is that little birthday boy you?”

“Yeah, that’s me. Sixth birthday.” I smiled at the picture, remembering how stoked I had been about the cake that was shaped like a race car. “Mom made that cake. There was no baker in Crestwood that would make something like that and it was all I asked for that year.”

Madison pointed to the woman leaning over me in the picture. “That’s her?”

“Yep, that’s Mom.” It had been so long since she died that I sometimes couldn’t remember what she looked like. “Harper is her twin.”

“She was beautiful.” Madison smiled at me. “You have her eyes.”

“Hey! You two need to stop humping each other and get down here! It’s time for War!” Chase’s voice carried throughout the entire second floor.

“War?” she mouthed at me.

“It’s a card game. It’s like the regular card game War that you play with one other person, only we’ve modified it into a complex game with four decks of cards that you can play with six or more people. It’s a fun time, but it gets super competitive. You’ll see.” Our War games were loud and chaotic and we all loved every second of it.

Madison seemed nervous as she settled at the table and Ronan began patiently explaining the rules to her. When he explained that drawing an ace would make your partner lose all their cards, she looked at me in panic.

“Don’t worry, angel. I’ll be your partner.” I winked across the table at her.

“No!” Harper slapped a hand on the table. “You’ll be all gross and flirty the whole time. That’s why Evan and Lily can’t be partners either.”

“I’ll be Madison’s partner,” Ronan offered. “Nate can partner with Lil. Evan and Chase. Harp and Tom.”

“Perfect.” Tom pointed at Harper. “Just don’t fuck this up like last time or I’m writing you out of the will.”

“He’s joking,” Ronan told Madison when he saw that she was still panicking. “The Sullivans are kind of ruthless with anything competitive, but I’m not. So don’t worry if you make a mistake.”

He wasn’t lying. More than one family game night had ended in a physical fight and some tears. Ronan had never taken any of our antics very seriously and he was the perfect buffer for introducing someone to the game of War.

Needless to say, we were all surprised when quiet, shy Madison ended up being a covert card game genius who also delivered brutal trash talk to all of us.

“Give me your cards, Sullivan,” she taunted at me after drawing the king of hearts. “And then you can finish crying into your beer.”

“Atta girl.” Ronan held up his hand for a forceful high-five. They had been winning for almost the entire game.

I shoved my cards across the table with a grunt. “This is bullshit. You should’ve been my partner.”

“Aw. Poor baby.” She grinned at me. “Now pay up.”

I tossed a handful of quarters into the bowl in the middle of the table. “Guess I won’t be taking you on a date anytime soon.”