Free Just His Type (Part One) by Victoria June Page B

hit the house with an audible surge it made all three of us jump. Mom, Vi, and I exchanged nervous glances.
     
    "I don't think you'll be going anywhere tonight, Lilly dear," Mom said with a tired smile. "You'll have to stay. Adam can have the couch in the front room and you can bunk with Violet. It'll blow over by morning."
     
    I opened my mouth to argue but Mom 'shushed' me in much the same way she'd been doing since I was a kid. I'd learned early in life never to argue with my mother, but at times I still felt it didn't hurt to try.
     
    The back door blew open with a bang and four very wet and muddy men stumbled in. Only Dad appeared unconcerned about the weather.
     
    Vi retrieved clean towels and passed them out while I stood watching Adam with a dry mouth as he toweled off as best he could. His t-shirt was plastered to his chest in the most distracting way and I don't think Mom or Vi missed that little fact either.
     
    Matt took a step towards the hall, intending on finding something dry to wear, but Mom stopped him with a short, sharp noise of distress. All four men watched her warily.
     
    " Not on my clean floors, Buster," she muttered dangerously. "Vi, quit staring at Adam and go upstairs to your room. Lilly, can you please find everyone a dry set of clothes? Adam can wear something of Chuck's.
     
    "The rest of you," she turned her gaze to the men dripping rainwater and muck all over her kitchen floor, " strip ! And try not to get any more mud on my floor than you already have."
     
    Matt and Chuck laughed in tandem, Vi grumbled mutinously, Adam looked surprised at the order but not brave enough to argue, and Dad remained stoic as always.
     
    The sight of Adam, my Dad, and my brothers, each well over six feet tall, obediently stripping down to their boxers while little Mom glared threateningly at them is not something I'm liable to forget any time soon. I laughed all the way upstairs, herding a grumbling Vi ahead of me as I went.
     
    ********
     
    It was strange sleeping in my old room again - not that I managed to fall asleep. From the other side of the room Vi breathed softly and slowly while around me the old house creaked and groaned under the force of the storm. I lay awake and thought about Adam. Beside me the clock ticked endlessly, sluggishly on.
     
    It had been a pleasant evening. With Joe away the atmosphere had lightened up; we'd finished our dessert, the men clad in dry, warm changes of clothing. Dad walloped Adam at checkers most of the night, although I couldn't shake the feeling that perhaps Adam hadn't played his best.
     
    I sat across the room with Mom and Vi and watched the two of them knit; Mom was working on yet another pair of socks for Dad in sturdy grey wool, Violet was knitting something shapeless in fluorescent green fuzz. The conversations flowed over me, punctuated by sly, sexy little glances from Adam, who seemed to be enjoying himself a great deal.
     
    Still there was an undercurrent of unease I couldn't quite quantify or even really pin-point the source of. Dad seemed to be doing his best to get to know Adam, asking him quiet questions about his job and his opinion on a variety of mostly harmless subject; religion and politics were left out.
     
    Matt and Chuck clearly were taken with Adam, interrupting his conversation with Dad at intervals to talk further about the bike. I caught Mom shooting Adam the occasional reassuring smile and she'd given him the largest slice of pie after dinner, a sure sign he was in her good graces. There was very little question of where Adam stood with Vi, she watched him hungrily, like a kitten who's just noticed a big ball of string for the first time in her life and wasn't quite sure of what to do with it.
     
    Bringing Adam home had been interesting. It was a premature test of his mettle and something I wasn't going to do again for a long time. No matter how splendidly Adam had handled it, my nerves just weren't up to a repeat performance any