CHAPTER 21

I shake my head and take the bags into me and the girls' room before stashing it under the bed for safe keeping. I'm almost out of the room when I notice Natsuko sitting up from the couch. She's hesitant to say anything and I have nothing to say yet.

"Do you need me to step out," She asks quietly.

"No but for all intents and purposes you should at least try to socialize with the locals," I tell her, starting to leave.

"I want you to hurt me. Not because it'll make you break your word to my mom but because I just want to feel something," Natsuko says, almost begging.

I move in front of her and crouch down to her eye level. She's a little afraid but I can see she's accepting of what I could do next. I have never wanted to hit a woman before and right now I still don't. I back up and sit on the bed across from her.

"I remember a little Asian girl who came in my room one day when I was pissed off and talked me down before screaming in Japanese while we had sex," I say keeping my head downcast," I remember handing her a bat and letting her 'execute' someone who wanted my blood and she seemed to enjoy herself and even surprised me a little then. You're close to me Natsuko, so I need you to understand why I can't talk to you about this now. I want to forgive you and I want to let the girls turn you into paste on the pavement and I want to put you against the wall and wrap you around me right now."

"I'd like those too, except for the paste thing," Natty says, trying to make a joke.

"When I'm ready to talk to you and I want your explanation I'll let you and all my girls know. Your brother doesn't get to be there because this is about you and us," I tell her, getting a nod of acceptance.

We head down stairs and I see all the crew talking with Loretta, Abigail and Bethany in the den and when I approach Natsuko I get a look from Kori which I shake off and smile at her. I figure out they are talking about relationships, particularly mine.

"So really there are five of you and all of you just share," Bethany says, getting a nod from Kori," I can't get one of my friends to share a phone and you share a Guy."

"Well you gotta understand it wasn't Guy's idea in the first place which is why it works so well. It came from a woman," Kori says, nudging me as I sit next to her on the couch.

"Well I can understand why you all like him. He's nice but not a pushover and he just doesn't give up on anything," Abigail says getting looks from around the room," Hey he could have ruined Carlos and me but he didn't because he was being nice.``

"Why did we never hear this story," Mathilda says, a little grumpy.

"You did, it's the one where he met me," Imelda says, smiling big.

Everyone has a good laugh at that and we mostly spend the hours stretching out from the road trip down and talking with the family. I find out that Carlos and Abigail are still going strong since the last time we chatted but Bethany broke off her relationship with Tyrell. Apparently when an athlete gets injured they turn into a major asshole to their cheerleader girlfriend and even though they could have worked it out Beth is over being his trophy girl. I learned that Loretta has consolidated most of her charity work by combining a few of the houses so that she has more of the same forms and less hassle when she takes care of the girls. I think about Jackie for a moment and want to ask what's going on when my phone goes off to a familiar number. I step away from the room and answer my phone.

"Hello you've reached Guy Donnelly," I say cheerfully into the phone.

"You know who this is kid so cut the shit," I hear the Old Man over the line," Where is my delivery?"

"Delivery, I didn't know about any delivery sir. You were helping me get down here on a road trip by supplying me with a few drivers. Did they not make it back to you," I ask innocently.

"You know damn well what delivery I'm talking about boy so don't play around with me," he says getting annoyed.

"Well here's the thing, I might have learned about how someone I trusted to help me did something to betray that trust. I also might have gone on my own and taken care of matters involving things that should have been brought to my attention and discussed with me before I was put into a position where I felt I needed to protect myself and those close to me," I tell him, turning my tone from happy to a quiet rage.

"Boy you better not have done anything stupid," the Old Man says, almost warning me over the phone.

"What we've got here is a failure to communicate. So tomorrow here's what I'm gonna do. I'm going to finish out my first day down here and relax with my family and friends and tomorrow morning after breakfast I'm going out on a drive to see about an addition to my tattoo. Now if you want to talk to me like a person then I'll be more than happy to sit down and we can both complain about who wronged who, sound fun," I ask at the end.

"Peachy fucking keen. I'll be here tomorrow but you better show up and have a damn good explanation for this shit," the Old Man says hanging up.

I shut my phone off and turn to see some of my girls are watching me, they know I was not having a pleasant conversation but I wave them off like I'll be okay and smile as I head back in as we ride out the day catching up and everyone gets to know everyone else.

Dinner was nice and we had to eat outside because there was no room for everyone inside the dining room but we made it work and everyone headed off to relax when I got waved over by Bethany. I follow her for a bit and make a mental note that denim shorts and a bikini top on a tanned blonde cheerleader are a very nice thing to watch as we get away from the crowd. I can tell she's got some 'permission' style questions and I lean up against one of the trees in the back yard and wait for her to find her courage.

"Okay so I've got some problems Bro and I need to run them by you first," Bethany says as I choke on her words.

"Bro, I'm Bro now," I chuckle.

"Well yeah, I mean you're back down here again and we're pretty much family," Beth explains.

"Okay but what about the times we were having sex and you let me finish in you," I ask, making a joke.

"That's part of the problem, I've got people asking me for some 'not so quiet' time and some of them I'm pretty sure are gonna get me in trouble with you," Beth says nervously.

"Well first off who's asking and who are you interested in," I ask, taking note of her reactions.

"Well there's that big guy Devin, I just think he'd be a great lay but his girlfriend scares me a bit so I was wondering if she's okay with it like your girls would be," She asks a little hopeful.

"No Beth, Masha doesn't share and they are very in love," I tell her, getting a small frown and shrug for my answer.

"The other problem is I have two people wanting to get in my pants. One is your girl Katy with big boobs. She says she wants to hear me cheer while we have sex, I told her I like guys but she said that if you were there then I shouldn't say no," Beth says with a little curiosity.

"Remember the video from last summer, Katy wanted that. Sometimes that girl just likes to have really hard sex," I say, enlightening her to Katy's nature.

"Okay but how would she and I have sex, I mean with you there I can have you but what is she gonna do," Beth asks almost getting me to laugh.

"I'll talk to her but if we can find a time I promise you that the two of us will make sure every itch gets scratched," I say getting a bit of a smirk from Beth.

"Okay and finally that guy Ben," She says and my face must show signs of disapproval," I'm guessing you're not okay with him or the little Asian girl? You seemed really tense with both of them and she seemed scared."

"What happened with her is not your concern first and second Ben is a bit of a problem. What did he tell you," I ask, waiting to hear the new story.

"Well he said that he was in a break up a before the trip and that he wants to settle things with her when they get back if possible but since he was free he thought that we could fool around," Beth tells me making my blood boil a little," I'm guessing that red head he was touching isn't his ex girlfriend."

"No Hanna is just a friend in the group and she usually prefers girls but as for his girlfriend," I say leaving the ex out," she's my other sister. From up in Washington."

"So he's down here fooling around on her and making up stories," Beth says moving next to me against the tree," Now that just puts me off something fierce, and to think I wanted to try something new."

"Yeah well my other sister, Elizabeth, knows and said to let him play and I was to let her know everything when it happened so she could do whatever she has planned," I tell Beth letting her in on the secret.

"Okay, I want to talk to her," Beth says, holding her hand out for my phone.