The Seven 4: Just This Once

Hope

“After supper, I’m showing you what I did with my room,” Alec gushed excitedly. “There was so much space in there I turned half of it into my own personal studio with a backdrop and all the computer equipment I need to make a podcast or anything I want.”

I smiled warmly and squeezed his arm. “That’s awesome. So have you started your own channel yet?”

“No.” His enthusiasm dropped a notch. “Not yet. I’m still trying to figure out what I want to do. Faith wants to run a series of Hudson cooking shows, and Oaklynn needs to beef up her newscasting portfolio, so we’ve been tossing around ideas for those, but I don’t know. I just want it to be perfect.”

When he shrugged, I smiled, loving to watch him in his element and working through goals in his head. I swear, he practically glowed whenever he talked about his filming projects.

It made me glad that I’d come. I really needed to see that he was happy.

“You’ll figure it out,” I told him encouragingly, while across the room, the others were gathering around Hudson as he slid the girls’ improved dish into the oven.

“What is that, anyway?” Damien wondered.

“I’m calling it Brisket Surprise,” Hudson answered before casting a questioning look toward Faith. “That was brisket, right?”

“I mean…” She shrugged through a wince. “It started out that way.”

Damien chuckled and glanced toward my brother and me.

“Yo, Alec,” he called. “Could you fetch Keene? We need to make a house vote real quick.”

“Er, sure.” Alec sent me a look, silently wondering what that was about. Then he patted my arm and loped from the kitchen.

I glanced toward the others, already missing my brother’s presence, mostly because everyone else was now paired off.

Foster and Raina were whispering and cuddling amongst themselves. Faith was still watching what Hudson was doing as he started to prepare some kind of salad. Damien was grinning at Oaklynn as he drew a bottle of wine down from the cupboard for her. And Parker seemed intimately involved with his alcohol, moodily sipping from his bourbon with his back propped against the counter.

I sidled up next to him, and he glanced over warily, his frown telling me he didn’t want my company.

But I ignored the glower. “Are you going to be able to drive me anywhere after drinking that much?”

“Nope,” he answered with a clever little smirk. “I most definitely will not. I’m officially off the clock. But here.” Digging his hand into his pocket, he pulled up a slim, black remote and tossed it my way. “Knock yourself out.”

“What the hell is this?” I demanded as I fumbled to catch the fob. “Like I know how to even start that fancy piece of shit of yours.”

“You don’t have to,” he told me before taking another drink. “The motherfucker starts itself. You approach, it turns on and unlocks, ready to go. Then, the gear shifter is on the right side of the steering column. Down is drive, up is reverse, and the silver button on the end is park. Boom. Done. Then you walk away with the fob, and it shuts itself off and locks back up again. Easy.”

I scowled, not exactly excited to be gifted with the responsibility of one of his vehicles that probably cost the amount of a small island. “You really want me to take your car?”

He only shrugged. “No. I just really don’t want to spend another minute alone with you.”

“Wow,” I shot back dryly. “You’re too kind.”

He sniffed and took another drink.

“How are you going to get home, though?” I asked since he didn’t want to be alone with me.

He glanced around the room before saying, “I’ll catch a ride with the Happys.”

“Oh, man,” Foster groaned. “She’s got you stuck on the seven-dwarf thing, too? Seriously, Ohrley?”

“What?” Parker shrugged. “It’s contagious.” Then he sent me a dark glance. “Like the flu.”

“Hey, I’m fine with it,” Raina said. “Because we got Happy.” Then she paused to tilt Parker an inquisitive glance. “Does this mean you want to try again tonight?”

When Parker lifted a single shoulder and lowered his face as if defeated before mumbling, “I guess,” into his chest, my curiosity got the better of me.

“Try what again?” I had to ask.

He looked up and snarled, “None of your fucking business.”

Just as Raina told me, “I’m helping him contact his parents.” But her eyes widened as soon as she spoke. Wincing, she shifted her balled hand to her mouth. “I’m sorry. Was that a secret?”

“Not at all,” I assured her, shaking my head. “Dopey mentioned that one of you girls could visit with the dead while you slept. And I know all about how you’re able to share your dreams with others.”

Foster and Raina nodded together. “Yeah, it’s been quite a learning experience.”

“I’ll bet. It’s cool as hell, though,” I praised, lifting my eyebrows in wonder as I thought up what I’d say if I were able to see my dad again.

“Yeah,” Foster explained. “So we’ve been trying to help Parker see his—”

When Parker glanced his way with a warning scowl, Foster stopped talking and gulped uneasily.

But I’d already heard enough, so I finished the sentence for them, saying, “His parents.”

Parker lifted his glass and drained it, ignoring me completely. Looking almost haunted as he set it down on the counter behind him, he pushed away from the cabinets to wander across the kitchen toward Faith and Hudson.

I glanced at the Happys, and they winced back.

“No luck yet, huh?” I stated the obvious.

Raina’s shoulders slumped and her voice was low as she answered, “It’s just been hard to…sync right with him.”

I nodded, not sure what that meant but certain it had to be causing Parker some serious irritation. I knew how much he wanted to see his mom and dad. Alec had told me over the years just how many times Parker had tried to reach out between the two worlds to find them through various mediums and fortune tellers.

But when I turned my sympathetic gaze his way, I only found Oaklynn approaching.

“What’re y’all talking about over here?” she asked engagingly.

“Just the supernatural,” I answered, recalling other things Alec had told me. “Which means, you and her…” I motioned toward Faith. “Can see ghosts that are still stuck here in ~this~ world, right?”

“Right,” Oaklynn answered with a nod. “I draw them to me, and Faith can scare them off.”

“Handy,” I said, then glanced at Happy. “And you just learned you can see people stuck in the—” Shaking my head, I squinted before asking, “What did Alec call it? The in-between?”

Foster laughed. “Yeah. Something like that. When someone’s in a coma or in the process of dying, I can perceive their spirit once it’s outside their body.”

I shook my head, amazed by all the paranormal abilities hanging around the kitchen. I’d never met anyone with special talents before, and suddenly, here were four of them in the same room as me. “I bet that was a freaky discovery to make.”

With another chuckle, Foster nodded. “It was…” He glanced toward Raina and took her hand before finishing with, “Interesting, to say the least.”

“So how have you been doing since you woke up from that coma?” I asked her, remembering how Alec had told me that’s how she’d first met Foster after she’d gotten into a car accident.

Raina turned to send me a small smile. “Much better. Foster’s been the best healing presence there is.” When she turned a grateful and warm gaze his way, I grimaced bitterly, hating how their obvious affections made me feel so jealous.

But it sure as hell would’ve been nice if I’d had a healing presence around after my dad had died. My mother had been too busy trying to hate my dad for being a cheater and somehow blaming it all on me to worry about ~my~ frame of mind.

When Alec walked into the kitchen a moment later, my chest relaxed, my breathing grew easier, and my shoulders went lighter.

I guess I had gotten my healing presence after all. No one could calm me down like Alec could.

“So what’s up?” Keene demanded, entering with him. “Younger said we had some kind of house vote to make.” As soon as he said that, however, his eyes widened with horror, and he glanced worriedly my way. “Oh fuck. Please don’t say you want Hope to get the extra room.”

“Hope? No,” Damien started, shaking his head in confusion.

But Alec swung to me in surprise. “Wait. Do you need the extra room here?”

The extra room they were referring to must be the one Hudson had recently vacated when he’d moved in with Faith. He had rented a room at Archer House from Damien, along with Keene, Oaklynn, and Alec, but with him gone that obviously meant a new space was up for grabs.

“Of course not.” I shook my head and held my breath, hoping Alec didn’t try to convince me to stay here. “I already have other lodging arranged elsewhere.”

I’d sold my car back home just to afford it, too—not that I wanted my brother to learn that just yet.

“Oh,” he started, looking a little crestfallen.

“Besides,” Damien continued. “Foster already asked if his cousin Xander could have Ivey’s old room.”

“Your cousin?” Keene repeated, wrinkling his nose in disgust. “Which one is Xander again? Please don’t say the dude who owns, like, ten pet snakes.”

Eyebrows arching with interest, I wondered if Sneezy was scared of a little slithering. Oh, I was definitely going to have to do something about this newfound knowledge.

“No, no,” Foster was telling him. “That’s Drew, and he’s my cousin on my mom’s side. Xander’s a Union, and she’s my dad’s younger brother’s daughter. The one I’ve always said we thought was our grandma reincarnated. Remember?”

“Wait, wait.” Keene shook his hands to stop the conversation right there. “Did you say she? She’s a girl? You want us to live with a female?”

“Hey!” Oaklynn threw up her arms in outrage. “What the fuck do you think I am?”

Keene scoffed at her in disinterest. “You don’t count. You’re Archer’s other half. You’re like…mom.”

“Excuse me?” Propping her hands on her hips, she lifted both eyebrows and nailed Keene with a condemning glare. “Just last week you were begging me to flash you my tits.”

He only shrugged. “Okay, so you’re like a MILF mom, but this chick…” Turning back to Foster with a relishing grin, he started to bob his head in slow approval. “This would be like a roommate I could actually score with.”

“I’m sorry; say that again,” Foster demanded with lifted eyebrows, in essence warning Keene to retract his statement entirely.

But idiot Sneezy didn’t catch the hint. “She’s your cousin, not a sister,” he argued. “That makes her fair game. So… Is she hot? Single? Down to fuck?”

Foster pointed at him threateningly. “Touch my cousin, and I’ll break your arms, asshole.”

“That means yes.” Keene grinned in delight and began to rub his hands together excitedly. “She’s smokin’.”

“I mean, of course she is,” Raina spoke up with a laughing snort, only to get a dismayed glance from her boyfriend for saying so. Not even noticing him, she added, “She’s a freaking Union. They’re all drop-dead gorgeous with their perfect blond hair, blue eyes, banging bodies, tall, sleek stature, and flawless features.”

“Holy shit,” Keene breathed with wide, hungry eyes. I swear, he even began to drool. Lifting one hand, he told Damien, “I vote yes; she can stay with us. Definitely.”

Foster spun to scowl at Raina. “Did you really have to tell him that?”

“What?” she shrugged cluelessly. “It’s not like he’s not going to figure it out when he meets her. Besides, I didn’t mention the modeling part.”

“Modeling?” Keene echoed, popping forward. “She’s a model? Did you just say she was a fucking model?”

Grinding his teeth, Foster sent Raina a condemning glance.

With a wince, she whispered, “Oops.”

Sighing, Foster ran a hand over his hair and glanced regretfully toward Keene. “Alright. She might’ve been involved in a couple of photo shoots to help pay for college.”

“You should see the swimsuit edition,” Raina encouraged, glancing around Foster’s arm to whisper at Keene. “Wowzers.”

“Swimsuit?” Keene whimpered, only to fumble for his pocket and clumsily jerk his phone free so he could do a quick Internet search. Seconds later, he choked out a sound of shock and clutched his chest. A second after that, he grabbed Alec’s shirt and tugged him close so he could show my brother the phone too. “Swimsuit,” he uttered in clear adoration.

Alec looked down at the screen, and his eyes flared. “Holy shit,” he exclaimed, already shaking his head. “No. No way.” He even started to back away from the picture, that intimidated by it. “She can’t stay here. She’s ~way~ too pretty.”

“You know what?” Oaklynn exploded, lifting a hand to block their negativity. “Fuck you both. Am I just some hideous hag who lives here now or what?”

“They’re just too afraid to acknowledge how beautiful you are anymore,” Damien assured her, stroking her arm in comfort. “They know I’ll permanently maim them if they do.”

As Oaklynn shot him a disbelieving glance, Hudson said, “Let me see that.” He yanked the phone from Keene’s hand, only to whistle when he and Faith looked at it together. “Damn.” Starting to laugh, he glanced at the others. “Y’all are fucked. Union is so going to murder one of you before this is all said and done.”

“I put my money on Ohrley,” Faith wagered as Hudson kept scrolling through pictures.

“Hey!” Keene muttered, clearly offended. “I can land a woman on that scale of hotness just as easily as Parker can.”

As he ranted, Parker stepped up behind Hudson to look over his shoulder and take a gander at the pictures.

When his brows lifted briefly with interest, I narrowed my eyes, not a fan of the jealousy that spiked through me. But Parker only shrugged, not answering either way as to whether he believed he had a chance with Foster’s model of a cousin or not.

Alec appeared at his side to look at the picture yet again, and Parker backed away to return to his leaning spot against the counter. A second later, his gaze lifted directly to me.

A shock of desire rocked through me, and we stared at each other silently across the kitchen until Alec said, “She looks sad in this one.”

I blinked and glanced toward my brother to see him lift his gaze to ask Foster, “Is she depressed?”

“No,” Foster answered with a confused frown, only to shrug. “I mean, okay. Her boyfriend just dumped her, so recently she’s been pretty down, but she’s not, like, a sad person in general or anything.”

Alec’s eyes bugged and he blurted out an incredulous sound. “Someone broke up with that? Are you freaking kidding me?”

“Yeah. I guess they were high school sweethearts, but she was a grade above him, so she held off a year to move to Westport so they could attend HaveU together, only for her boyfriend to get offered a scholarship to study abroad in Europe as soon as he graduated. So he left her high and dry at the last minute. She couldn’t afford the apartment they’d picked out together, lost her down payment, and has been bunking with my parents since the semester started.”

“Wow,” Alec murmured sympathetically. “Poor thing.”

“Yeah. Poor hot, hot thing,” Keene echoed, taking his phone back to see her portrait again. “So when is she coming to live with us?”

“Oh, give me that phone,” Oaklynn demanded, snagging it from Keene’s hand. But as soon as she got a look at Xander Union, she slapped the screen against her chest and zipped her face up to Damien who’d stepped close to see as well. “Yeah, you are not allowed to look at her,” she said, clearly intimidated. “Ever.”

“Are you guys for real right now?” Foster asked, flabbergasted. Turning to Raina, he wondered, “Is she really that pretty?”

“I mean…” She winced apologetically. “If you didn’t exist, I’d do her. And I’m not even bi curious.”

While he blinked, obviously not sure how to process that, Oaklynn pulled the phone from her chest to look at the picture again, tilting it sideways as she did. “I don’t think that’s actually a swimsuit she’s wearing, though. I mean, it looks more like a gold…bodysuit to me.”

“I don’t care what the fuck it is,” Keene claimed, possessively snagging his phone back and scowling at her before dropping his gaze to the screen to sigh dreamily. “I like it,” he announced, and he traced his finger over the phone with a loving caress.

Knowing full well no one was going to offer me a peek, I dug my own phone up and did a search for Xander Union myself. When I found the shot they were talking about, I pressed my lips together tightly and swallowed hard.

Yeah, no way in hell was Parker not going to hit on her.

But I think Oaklynn was probably right too. That had to be a bodysuit not a swimsuit.

Gold in color, it had holes or tears or something along her ribs to show off more skin, and she wore it snugly enough to display her figure perfectly. Paired with it, she had golden thigh-high stiletto boots, a gold bracelet, and fingernails painted cherry red.

The shot was a side profile of her lying on her back as she pushed her hips up off the floor with one foot so the shape of her ass, tiny waist, and perfect breasts were the main focus.

The girl had to have some incredible abs and core muscle strength to hold such a pose.

She was a freaking goddess.

Snorting, I shook my head. “And you all call me trouble.”