Noah knew not to talk about my family all that often. It wasn’t because my family was a bad type of people, exactly. It was just that once people heard their last name, and found out I was a part of it, they treated me differently. Not everyone, but a lot of people did.
I had to deal with it through school, on top of everything else. Now that I was an adult, I didn’t want to worry or stress over whether someone was truly wanting me for who I was.
Although, I highly doubted that Beckett wanted me anyway. Maybe luck would be on my side, and meeting this family would scare him off. He could stick with Noah and just leave me the hell alone.
“I think I have a lot of questions,” he mused. “But I won’t ask.”
“You could ask me!” Lucy said with a jump on the last step.
“I’ll get my answers, when and if, Asher wants to give them to me.”
That was...strange. No one had ever really given me the chance to answer if I wanted to. With Scarlett, that had been different. At the time, I hated it. But now, I had a heck of a lot of respect for the woman. She didn’t push, but I was willing enough to give her answers to all of her questions eventually.
“I highly doubt you’d know any of the answers Asher’s friend would know, little princess.”
“He’s not a friend.” How many times did I have to say that? “Hi, Collin.”
“Hey, kiddo.”
And that was one too many people in a small hallway for me. “Excuse me, please.”
Collin stepped aside, letting me pass. When I felt like I could breathe again, I turned back to face him better.
“How are you doing?” His eyes looked me over quickly, considering it wasn’t that long since he’d seen me.
“Considering the amount of people....okay.”
“At least I talked Lucy out of inviting her entire class,” Peyton spoke. He looked so much like Scarlett, I swore they were twins, despite the few years difference between the two. “Hello, whoever you are.”
“Beckett Meads.”
“Also known as a nuisance,” Lucy chimed in. “Hi, Daddy! Is it food time yet?”
Peyton laughed with a shake of his head at his daughter. “Yeah, go on now.” He waited until she was out of earshot. “I hear you are not Asher’s friend, yet you are with him instead of Noah?”
“Lucy was giving me a tour and telling me everything there could be possible to know.”
“Sorry about that. She’s one of the few people persons here. Takes after her mother and grandfather in that department.”
“There was a lot of information to unpack for a five-year-old,” Beckett laughed. “Still trying to wrap my head around who is exactly who.”
“Join the club,” I muttered. “Word of advice. Don’t ask questions about who does what. Or who is related to who.”
Beckett raised a brow, almost daring me that he’d do just that.
“That would be wise,” Collin agreed. “But something tells me you aren’t going to do that.”
“I’m curious about how Noah and Asher fit in here,” Beckett asked slowly, weighing his words carefully.
I still wondered about that myself. “Easy answer,” I started off. “Noah is my friend. Best friend. Which you know. We met in high school, and now here we are. You don’t want to know how I came to this family, and it’s not an answer you will get from me, or my family.”
There was no way on earth I wanted a man that already made me crave things I shouldn’t want to know about my horrible past. And he definitely didn’t need to know about the years of therapy I had to endure just to figure out how to live with freedom.
With that, I turned, heart in my throat and anxiety crawling up my spine.
I swear, Beckett was able to bring the worst parts of me to the surface, and I hated every second of it.
Bypassing the kitchen, face too warm from the words I had just spoken, I slipped through the side door. At least the covered porch allowed a nice breeze to waft through, colling my heated cheeks as I sat in the swing that hung from above.
