Chapter 3
Derek
Watching Zoe and Mia walk through the heavy glass doors, hearing the hiss as they closed behind them, was pure fucking torture. The whole time they’d been out of sight I’d paced back and forth around this crazy waiting room. Seriously, what sort of gym has comfy, suede couches in the foyer and vases of fresh flowers? It was more like a god damn salon than a gym! But I wasn’t stupid. I’d done my research, and I’d been told this place was the best. So, Mia might be a bit eccentric and a bit scattered, but by all reports she knew her shit. That’s why we were here. Hell, if she skated around on roller-skates in nothing but a pair of gold spandex hot pants and a tube top I wouldn’t give a shit. Not if she was the one who could help bring back Zoe’s self-confidence. Fuck it! Now I had that image burnt on my brain and it was sending all my blood on a one-way mission. South.
I watched as Mia gulped and a blush crept up her long, luscious neck. She was a tiny little thing, but she had everything I’d ever dreamt of. As she led Zoe though the doors, I’m man enough to admit I watched her tight little ass in those skin-tight pants sashay away. Maybe that’s the reason I noticed every detail about the waiting room. It was the only way I could keep my mind off the pocket rocket with the pixie haircut.
“Not like what?” I repeated.
Zoe smiled. A real genuine smile. In that moment, I didn’t give a fuck if I looked like the biggest moron in the world. I’d just seen a glimpse of the girl I prayed I hadn’t lost. She was still in there. She might have been buried deep, but she was still there. Now it was time for her to get her stubborn ass back to me.
Zoe walked over to me and slipped under my arm. Instinctively, I hugged her to me tightly as I looked down at her. It was the first time she’d actively sought out any sort of contact without tears being involved since the funeral. “Derek, what exactly are we to each other?” she asked.
Her innocent question almost knocked me over. I hadn’t given it any thought. I had never considered we needed a label. We were just Zoe and Derek. Nothing special. Nothing secretive. Just us. “Friends?”
“Just friends?”
“Fuck, Zoe, I don’t know. You know I love you.”
To my left, I heard the sharp intake of breath and caught Mia’s quick movement as she scurried behind the high reception counter. I let my ego believe for a minute that she was jealous. It felt damn good. I squeezed Zoe a little tighter as I stole a glance at Mia.
“So, Zoe, did you want to sign up and give it a go?”
Zoe looked up at me for approval. There was a light in her eyes I hadn’t seen for a long time. She should have known that whatever it was that put it there, I’d never deny her. I nodded and untangled our limbs.
“Can I just do one lesson and see how it goes? I don’t want to commit to something if I can’t follow through.”
“Zoe, you’ll do fine. But that sounds like a great idea. We have a class tomorrow at two. Do you want to give that a try?”
Panic washed over Zoe’s face and stole the light from her eyes. I fucking hated it. “She’ll be here,” I said firmly, my gaze locked on Zoe’s. She bit her bottom lip and I bent down and whispered in her ear, “I’ll drive you down, Princess, and I’ll sit out here in this pansy ass waiting room the whole time if that’s what you need. You won’t be alone. I promise.”
“Oh…okay.”
“Great!” Mia clapped. She was cheery. Too cheery. It was bullshit, the only thing was I didn’t know her well enough to call her on it. Not yet anyway. “Well, let’s get the paperwork sorted out and then tomorrow we’ll be good to go.”
“Sounds good,” I agreed, nudging Zoe forward with my shoulder.
It would have been so easy for me to swoop in and do it for her. It’s what I would have done in the past. It’s what Spencer would have done. Fuck, it’s what I had been doing. However, the time had come for me to stop pretending to be the superhero trying to save the day. It was time for Zoe to save herself. And if sexy little Mia could help with that, well then, I’d do whatever was necessary to make it a reality.
While the two women fussed, I checked my phone. The new roster had just come out. I hated being the new guy. I got all the shitty shifts. Leaving the police force had been the right move for me. After arresting Kane, I just couldn’t do it anymore. I didn’t want to be the first person called to see people you loved dead. I didn’t want to have to arrest hard working friends because they’d made a mistake or tried to take a short cut. Being a cop in a small town was fucking hard. Every time something went down you were almost guaranteed to know at least one person involved. When I’d left I just didn’t have the desire to do it anymore. Thankfully I knew enough people, I’d picked up a job quickly working for a security firm with a bunch of good guys. It was no secret that they weren’t the sharpest tools in the shed, but they were decent, hardworking, honest guys. They were exactly what I needed.
Taking another look at the roster, I groaned. For the last month, I’d been on the nightclub circuit in the city. It wasn’t hard and there usually wasn’t much going on. Check IDs, throw out drunks, and any sight of drugs, call in the boys in blue. It looked like I had another week at the same club. I’d lucked out and pulled the Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday night shifts. Same shit, four nights straight. If the money wasn’t so good, I’d just tell them to stick it.
“Derek!” Zoe’s voice broke my through my internal battle.
“Yep?” I smiled as I sidled up next to her.
“I…I need…”
Rubbing her shoulders, I couldn’t help the laugh that shook my chest. Zoe was the funniest girl in the world sometimes. She could ask me for anything and I would move heaven and earth to make her smile. It was one area of her life where I’d just simply stepped into the hole Spencer had left. Every time, nerves would overcome her and she struggled to get the words out.
“What do you need, Princess?”
“An-emergency-contact,” she blurted out all in one go. She was so damn cute. If I didn’t know every single thing about her and hadn’t known her my whole life, then maybe I’d see her as something more than my sister. But I had. And I couldn’t erase that history. I never would. It was something no one else had. It was ours and ours alone. Something I didn’t have to share. So, whether she liked it or not, she had a big brother for life.
“Didn’t you just put my name down?”
“N-n-no.”
