“What if we don’t want it to be over this fall?”
“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. For now, I just need to know what you want from me.”
I thought about it for a while before confessing, “I just want you.” As a slow smile lifted the corners of his mouth, I lifted my hand. “But you have to understand how risky this is, Falcon. If Isaac finds out?—”
“He won’t,” he interrupted me to say. “I hate lying to my friend, I do. I feel like I’m being disloyal, but for the first time in my life, choosing what and who I want means more to me. If being loyal to the desires of my heart means I have to keep this from him, I will. But at the end of the summer, it’ll be over.”
A quiet warning bell went off in my mind, but my heart was compelling me in his direction. Reminding me that he said I wasn’t broken. My heart was open, . . . ready to release hurt and let love in. While I wasn’t naïve enough to believe Falcon could love me, I did trust him to make me feel better while I continued to heal. And right now, that was more than enough.
I wasn’t surprisedthat Isaac was up when I made it back home, but I was surprised that he called himself waiting up for me like he was my daddy. It tickled me, but I held my laugh in as I went upstairs to my room with him trailing behind.
“You feeling better?” he questioned.
“Great. Sorry if I worried you.”
“I know I’m probably not the best person for like . . . emotional talks and shit, but I am here for you, baby sis.”
“I know, and I appreciate that. Falcon helped actually.”
He didn’t respond right away. In fact, he waited until I was opening my bedroom door to say, “Wassup with you and him? You know this shit fake, right?”
“Yes, Junior, and I don’t need you to remind me.” Before I could close the door in his face, he wrapped his hand around it.
“You can’t like him, Eli. He’s too valuable to me and the team. If he disrespected me by going after you, that would fuck up our dynamic. We can’t have that. No losses. No tension. No drama. If he and I can’t work together, we can’t win. We can’t make money. This city, the team, the fans, they depend on us to be titans. To be successful. You can have literally any other man on this Earth, just not him or anyone else on my team. Do you understand me?”
I’d grown so used to living in my brother’s shadow that I didn’t feel like I stepped into the light until I started recording music. For the first time in years, people didn’t see me as Isaac’s little sister. They saw me for me. I didn’t have a lot in this world, but I had my music, my books, and my secret relationship with Falcon. Isaac’s reminder didn’t make me want to call it off; it made me want to keep it sacred and cherish it more.
“I understand,” I said, maintaining his gaze.
He eyed me skeptically and nodded before dropping his hand so I could close the door. With a sigh, I went to my closet and undressed before taking a shower and doing my nighttime routine. By the time I climbed into bed, Natasha’s mom had called me again. Seeing as it was after midnight, I figured it had to be serious, so I called her back. What I wasn’t prepared for was to hear Natasha’s voice on the other line.
“The fuck do you keep calling me for?” I snapped.
“Will you please call Justin and hear him out? He’s constantly calling and texting me and blaming me because y’all broke up. The man is damn near harassing me because of you.”
“Nah,” I said with a chuckle. “Whatever he’s doing is because of you and him. The choice y’all made to betray me. I don’t care about him calling you or doing anything else for that matter. I’m about to block this number too. Do not call me again.”
“Eli, wait!” she yelled before I could end the call. “I’m sorry, okay? I fucked up. I never wanted to lose you. It was stupid of me to be with him. I’m so sorry, L.”
“Yeah, you are sorry. He is too. And for that reason, y’all deserve each other. Leave me the fuck out of it.”
I ended the call and quickly blocked her mom’s number. If I didn’t have hundreds of contacts attached to this number, I’d have it changed. I refused to let her irritate me now that I was finally in a good mood, so I looked at the unedited pictures Matthew had sent me and Falcon in a group text. The final photos wouldn’t be ready for about a week, but I loved the unedited ones. We looked so good together, and I looked so happy.
The last thing I wanted to do was create discord within my brother’s team, but I couldn’t deny how good I felt with Falcon. How safe I felt with him. All I could do was pray this didn’t blow up in our face, because if I came between them and destroyedtheir bond and dynamic, the wrath of the Demolishers’ millions of fans would make what I was going through because of that video seem like child’s play.
I wasn’t that selfish.
I couldn’t be that selfish.
Our expiration date was this fall, and we would stand firm on that, no matter what.
Chapter
Twelve
Falcon
“Nah.I didn’t approve of this shit.”
