Glancing up at the house, I replied, “Thanks, but it’s best if I stay here tonight.”
“Best for whom?”
I pondered that question for a moment, twisting my lips. My sanity?
A thought suddenly occurred to me. “Have you invited Alex?” Alex was Phoenix’s other half-brother: the same mother, but a different father. He lived with Nix’s mother, Luna, and at only eighteen years old, was proving to be a handful.
“No. He’s grounded.”
“Again?”
“Yeah, I was hoping you could have a word if you see him next week?”
I worked one day a week with the Matron at my old high school, Harbor Heights High. Alex was finishing his senior year there; I’d sat through a couple of sessions with him but wasn’t seeing him officially. Our family connection was the reason for that.
“Yes, of course. If I get the chance.”
“Thanks. Pass on my good wishes to your intended, OK?”
“Goodnight, Nix,” I replied, ignoring his loaded request. He and Jasper got along, but Phoenix knew the marriage was a business transaction. He had been quite outspoken with our father, saying he disagreed and labeling the union as a cold-blooded merger. He knew nothing about Jasper’s threats towards his foster brother, of course. Nobody but I knew about that.
“Night, bitch.”
“Night, dick,” I threw back with a smile as I sauntered up the pathway that led to the house. With every step I took, I attempted to push thoughts of Reed out of my mind. Something I knew was going to be impossible now that he was back.
Some days it felt like the world was chipping away at me, bit by bit. A heaviness sat in my chest; thoughts of having to plan my honeymoon with Jasper curdled my stomach. I wasn’t in love with my fiancé. I was incapable of that feeling. My heart had flatlined the day Reed left.
The back of my eyes burned, and as I entered the house, I heard a motorcycle speeding up the road outside our estate.
Fucking bikers: obsessed, hot-rodders, who craved that sense of freedom by hitting the open road, oblivious to the inherent risks they took.
Well, that was one thing I certainly had no interest in doing anymore: taking risks.
Nope. It was time to accept my fate and play it safe. Marriage to Jasper may not give me affection or the adventure I used to crave, but at least I would have security and protection from potential gold diggers.
What could be more important than that?
TWO
REED
The woman still had the power to knock me speechless, and even though she wasn’t the girl I once knew, I still craved every broken piece of her. I had tried to move on, throwing myself headfirst into my career, chasing every high the NFL could offer, but no matter how many extremes I went for, Storm was always there in the back of my mind.
My heart hadn’t fully healed, but that didn’t surprise me. There was a reason they said you never forget your first love.
I had kept an eye on her over the years, stalking her on Twitter and Instagram, but the images Storm uploaded on social media didn’t do her justice.
It had been four years, and Storm Summers had developed into a stunning woman, one who could bring any man to his knees. I’d seen her from a distance a handful of times when I came back to see Ma, but never so close.
The man I had always seen as a proper brother, Phoenix, had been cagier than a zoo when I’d offered him a ride home. Nix had creamed his pants when he first saw my motorcycle and then dug his heels in, muttering something about a deathtrap on wheels.
He’d told me off the bat that his car was in the shop, and then went oddly quiet when I asked how he was getting home. Eventually, he’d explained that his sister (or should I say half-sister) was picking him up. I hated that he still walked on eggshells around me whenever Storm’s name entered our conversation.
Storm and Phoenix were related by blood through their father, a fact which was revealed by chance a few years ago. But Nix and I went way back. My other ‘caresystem’ brother, Micah, and I were fostered by Ma Sawyer when we were eight years old, and Phoenix joined us five years later, closely followed by Hudson.
We were known as the Sawyer brothers in high school, untouchable and as tight as fuck. Nobody messed with us. The woman we still saw as our mother, Ma, then fostered Harper a few years after Hudson. A girl whom Phoenix had known before joining the family, when he was in the social care system. A story for another time. Nix and Harper were now in a relationship. Who said foster kids couldn’t have a nice life?
Yeah, like that fucked up portion of my childhood.
