Needing Her (From Ashes #1.5)(9)
When I was finally breathing again without feeling like there was a weight crushing my chest, I dragged myself to my bedroom and fell face-first onto the bed. Not five minutes later, I got intimately familiar with Sadie’s voice, and I had no doubt she was being that loud because she knew I was right next door.
Grabbing my phone, I texted Bryce and went around collecting clothes for tomorrow. Not bothering with what I was wearing—since I’m sure at least Bryce would appreciate it—I threw a sweatshirt on over my camisole and slid into my flip-flops before running out of my apartment and to my car.
Chapter Three
Maci
“WELL, WELL, LOOK who it is . . . here all bright and early like she actually has a job or something.”
I glanced at the clock and raised an eyebrow without ever looking up at him. “Screw off, Dylan.”
“I’m Dakota.”
Forcing my eyes to remain on my computer screen instead of looking up to confirm I was correct, I scoffed and kept clicking furiously on my mouse. “Dakota already tried that on me yesterday. You forget I’ve known you both my whole life . . . and you’re twenty-five. Aren’t you both old enough that you could stop trying to get people all confused?”
He sat down with a huff on my desk and brought his feet up to the arm of my chair. “But I did confuse you, right, Mini?”
“Didn’t. And speaking of bright and early, I’ve been here for four hours. Where were you until just now?”
“Not your business. At least I still showed up, you didn’t come at all yesterday.”
“I told Dakota I was cramping.”
He kicked my chair back so I wheeled away from the desk, taking my wireless mouse with me.
“Excuse you. I was about to beat my fastest time.”
“You used the cramping excuse last week.”
“Shit.” I bit down on my lip and looked toward the back of the office. “Did Dad still buy it?”
“Yeah, he did that thing where he looks like you’re about to throw snakes on him.”
I laughed when Dylan tried to re-create the way Dad would jump back and alternate throwing his hands up to his ears like he didn’t want to hear it, and throwing them back at you, as if to push you away from him.
“So where were you?” Dylan asked when he sat back on the desk.
“I’ve been here all morning, where were you?”
His expression went blank for a few seconds before he kicked his foot at me again, connecting with my knee. “I meant yesterday, Mini.”
“Shit, that hurt!” I sat there holding my knee, breathing in and out dramatically through my teeth like Peter from Family Guy for a minute before glaring up at him. “I’ll tell you if you tell me.”
“I’ve been in meetings with clients since nine, so I didn’t stop by here first. Now. Spill.”
“Oh . . . huh.” I’d been kind of hoping it would be something that I could tease him about. “I had cramps,” I said as I scooted my chair back to the desk so I could start another game.
Dylan grabbed the arm of my chair and wheeled me back before hopping off the desk and grabbing each arm, caging me in. “You better tell me the truth before I get the others and we find every guy in your phone and beat their ass.”
And this is why I can’t have a boyfriend. I sighed and pushed on his chest until he moved away. “No need. I went shopping.”
“Shopping.”
“Yes, Dylan, shopping. Now go away.”
“You ditched work on a Thursday to go shopping? What was so important that it couldn’t wait two damn days, Mini? Was there a special on training bras?”
“I didn’t go to the mall, *,” I said as I scooted back toward the desk again.
“Then where were you?”
Turning to look at him, I flung out the hand that was still holding the mouse. “Why are you so interested in knowing my life all of a sudden?”
“Because we all agree you’re being sketchy lately, and I’m about to go pound some dude’s face in for touching my sister! Who is he, Mini?”
Shitf*ck. “Who is who?”
“The guy I’m about to kill, who are you f*ckin’ around with?”
“You have a boyfriend, Maci?” Dakota asked as he rounded the corner into my office. “Oh, f*ck this. Who is he?”
I groaned into my hands and stared down at my desk. “I don’t have a boyfriend. Dylan is being paranoid because I didn’t come in yesterday.”
“Yeah, where were you?” Dakota asked, but before I could answer, he leaned over me and paged the back office from my desk phone. “Maci has a boyfriend,” he stated. Not five seconds later, I heard my oldest brothers, Craig and Sam, running down the hall.
“Who is he?” Craig, the oldest, asked.
“No one, I don’t have a—”
“Where’s her phone?”
I looked over to see Sam rummaging through my purse, so I pulled my phone out of my pocket before handing it to him. I wasn’t worried about them finding anything, because I had a password that would take them forever to figure out.
Sam looked at my phone in his hand before handing it back to me. “She doesn’t have a boyfriend, dumbasses. She wouldn’t give up her phone like that if she did.”