Lead Me Home (Fight for Me #3)(11)

Her voice got all dreamy on the last. The girl thought she was some kind of arrow-shooting cupid, responsible for every relationship each of our friends had fallen into.

It was cute and eccentric and ridiculous.

Crazy talk.

That’s exactly what this was.

What I was.

Crazy.

Crazy for even considering this. Crazier for insisting on it. Because I knew she was gonna refuse every single one of my suggestions and the only thing she’d be left with was me.

“Looks to me like your options are running out.”

She stamped her little foot in defiance. “I’ll go to a motel.”

I spun on my heel and headed into her bedroom, dragging the duffle bag from the top shelf of her closet. I tossed it onto her bed, doing my best to suppress the images of the last time I had been there.

But they came fast.

An assault of greed and lust.

The girl under me. Skin so soft. Body so warm. Wrapping me in all that comfort.

Sunshine.

Had to grit my teeth to force out the words. “You’re coming with me, Nikki. Don’t fight me on this because you aren’t gonna win.”

“Why do you even care?” She was in the doorway, her pretty face pinching. I saw it, her eyes on the bed, picturing the same damned thing as I was.

Hurt hit her, wave after wave.

My stomach knotted.

Regret and need.

I turned away.

Ignoring it, that feeling that struck in the space between us. Something that’d always been there.

Always.

As we’d grown, it’d just transformed and gotten bigger and become something we shouldn’t have let it be.

None of it mattered—not the mistakes I’d made, not the way I felt, not what I wanted.

I’d rather die than let something bad happen to her.

“Pack your shit, Nikki, or I’ll do it for you.”

And the last thing I needed was to be rummaging around through her underwear.





5





Ollie





Six Years Old





His mom knelt in front of him and squeezed him by the upper arms. “You’re such a big boy. I’m so proud of you.”

He looked up at the big yellow bus that rumbled at the curb, his belly full of something that felt like wings, and his chest bigger than it’d ever been.

“Now, do you remember what I told you?” his mom asked as she adjusted the straps of his backpack on his shoulders.

He tightened his hold on his little sister’s hand. “I’ve got to take care of my little sister. Always and always.”

His mom smiled and it made his chest tighten more. “That’s right. You’re the biggest and the bravest, so you always watch out for your little sister. She’s going to be scared going to school all by herself, but she doesn’t have to be because she has you right there to protect her.”

Pride swelled inside him. “I’ll watch her the best, Momma. Just like Daddy said.”

She leaned in and pressed a kiss to his forehead. “I know you will, brave boy.”

“Beast Man,” he corrected.

His momma laughed a soft sound and brushed her fingers through his hair. “That’s right, you’re The Beast now.”

He proudly held up his The Beast lunchbox that his dad had given him yesterday when he’d gotten home from work. His dad told him he was a beast, destined to be a linebacker, bigger than any of the other boys.

Last night, his daddy had come into his room to tuck him in and told him he needed to watch out for his little sister.

Just like his momma was doing right then.

Their momma looked at his little sister, who was swaying in her pretty dress that she had picked out especially for this day. Ollie was worried it was gonna get messy if she played in the dirt, but their momma said that was okay. “You stay close to your brother, okay? He’ll help you get to your classroom until you know your way around.”

Sydney looked up at Ollie and beamed. “Okay, Momma.”

“All right, you two, you’d better get on that bus.”

She pressed a long kiss to Sydney’s cheek, like the way she did when she was sad.

“It’s okay, Momma,” he said, “I’ve got her. I won’t let nothin’ bad ever happen to her.”

She nodded at him and wiped a tear from under her eye. “I’m just sad my babies are getting so big. I know you’ve got her. Now go on and have a great day. I’ll be right here waiting when you get finished.”

“We will!” Sydney said, grinning wide and then even wider when she saw another little girl walking up to the bus with her hand in her mother’s.

The girl’s eyes were so wide and so blue they were almost purple. Like one of those purple flowers that grew thick in the fields and filled their momma’s garden.

Though, somehow, they were shiny and iridescent.

Like a big bubble floatin’ in the sky and getting caught up in the rays of sunlight.

The girl’s mom hugged her before she nudged her toward the bus. “Go on.”

The girl’s feet dragged on the dirt as she looked behind her.

“You wanna sit with us?” Sydney called out, not the least bit shy.