Chapter 1
Violet
The sound of a horn honking in the driveway had me dropping my spoon into my bowl of cereal and grabbing my purse along with my AP English Lit book.
“Not so fast!” Dad called before I could take more than two steps away from the kitchen island where we were having a quick breakfast together.
I paused, picked up my glass of orange juice he’d only just poured and gulped half of it down. Mom had left ten minutes before with my younger brother, Mason, so she could drop him off at his private middle school on her way to work, leaving just Dad and me to finish up like every other weekday morning.
Wiping my mouth with a napkin, I bounced onto my tiptoes and smacked a kiss to his cheek. “Love you. I’ll be late getting home. Shaw and I are going to Luca’s football game tonight with Cannon.”
“Then I’ll see you there,” he said, his jaw popping as he clenched and unclenched it.
I gave him a stern glare, trying to channel Mom, but I hadn’t perfected it yet so he didn’t even flinch. I really needed to work on it some more. “Be good, or I’m going to tell Mom,” I threatened instead.
“Your mom and I are both going,” he clarified, and I nearly released a relieved sigh before catching myself. “Jesse said there are going to be recruiters watching the boy tonight, and we’re all going to be there to support him.”
I tried not to smile at the pride I saw in my dad’s eyes, while at the time holding back the sudden sting of tears. He was a hard-ass when it came to Luca, but he loved him like an honorary nephew. Dad wanted the best for all us kids, and he was always standing on the sidelines, cheering us all on whenever we needed him the most.
The horn honked again, this time impatiently. “I have to go,” I said as I kissed his cheek again.
In the driveway, Shaw was sitting in the front passenger seat of her brother’s car. She slapped him upside the head when he pressed down on the horn again, and I flipped him off as I walked toward them. To look at them, people would have thought they were twins. Both of them were a perfect combination of their parents, although Shaw favored their mother a little more than Cannon did. They both had that sun-kissed blond hair everyone wanted their stylist to give them. Their dimples popped every time they smiled. Their blue eyes more often than not full of mischief. Cannon and Shaw Cage had the looks that went with their large bank accounts, but they each had their own careers and they weren’t even out of high school yet.
Getting in the back, I moved to the middle so I could see them both, and I pulled on my seat belt because I knew Dad was looking out a window watching us.
Once I was secured, Cannon carefully backed out of the driveway and drove the speed limit until we were out of our neighborhood. Shaw and Cannon lived next door, but our houses were pretty spread out like every other house on this stretch of beach in Santa Monica.
Once we were through the gates and out of sight of the guards that were ever-watchful, Cannon hit the gas, and we were at school in a matter of minutes. As always, the music was playing so loud no one could really talk, and Shaw didn’t bother to attempt to turn it down. She looked pensive as she watched the world go by out the side window, and I was all too happy not to have to contribute to any conversation.
If either of our fathers knew he drove like he did—especially with Shaw and me in the car with him—Cannon would be a dead man. But that was only after Luca got finished with him.
Cannon was like a brother to me, though, so I wasn’t going to narc on him to either of our dads—and definitely not to Luca. With Lyric already hating Cannon, I didn’t think having both Thornton twins wanting to beat his face in would be good for his health.
Shaw shot me a look as her brother climbed from the car, no trace of her earlier mood in those blue eyes of hers. “You okay?”
I lifted a shoulder in a half shrug. “Dad’s coming to the game tonight.”
“Yeah, Daddy said he was too. I bet half the stands will be full of rock gods.” Her lips twisted for a moment before her blue eyes narrowed on me. “But your dad going to a Malibu game doesn’t normally get you all quiet like this. What’s up, Vi?”
My phone alerted me to a text, but I didn’t reach for it in my purse immediately. I knew who it was, but if I saw his name right then, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to hold on to my emotions like I’d been so desperately trying to all morning. “Scouts are going to be in the stands tonight,” I told her in a voice that was hoarse with the tears I was trying to keep at bay.
“Ah, Vi.” Shaw reached back and squeezed my hand. “It’s okay. No matter where he ends up going to college, you two have a plan.”
“Yeah,” I murmured, giving her a small smile. But my chin still trembled, and I attempted to swallow down the lump in my throat.
Luca and I did have a plan. He was already being offered scholarships to play defense at some of the best colleges in the nation. He would take the one that would get him the most exposure and the best chance at a top draft pick. The year he entered the draft would be my final year of high school. Once we knew which team he would be playing for, I would find a college close to him so we could move in together.
But I knew which college he was going to pick. Even though Alabama hadn’t made him an offer yet, I knew it was only a matter of “when” and not “if” they finally would. Which meant that Luca would be in Alabama, and I would be in California for most of the three years until he entered the draft.
I missed him already.
Another text alert hit my phone, and when I didn’t answer it immediately, three more followed in rapid succession. Two seconds later, my phone rang, and I knew I needed to answer it this time, or he would skip his morning classes and drive to Santa Monica to check on me. It wouldn’t have been the first—or even the third—time Luca had done that. But he’d been warned that if he got caught skipping another class, he would be benched for at least one game.
Climbing out of the back of Cannon’s car, I lifted the phone to my ear. “Hey,” I greeted, making sure to put a smile on my face so he could hear it in my voice. If he knew how emotional I was, he wouldn’t hesitate to skip to come see me.
“You got my jersey?” were the first words out of his mouth.
I laughed as I walked with Shaw into school. Just the sound of his voice was enough to make my heart squeeze with love for him. I couldn’t remember a time when Luca’s voice didn’t make everything inside me sing with happiness. That boy was a part of my soul. I needed him to feel alive. Which made the coming three years all that much more painful. But it would be worth it in the long run. Luca would have the football career he’d always dreamed of, and I would be right there beside him.
Which was the only place I really ever wanted to be.
As we passed a group of guys, a few of them whistled, and my best friend flipped them off as we walked by. I didn’t think for a second it was me they were catcalling, not when Shaw was beside me. Plus, all those guys had faced Luca on the football field, and he’d made it very clear that if he ever saw one of them so much as talking to me, their mothers would need dental records to identify their bodies.
But that didn’t stop Luca from growling.