“No, I definitely do not need you more than Arella, Heavenleigh, Bliss, or Damien,” I assured her.
“Maybe we should rethink the whole distance thing,” Daddy told Mom over my head. “I mean, how far was Stanford from our house again? Surely it was a better match for her brain than this school. Or Cal Tech, that would have been perfect. We could even have bought a house close to campus, and she could have stayed home instead of in a dorm.”
Rolling my eyes at the same argument they’d tried to pull for the past two weeks, I took each of them by the elbow and steered them to the door. Out to the living room where Aunt Emmie was sitting on the couch with Mia.
“We all agreed this school was a great fit for me. It’s smaller, and some of the smartest minds have attended,” I reminded them, not for the first time that day.
“Uh oh.” I heard Aunt Emmie whisper to Mia. “This is the worst part of all. Be prepared for the waterworks.”
On cue, Daddy’s eyes flooded with tears. “I’m just worried about you all the way out here all alone. I don’t like you being on your own. You’re just a baby and—”
“I’m not alone,” I told him patiently, my heart aching because I couldn’t stand to see my dad sad. “I have Mia. Plus, there are Barrick and Braxton, whom you and the uncles vetted personally, if I remember correctly.” His jaw clenched when I reminded him that he and Uncle Nik handpicked Charles Barrick to be Mia’s secret security detail. He didn’t like thinking of the week he’d spent in the proverbial doghouse with Mom over the whole thing.
“Where are those two anyway?” Mom asked, frowning in Mia’s direction. “I want to thank them again for letting Nevaeh stay here before we go.”
“They went to do a security consult for a local business,” my cousin told her. “I’m not sure when they will be back, but it shouldn’t be too much longer. Why don’t I order some dinner, and they can pick it up on their way home? Then once we’ve eaten and you’ve thanked them—yet again—you can get to the airport without missing your takeoff.”
While Mia handled my parents like an expert, setting their minds at ease and letting them stay a little longer, I walked over to the couch and took a seat beside Aunt Emmie, who put her arm around my shoulders and gave me a squeeze. “It will be okay,” she promised in a whisper only I could hear. “I’ll take care of them.”
I knew she would help them, but I appreciated her reassurance. My parents weren’t weak or unable to take care of themselves. My mom was one of the strongest women I knew, and even though Daddy seemed like a bowl of squishy Jell-O with me and our family, to the outside world, he was viewed with awe for his no-fucks-given attitude and his reputation for tossing paparazzi out windows. He was Drake Fucking Stevenson after all. Revered guitarist for Demon’s Wings and one of the biggest badass rockers the world had ever seen.
But he was also an emotional father who was dropping his baby girl off at college for the first time and would spend the next few days mourning my not being in the same house with him and Mom. There were going to be tears and maybe even a few emotional breakdowns in his future, and that was making my heart throb. “Thanks, Aunt Em.”
It was almost an hour later before the front door opened and in walked Barrick with a bag of takeout from the local Mexican restaurant. Mia said they had the best tacos, and we were all in agreement that comfort food needed to be on the menu for the evening.
Behind him, carrying a second bag, limped Braxton. He was dressed in black dress pants, a white button-down that molded across his chest, with black combat boots to complete the outfit, and it took me a moment to pull my tongue from the roof of my mouth…because damn. His dark hair was cropped short, his dark eyes hauntingly beautiful with the longest, thickest eyelashes I’d ever seen on a guy. I wanted to spend uninterrupted hours while I just memorized the planes of his face.
How could someone so masculine be so fucking beautiful? It didn’t make sense, but the proof was right in front of my eyes and I couldn’t pull my gaze from him.
A whine drew my attention away from the Marine vet to see an older German shepherd walking slowly behind him. There was gray in her fur, and she moved like her entire body hurt. From the many phone conversations I’d had with Braxton in the last several months, I knew her name was Sasha and she was seventeen. I knew a lot about the dog, had even fallen in love with her just from the stories he’d told me about her.
But upon seeing her in person, I felt my heart instantly leap, and I found myself greeting her like an old friend. “Hello, sweet puppy,” I murmured as I crouched down in front of her, letting her sniff my hand.
I was rewarded with a soft lick to my palm, then one to my chin. I hugged her neck gently, afraid to hurt her. Sasha’s tail wagged happily, and she buried her snout in my neck, making me giggle.
“Sasha, easy,” Braxton’s deep voice commanded, surprising me with its closeness. Lifting my head, I found him standing beside us. Crouching, he smoothed his hand down the dog’s back. “She likes you,” he murmured. “She’s not normally all over people.”
“I’m not people,” I said, scratching her head. “I’m Sasha’s. Right, Sasha baby?” She whined as if agreeing with me, and I laughed. “See? She claimed me.”
“That’s because Sasha is a smart girl. Aren’t you, precious?” he cooed to the dog, stroking her fur.
“Hey, you two,” Mia called out. “Food’s getting cold. Come eat.”
Glancing around, I realized we were the only ones in the living room and Braxton was very, very close. Heat instantly filled my face, and I cleared my throat as I straightened, thankful I wasn’t spewing all the things in my head out into reality for him to hear. Like that I wanted him to brush his massive hands down my back like he was Sasha, or that I wanted him to claim me as his just as the dog had.
When he stood, he reached out, stroking the backs of his knuckles down my cheek. “I’m glad you’re here,” he said with a smile before walking into the kitchen.
I stood there, my heart pounding in my chest, and watched him walk away. “Me too,” I whispered, touching my fingers to my cheek where his had made contact.
Chapter 2
Braxton
It was snowing as I walked across campus. My first class of the day wasn’t for another hour, but Mia and Nevaeh each had one that was about to end. Thankfully, they were both in the same building.
“Hey, Braxton,” someone called out, and I didn’t even look to see who it was. I tossed up my hand in a salute and kept walking.
Opening the door, I walked into a wall of heat, and my muscles started to relax a little as I walked toward Nevaeh’s class first. Before I reached the thick, closed door, it opened and students started spilling out.
None of them was my kitten, though.
I waited impatiently for everyone to exit then walked in to find Nevaeh talking to the professor. Arguing was a better word for it.
“Look,” she said, frustration heavy in her voice as she waved her hand to the whiteboard where some crazy math equation took up the entire space. “You miscalculated here, and then again here.”