“Um,” Charlotte hums, her cheeks blossoming red.
My lips twitch a little at her discomfort. I reach for her hand under the table and Hayden’s gaze narrows in the direction. “I stayed the night with Charlotte.”
Hayden glares my way and I swear, my balls shrivel. I have met a lot of empowering, strong women, but never someone who is scary like Hayden. She doesn’t threaten, she just does it. And what scares me the most is her being a Carter with the skills of knowing where to hurt a guy and giving zero fucks about it. Her fella is a brave guy sleeping next to her every night. I have seen her fight with her brothers and it wasn’t pretty.
“And when did this little development happen?” she asks, and with the way she’s looking at me, I’m willing to bet she’s picturing a hundred ways she can hurt me.
Unblinking, I keep my focus on her. “I’m not sure it’s your concern.”
Charlotte tenses, her focus on Hayden. I gently run the pad of my thumb across the top of her hand. I want to reassure her that I’m not angry. She already has a lot to process and doesn’t need to deal with me and her family bickering.
Hayden sits back, smirking. “I do like you, Drew.”
I snort. The girl doesn’t like anyone other than family and sometimes even then I find it debatable. Before I can reply, the door of the library slams against the wall, the sound echoing throughout the library.
I tense, ready to move to protect Charlotte, but I needn’t worry.
“Oh no,” Charlotte whispers, suddenly tensing.
Landon trips inside, nearly falling into a display table. Liam, his brother, is right behind him, his expression livid.
Landon spins around, glaring holes into his brother. “I didn’t fucking steal your lunch.”
“Yes, you did,” Liam yells. “I know it was you. It was there one minute and gone the next.” He points to Landon’s stomach. “In your fucking stomach.”
“You’re being ridiculous. Paisley feeds me.”
Liam snorts. “Don’t patronise me. Like that will stop you from eating other people’s food.”
“Oh no.”
I turn to Charlotte, finding her pale and not staring at the brothers’ arrival but up at the top floor of the library. I tilt my head up, my eyes widening when I spot her uncle sitting on the banister, his back resting against the pillar behind him. One leg is bent and resting on the banister and the other is dangling on the other side. In one hand he has some kind of water gun device—although I have never seen one like it before. In the other he has a sandwich. However, on the carpet near his feet, there are other food wrappers like he has been staked out up there for a while, which I highly doubt since I would have sensed him.
Maybe.
“Accuse me again, I dare you,” Landon warns, stepping up to his brother.
Hayden, not looking up from the pasta she suddenly has in front of her, speaks up. “Dad ate it.”
Maybe I shouldn’t play mind games with her.
Because I haven’t seen her turn around once since she sat down and her dad was definitely not there when we all arrived.
“We’ve not even seen Dad today,” Liam tells her, forgetting his beef with Landon for a moment.
“No, you didn’t,” Max announces, and both Landon and Liam tense, slowly turning to face their dad. “You two disappoint me.”
Hayden snorts. “Like that’s new.”
“Shut up, Hayden” Liam snaps.
She grins, glancing at her brother. “Still hurt I’m the favourite?”
“Whatever helps you sleep at night,” he retorts.
“Why are you sitting up there?” Landon asks. “Like a creeper.”
“Is that my fucking lunch?” Liam cries. “Dad, I’ve been looking forward to that all day.”
“Then you shouldn’t have waited,” Max scoffs. “Did I teach you nothing?”
“Why do you have a gun with you?” Clayton asks.
“Because I heard Charlotte had to go to the police station and I wasn’t sure if it involved the giant.”
“Really?” I mutter, rolling my eyes. The giant comment is becoming old now.
“Got a good advantage on you now, haven’t I, boy?”
I roll my eyes, not worried in the slightest. “Not really.”
“Max Carter, get your fucking arse down from there right now,” Lake snaps, stepping inside, her hair a mess.
Max gulps, jumping down from the banister. “The light of my life, the apple of my eye, what do we owe this pleasure?”
“Don’t, Max. Really, just don’t,” she warns him. “I had to climb out of the bedroom fucking window.”
“I’m not sure I like your tone,” he snidely replies.
She huffs out a breath before turning to her son. “Don’t worry about your food. I’ve called your uncle Malik to bring takeout, so there is plenty for you. He is on his way.”
“And your uncle brought drinks,” Kayla announces, stepping through the door with Myles.
Myles walks over, bending down to kiss the top of his daughter’s head. Her eyes close and a small smile appears on her face when she tilts her head to look up at him. “You doing okay, baby girl?”
“I’m doing okay, Dad. Thank you for coming.”
“Always.” He turns to me, and doesn’t say anything for a moment. “Thank you for being there for her.”
I give him a nod. “It’s not a problem.”
He takes a seat further down and the movement makes me lose focus of the rest of the room. More Carter’s are piling inside and I take my eyes off the ball for one second.
One second.
Because if anyone is a threat to me in this room it’s Charlotte’s dad. She loves her parents and their say means a lot to her. If they truly dislike me, there is no way Charlotte will carry on seeing me.
My chest hunches over as a sharp ball of pain smacks me in the shoulder. The impact has my entire body tensing and my teeth clenching together. I can’t show them it fucking hurt.
I slowly turn to face the culprit and come to a stand, the chair scraping along the floor. My gaze never once wavering from the man in question. Max’s eyes widen and he wisely steps back, his hands held up. “It’s the trigger mechanism. I swear.”
Myles chokes out a laugh. “You are such a fucking liar.”
I keep my gaze on him but lean forward, grabbing a napkin Hayden has in front of her to wipe off the gooey mess on my shoulder. “This was my favourite T-shirt.”
Max wipes a hand down his face. “I’ll clean it. Just sit the fuck down. There’s no need to get testy.”
I take a seat. I didn’t realise how tense it had gotten until I take in the room. They all visibly relax, glancing away from the spectacle.
Charlotte, however, doesn’t. She reaches into her bag, pulling out a zip lock bag that has the last one of her cookies. She shoves half into her mouth, whimpering. “It’s too much,” she cries.
I chuckle at her expression. She’s going to give herself indigestion with the way she’s going at the cookie.
Hayden reaches over, snatching it from her hand and taking a huge bite. Her eyes go round, and her brows shoot up to her hairline. “Fucking hell. These are really good. Where did you buy these from?”