Beau was the first to move. He grabbed Dorian by the front of his shirt and spun around, slamming him against nearby lockers with a deafening rattle. He pulled back his fist to strike him, and then stopped himself. Panting, he held his fist in the air, poised, frozen.
Nolan stepped forward and dropped a hand to Beau’s shoulder. “It’s okay, man. He’s not worth it.”
Beau spit out, “You don’t talk about people like that. You don’t talk about girls like they’re nothing.”
Dorian shook his head. “It was just a joke. Relax.”
The fury was still in Beau’s face, but he lowered his fist, “It’s really not funny. You should watch your mouth.”
Nolan stepped back, assessing Beau and recognizing for the first time how much he cared about his sister.
And then she was suddenly there. His sister. Emmaline pushed through the gathered crowd, dropping her backpack on the floor in her haste to reach Beau. She grabbed his arm and pulled him from Dorian.
Beau looked at her and froze, the last of the fight leaving him, melting away like an ice cube in the sun.
His sister said something then. Nolan couldn’t make out the words. They were words only for the two of them. Just for Emmaline and Beau. She let go of Beau’s arm and brought her hand up to his face. It was terrible. His sister was caressing Beau’s face, comforting him like some kind of . . . some kind of more than a friend, and it was terrible.
Nolan couldn’t move. She didn’t care that he was watching. She didn’t care that anyone was watching.
“Emmaline,” Nolan said.
She spared him a brief glance. “What?” Clearly, his commanding-big-brother voice had no impact on her. His influence was gone. At least in this.
She turned her attention back on Beau. Nolan watched her eyes go soft as she looked at him, her fingers stroking his cheek, and he had to swallow back his discomfort.
Nolan turned to go, but then his gaze collided with Hayden’s.
She was watching, assessing, waiting to see what he would do, if he would flip out and rage at Beau and Emmaline. Everything he’d said and done before indicated he would do exactly that.
Nolan spotted Emmaline’s backpack on the floor in front of him. He scooped it up and walked over to her.
She and Beau looked at him. They both visibly tensed, ready for whatever he was going to say. Ready and willing to take it.
“Here you go.” He held out the backpack.
She took it from him. “Thanks.” She and Beau swapped uncertain looks.
He inhaled deeply through his nose. “No problem.”
They still looked uncertain.
He exhaled. “This is going to take a bit for me to get used to.” Nolan gestured to them both. “But I’ll work on it.”
His sister smiled then. A wide, goofy grin that actually made him feel good.
Turning away, he pushed his way free of the gawking onlookers, hesitating when he reached Hayden.
The expression on her face wasn’t smug anymore. It was something else.
“What?” he asked self-consciously.
She shook her head, almost too quickly. “N-nothing.”
He grunted.
She waved at his sister and Beau. “That was . . . nice.”
“Nice?” He shook his head. It didn’t feel nice. It was hard. It was damn hard seeing them together and accepting it. It was hard not knowing if it was a mistake or the right thing or if his sister was going to get hurt.
But he was going to have to let it go. Let his sister decide for herself and maybe make a few mistakes along the way.
“I’m not nice,” he muttered.
“Get to class! Break it up, everyone, and get to class!” a teacher shouted into the hall.
Students started to disperse as the tardy bell chimed. Bodies moved in every direction, set on their paths.
Looking away from Hayden, he turned and melted into the flow.
Lesson #34
When risk is unavoidable, it’s all about how quickly you recover.
x Hayden x
Hayden immediately noticed Alex’s truck was parked in her driveway. Fabulous. Her mom hadn’t managed to lose him yet. Surprising. And disappointing. Or maybe not. Maybe the asshole you know is better than the one you don’t. Because Alex wouldn’t be the last asshole in her mother’s life.
She just wanted to go to work. Was that too much to ask?
She wanted to get in and out without talking to anyone. She wanted to go to work and forget about Nolan and that scene she’d witnessed in the hall this morning.
She’d watched Nolan put aside his feelings about his sister’s choices. He’d done it for her happiness and maybe for Beau’s happiness, too. It moved Hayden. More than she wanted to admit. She’d watched him and knew it was a struggle. She’d seen it all over his face and in the tension lining his shoulders. He still didn’t like the idea of Emmaline and Beau, but he’d put aside his hang-ups.
Maybe she could learn a little from him and start to do the same.
She opened the front door and came to a hard stop.
The first thing she noticed was that Alex had all his clothes on. Usually, he crept around the house in his boxers, so she wouldn’t look this particular gift horse in the mouth.
He was not alone. There was a big burly guy with him, and they were carrying the living room TV between them. She did a quick sweep of the living room. Mom was nowhere around.
“What are you doing?” she demanded.
Alex froze. “Hayden. Sweet cheeks. What are you doing here?”
She cringed at the horrible nickname. “I live here. What are you doing here?”
Alex shot his friend a cagey look. “Uh. We’re just taking this in for repairs.”
The TV was one of the only decent things they owned in this house. Her mother had priorities, after all, and she didn’t want to miss her shows.
Her heart started racing. They were robbing the place. Not so surprising, she supposed. She knew what to expect from the kind of company Mom kept.
“Nothing is wrong with the TV.”
The big guy spoke up, his voice like gravel. “Mind your business, girl, and there won’t be any trouble.”
She looked around and noticed other things. A small pile of electronics sat on the kitchen table, including her laptop. Her laptop. Which she kept in her bedroom.
Her gaze skipped down the hallway toward her door. It was ajar, the lock broken into bits along with splinters of wood on the floor. No. No no no no no no no.
She looked back at the table and her heart surged in her throat. There, on top of it, was her shoebox. The shoebox that held every dollar she had ever earned. A shoebox full of the cash. The cash that was supposed to give her a fresh start in Austin.
They’d found it.
She reached for her cellphone in her pocket. “You need to put that down and go. I’m calling the police.”
She had barely punched in her passcode when she felt a wind of movement.
Hayden looked up just as the big guy charged toward her. He wrenched the phone out of her hand and flung it against the wall, the case shattering to pieces. She knew the phone it once protected was destroyed.
“Like. I. Said.” He enunciated each word carefully. “Mind your own business and there won’t be any trouble.”