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I didn’t know why my first instinct (after chatting with her for like a minute) was to invite her home with me for Christmas. She probably thought I was a freak, but it’d just been so nice to see her. I’d been really in my head when I saw her, and yeah, it’d been nice.
I had to say not much changed about her, but then on the other hand, so much had. I recognized her right away, bright red hair, freckles, red lips. She’d worn lipstick back then too, always did, and it always made her look like a vintage photo. One of those classic ones of old Hollywood starlets. I remembered thinking that even back then.
What had been different was the automatic smile she gave in my direction to someone, she clearly, hadn’t recognized. I’d changed quite a bit from the brief time we’d gone to school together, but despite not knowing who I was, she had just smiled at me. The old Fawn I knew hadn’t done that. She was guarded heavily, and it took some time to crash through that exterior.
In fact, I didn’t see anything of the old Fawn until she had mentioned my brother. It came up when I’d been asking her about coming home with me. I explained my family dynamic, how I was adopted, and as soon as she found out who my family was, her entire demeanor had changed. She’d locked up again.
She got guarded again.
I was covering her at this point because, for some reason, my brother was getting closer to her. His two piercings in his left nostril rose and fell when his nose flared. He was angry I brought her here, but he wasn’t the only one who was angry.
I put a hand on Wolf’s chest, his heart racing behind it. “Bro, explain to me. Now.”
Because my shit was racing too. I was angry too because no reason in the goddamn world warranted the kind of behavior Fawn explained to me.
And definitely not directed toward her.
It’d been a long time, but I knew Fawn’s story. I knew what she’d been through. I also knew she’d been a friend to me no matter how brief the time. We’d both had some bullshit happen to us back then.
And we’d managed to find solace with each other while within it.
I got Fawn’s hand then, mostly because my brother was still stepping up on her. She started backing away, and I wanted to let her know she was okay. I had her, and she was good.
Right away, she gripped my hand, and distracted by that, I glanced down. My brother gained then, and it took a second to distance him.
He sneered at me, Fawn, then for some reason our hands, which I found odd. He bared teeth. “You told him, Red? You fucking told him? How do you guys even know each other—”
“You have no right.”
I blinked for a few reasons. One was because my brother had given Fawn a nickname. I mean, it was an obvious one. She was a redhead, but that was… different. Another was because I was still kind of thinking about my hand holding Fawn’s. We used to do that a lot too. We were friends, but there were a lot of moments either one of us just needed a little security in the past. We needed a kind gesture from a familiar face.
We needed a friend.
I wasn’t able to think about it long because she let go, which brought me to the other reason I blinked. She’d been the one to tell my brother off after what he said and was now stepping up on him with her finger in his face. She legit walked up on him, and even though she was like over a foot beneath him (everyone was with his height), she stood tall. She stood confident. I’d seen that before too. Fawn Greenfield stood up against her bullies.
She always had.
Fawn
This was a bad idea. Terrible.
And yet, here I was.
Here we were, Wolf and me, and him driving me fucking crazy. Here he was getting a reaction out of me, and that pissed me off so fucking much.
I shook my finger at him, actually shaking, and I know I surprised him. He closed his mouth after I snapped at him, and he didn’t do that.
And to see him…
This sucked. It killed. My chest borderline caved in looking at him like I’d been socked in the freaking chest. Some of his hair had glided out of his bun, the curly strands wavy.
Gorgeous.
His jawline cut sharp, more defined like he’d been sculpting himself more than bulking up. Of course, he was still huge and completely all-encompassing.
Completely intimidating.
I couldn’t let him intimidate me. Not this time. I hadn’t wanted to come here today and confront him, but since I was, I had to stand my ground.
