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“Jesse, hey.” I was enjoying my own once over of his delicious body. The way his gray tee shirt stretched tightly over his broad chest and how his jeans hung low on his lean hips. His head was shaved smooth, and I ached to run my tongue over it. Fuck! I had to stop or I was going to have to find myself a dry pair of panties.
Drake cleared his throat. “Sometime today, Jess. Stop eye fucking the chick and let’s get this show started man.”
I couldn’t help the blush that crept into my cheeks, but I stepped back and let them enter my small apartment. “I wasn’t expecting you guys to help me.”
“Neither where we,” Drake grumbled as he dropped down on my old, worn couch.
Jesse grinned. “What Drake means is that he is here under duress. This is his punishment for pissing Emmie off last night.”
“I still don’t understand what I did. One minute she’s all smiles and the next she’s screaming at me.” He shook his dark head, causing his hair to fall in his face. “I hate pregnancy hormones. Cannot wait for that demon child to get out of her!”
I couldn’t help but laugh at him. “That isn’t going to help. After the baby is born she’s going to be worse. Take my word for it, sweetie. Postpartum is worse than the mood swings she’s having now.”
“Ah, hell,” both men muttered.
“Hey, Layla did you already pack the bathroom?” Lana came out of the bedroom with a frown on her face, not yet noticing the men standing in our living room. “I need…” She broke off when she spotted Jesse standing at the end of the couch. “Oh…”
Jesse’s brows rose when he saw her. I watched his eyes grow wide when he got his first look at my sister’s beauty. Her long midnight black hair was pulled back into a ponytail. Her eyes, an almost amber color were startlingly beautiful. Her nose was ever so slightly upturned at the tip, and her lips looked bee stung and plump. With her long and slender body and those boobs that I knew most girls would have paid thousands to have, she was what I had always wanted to look like. Seriously, I didn’t know how she had made it through school without a boyfriend, but I was sure it had something to do with her ability to freeze fire with her glare sometimes.
“Lana, this is Jesse.” I introduced with a smile. “And that’s Drake.” I pointed to the couch. “Guys this is my seventeen year old sister, Lana.”
I watched Jesse closely while I introduced them, but other than giving her a once over, he seemed to dismiss her beauty. “It’s nice to meet you, Lana.” He nodded.
“Yeah, you too.” There was a slight pink tinting in her cheeks. “Layla, can you help me with something in the bathroom?”
Lucy was parked on the bed, still half asleep. I was glad that we were already packed up for the most part, but there were still a few things that needed put in boxes. “Hey, Lucy. Go introduce yourself to Jesse and Drake,” I told her and she climbed off the bed slowly to go do as I asked.
“What’s wrong?” I asked as I entered the bathroom behind Lana.
Her cheeks were still pink, but she just needed for me to unpack a few girl things for her. By the time I returned to the living room, Lucy was on the sofa between Jesse and Drake, talking animatedly to them. That surprised me because the little girl was normally reserved around men. But there she was, asking them all kinds of questions about the new house she was going to be living in.
“That’s so awesome!” she said now. “Will you build a sandcastle with me, Mr. Drake?”
“Um…Sure.” He seemed a little out of his element, but I was touched that he was at least making an effort with her. “We will have to go shopping for some toys though, I think. I’m not sure we have the right tools for sandcastle building.”
“Not today, Lucy,” I interrupted them. “We have a lot to do today, baby.”
“Tomorrow?”
Before I could say anything Drake was already nodding his head. “Tomorrow. It’s a date, okay?”
Lucy’s eyes were huge in her little face. “Promise?”
“Promise.” He stood, a smile on his handsome face. “Now, let’s get you ladies moved.”
Jesse
I didn’t realize three females would have so much stuff. Emmie had spoiled me because she always packed so light when we traveled. But between Layla, Lana, and Lucy’s clothes, and countless other things, the back of the truck that we had rented for the day was pretty full.
I drove the truck back to Malibu with Layla and her sisters following behind. Drake, who had been half dead on the ride out, was now more alive than I had seen him in…Months? Years? I couldn’t honestly remember the last time I had seen him really smile like he had been for the last two hours. I couldn’t tell if it was because of the way little Lucy had seemed to take one look at him and attach herself to him, or… But I wasn’t going to think those thoughts. Drake would never—I mean never, ever—touch Lana. If there was anyone the teen was safe with it would be Drake.
But I couldn’t get over how at ease he seemed despite the headache he had been bitching about just hours before. It was good to see him like that, because Drake was just so messed up in the head the majority of the time.
When we reached the beach house, he jumped out of the moving truck and got right into helping unload it. Shane and Nik came out to help and it didn’t take as long to unload as it had to fill it up. By the time we had all of their things in the guest house, it was after noon and we were all hungry and thirsty.
Emmie had the patio already set with beers, iced tea, sodas, and several boxes of pizzas for us. I steered clear of the box that had bacon written on top and dived into the one that was loaded down with everything else. Lana and Lucy were already being welcomed by the other guys with good-natured teasing, and I saw that Lucy seemed to be invading more than just Drake’s heart as the afternoon went by.
I knew what they saw when they looked at Lucy. I saw the exact same thing. We all saw Emmie who had only been a little younger when she had moved into the trailer park beside of Nik. But there was a huge difference between Emmie then and Lucy now. Emmie had been a neglected, abused, lost little girl that was skittish of the four teens we had been when we first attempted to take her under our wings. Lucy was a healthy, loved little girl.
Lucy was what Emmie should have been.
“There must be a place around here where we can buy all the things we need to make the perfect sandcastle,” Drake said to Lucy, who was still munching on pretzels after the three slices of cheese pizza she had already devoured. “Want to go with me to find it?”
