“Your chariot awaits.” He swings his arm out ahead of us, and me and my reddened cheeks walk ahead, with him and James following. The two of them giggle at something, having playful banter, and all the while, I’m unable to remove my smile.
29
Sutton
I frown, looking at my laptop screen. The timelines on my build are efficient, but I want it completed faster.
“What are you doing?” Annabelle and Sawyer step into the kitchen, where I’m perched at the counter. The kids are settled for the night, and I grab my whiskey, the new Shadow Gentleman, taking a sip.
“Working.”
Sawyer huffs a laugh.
“What are you really doing?” He grabs a glass and joins me with the whiskey as Annabelle makes a hot drink.
“Offering Griffin more money to work faster.”
Sawyer pauses, his glass touching his lips before he lowers it to ask, “Faster? Are you in a rush to move out of here?”
“Just want my own place.” I’ve been living here with Sawyer and Annabelle for a few months now, and I want my own space, my own things. It’s time to get my own life started here in Whispers. I still feel like a visitor, and I want permanent lodgings.
“Doesn’t have anything to do with Nikki?” Annabelle raises an eyebrow at me.
“It has everything to do with it.” I’m honest, because if I can’t be honest with my siblings, then I’m fucked.
“I can’t believe that it’s finally happened.” Sawyer looks dumbfounded, sounds like it too.
I narrow my eyes. “What?”
“That you have fallen so hard and fast for a woman? Was it love at first sight or something?”
“It’s not love.” The words taste bitter on my tongue. It can’t be love, can it? “We’re having a good time,” I tell him, more for my own benefit than his.
“Sure. I know. That’s all you do. A good time. Probably time you started to rein it in a bit, isn’t it? I mean, Nikki is nice, and the town has accepted her and James as their own. But you’re going to, what? Go back to LA? Back to your movies and your ladies and forget all about her?” His gaze homes in on me, and he couldn’t be more wrong. There’s no way I would forget about her. Just the thought of leaving her to go back to LA makes me feel hollow inside.
“I don’t know her well, but James sure seems like a bright kid,” Annabelle comments, and I smile, thinking of the kid who, like his sister, has embedded himself into my heart.
“He’s smart. Just like Nikki. She knows all these facts and stats, and I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone smarter than her.” Or more beautiful, genuine, easy to talk with.
“Must run in the family…” Annabelle huffs before sipping her tea.
“What?” I frown, wondering what she thinks.
“Hero savior complex.”
“Hero what?” Sawyer and I both ask in unison, confusion pinching our brows.
“Your brother tried to rescue me, and you might be doing the same.”
“We both know you didn’t need rescuing,” Sawyer says, and she grins softly.
“Yeah, but you kinda tried. It was cute.”
I smile, seeing her wink at my brother.
“Cute?” Sawyer gives her a look that says seriously?
“All I’m saying is that the two of you grew up with nothing, made something of yourselves, and now you both want to help others. Sawyer found me. Maybe you feel that way about Nikki too?”
