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Movement at the door pulled my gaze, and I saw Barrick step silently into the room. He lifted his finger to his lips, and I shifted my attention back to Mia before she realized we weren’t alone. “Why is everything ruined?” I asked her softly.
“Because he was supposed to know before anyone else. Not Jagger or you or even my parents. Just Barrick.” Her chin trembled, and I tightened my hold on her. I never could stand the sight of her tears. They gutted me and made me want to eviscerate whatever had dared to cause her to cry.
I cared about Mia like no one else in my life, and even though we’d taken things too far once and only once, I’d never loved her as more than a friend. She was like family to me, and I couldn’t imagine my life without her.
But what I felt for Arella? That was on a level I’d never experienced before, and I’d been screwing up left and right with her.
Other than at her grandfather’s funeral and when her dad had his liver transplant surgery, I’d never really seen Arella cry, but both times had been enough to bring me to my knees.
“I’ve been saving this news just for Christmas because we’ve been trying for so long for another baby with no results, and…and…I only wanted to make it special.” Her sobs hurt my heart, but it was nothin
g to the agonized groan Barrick released behind her.
Startled by the sound, she turned around. “Barrick,” she whispered. “It…It was supposed to be…”
He enfolded her in his arms, tears already spilling down his face and into his beard. “It’s the best surprise ever, firecracker,” he choked out. “Adding another baby to our family is the best present you could ever give me, second only to you loving me.”
Giving them a moment to themselves, I silently left them in the kitchen and went in search of Arella. It took me twenty minutes to check the entire house before I asked one of her many cousins if they had seen her.
“I think I saw her leave,” Remington Sawyer informed me as he and Violet stood in a group with Violet’s parents and a few others. “That was a while ago, though.”
I muttered a thanks and quickly made my way out of the house. Her leaving could be a good thing, I told myself. We would be alone, and I could finally tell her everything I should have already said.
But when I got outside, I saw her car was still there. “Fuck,” I groaned. “Where did you go?”
“Something wrong?”
I turned at the deep voice I didn’t recognize and found some hulking goon in a suit. Figuring he was one of Barrick’s men, I stepped toward him. “Arella Stevenson. You know her?”
He tilted his head to the left. “She went with her cousin to the Thorntons’.”
“Lyric?” Luca hadn’t been home for Christmas in a few years, from what I understood.
“No, sir. It was Luca.” He opened a car door and got behind the wheel. “I guess they’re doing some family bonding. Hadn’t seen each other in a while, from what I heard.”
“Thanks,” I told him, but I just stood there, trying to decide what course of action I should take. Go to the Thorntons’ and carry her out? Wait for her? Go to her place and ambush her there when she got home?
“You look like a stalker standing out here glaring at nothing,” a soft voice said behind me.
Sighing, I turned my head to find Aunt Gabs standing on the sidewalk beside me. I hadn’t even heard her approach. “Don’t be surprised if I suddenly turn into one,” I grumbled before bending my head to kiss her cheek.
“Girl trouble?” she asked with amusement lighting her brown eyes. My only response was to grunt, causing her to laugh. “That’s the response I get whenever Asher has the same problem.”
“Yeah? And what advice do you give him when he has these problems?”
My rocker aunt lifted her brows in surprise. “If you need my advice, sweetheart, all you have to do is ask.”
“Aunt Gabs,” I groaned. “Just tell me what I should do to make my girl—”
She gasped. “Your girl? You’re claiming this one?” She gave a happy little dance. “Does LeeLee know?”
“Mom doesn’t know. Yet.” No one but Mia knew the truth, and I wanted to fix that. Arella needed to know I wanted more than just her friendship before I told my parents…or hers. “As soon as I get this girl locked down, I’ll tell Mom. I promise. Until then, maybe you can suggest how I could go about doing just that.”
“What, locking her down?” I shrugged in answer, and she sighed dramatically. “If this girl is who I’m thinking it is, you aren’t just going to ‘lock her down,’ as you so crassly put it. The way you appear in all those stupid tabloids, I honestly thought you were smarter and smoother than this Jordan.”
“You know none of that filth is true,” I scoffed. “I can’t even stand those girls.”
“Yet you’re in so, so many pictures in nightclubs, or coming out of nightclubs, with them. Usually with their lipstick on some part of your face or clothing.”
