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I fisted my hands at my sides. What the fuck had he just said? No fucking way he’d called my girl his.
Trying to temper my anger and jealousy, I found myself blinking at the douchebag who was still talking. He was tall, but a few inches shorter than me. His shoulders were on the leaner side of muscular, but there was a cockiness to him that made him seem larger than he really was. His chiseled jaw, high cheekbones, and the cocky tilt to his chin made me want to put a fist through his pretty face.
“Braxton, honey, is everything…okay?” Arella’s mom’s voice drifted off as her honey-brown eyes landed on me. Her lips pressed into a hard line, reinforcing my trepidation that I’d screwed up somehow, before her gaze traveled to the other guys still standing in the doorway. “Hi, Lyle…and Lyle’s friends.” She gave a grim smile. “Well, Arella will be glad to see all your handsome faces. Please come in. She’s helping out in the kitchen right now if you want to grab something to snack on.”
Lyle took a moment to kiss her cheek. “Thanks, Mrs. Stevenson. I’m really sorry about your dad. He was a cool guy.”
Lana’s chin trembled for a moment before she forced it to stop. “He was,” she agreed in a choked voice. Clearing her throat, she waved her hand. “Please make yourselves at home.”
When they took a step toward the kitchen, I moved faster, feeling a desperate need to reach Arella before Lyle did.
I heard her voice before I even reached the kitchen door. The soft, almost musical sound that always eased something tight within me. A small laugh reached my ears, and I ached to wrap my fingers around that sound so I could always hold on to it.
Entering the kitchen, I found Arella and all three of her sisters helping the caterers set up a buffet-style lunch. Wiping her hands on a towel, Arella stood close to Nevaeh as they watched Heavenleigh and Bliss finish taking lids off of huge containers.
“Douchebag at two o’clock,” Heavenleigh muttered, and her older sisters turned in my direction.
Nevaeh’s blue-gray eyes landed on me from behind a pair of glasses that took up most of her face and narrowed. I barely met her gaze before turning straight back to Arella. She’d changed from the simple, knee-length black dress she’d worn to the funeral into a pair of jean shorts and a Steel Entrapment T-shirt, no doubt in honor of her grandfather since he’d been the front man and founder of the band.
Her long dark hair, which had been in soft waves at the funeral, was pulled into a ponytail that showed off her elegant neck and that damn mole that had always fascinated me, located where her neck and shoulder connected. I’d fantasized about licking it—sinking my teeth into her flesh and marking her so that no one could see it and not know that she was mine.
“Mia’s in the living room,” Bliss announced, causing Arella to flinch and glance at her youngest sister.
Ignoring the youngest Stevenson in the room, I crossed the kitchen to Arella. “Can we talk?”
“Um…” Her hesitation only made me tense more, and then Lyle and his idiot friends walked in. Her gaze left me, landed on him, and I saw something flash in her blue-grays that made me want to destroy Lyle. “Hey, you,” she greeted, walking around me and hugging the guy. “I wasn’t expecting you until later.”
He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her forehead as his gaze locked with mine over her head. “I couldn’t stay away.” Leaning back, he focused on her. “How are you holding up?”
“Better now that you’re here.” She linked her arm through his and turned for the door, completely ignoring me. “Everything is ready to go in here. Let me tell Daddy I’m leaving, and we can go pick up Palmer.”
“We don’t have to leave. I know this is a family time.”
“No, no,” she rushed to assure him as they left the room, his friends right behind them. “My parents know I need some time with you and my friends.”
Feeling gut-punched, I just stood there, watching her walk away.
What the fuck just happened?
Did I…lose her?
One
Arella
The cute barista handed over my latte with a wink, and I blew him a kiss as I turned to exit the coffee shop. Heath was nothing but a flirt, but he knew how to make the best latte in all of SoCal. He knew my order so well, he started making it as soon as I walked through the door, even though the place was packed from wall-to-wall. By the time I ordered and paid, my drink was already waiting.
A glance at the cup showed my name with a heart for the last “a,” and it put a smile on my face as I walked to my car. It was an unseasonably warm day, and the top was down on the convertible my parents had given me when I’d graduated from high school, so I could enjoy the sun on my skin. The tiny white Porsche Boxster was adorable, and I loved it.
As I dropped into the driver’s seat, my cell went off. Seeing it was just my best friend Palmer, I decided to let it go to voice mail and call her back later. I wanted a few moments of complete quiet while I enjoyed my coffee and drove back to the set. We’d taken an hour break for lunch and I’d done a little Christmas shopping before grabbing my coffee, so I needed to drive straight back before I was too late.
A guard gave me a chin lift when I reached the studio lot, and he waved me through without making me pause. I gave the middle-aged guy a wink as I passed him, and he grinned. After parking, I walked inside, where we were filming the latest episode of the show I starred in as one of the three lead characters, tossing my now-empty coffee cup as I headed directly for the makeup chair. This was the fi
nal season of this damn show, and honestly, I couldn’t wait to be done with this character and the show itself.
I’d had to deal with people trying to trash my name and dragging me through the mud for taking this role. Apparently to the world in general, I only got the leading female role for this drama because of who my father and grandfather were. Using my name to get to the top, blocking actresses who could actually act from getting the job.
Which was why I hadn’t quit when I’d realized just how much I hated this character and the other people I worked with. I wasn’t about to let anyone think I was running from having them talk shit about me. I gave 110 percent to the role, despite wanting to stab nearly every person on set most days. I’d won a Golden Globe for my performance the year before, but not even that award had saved this idiotic drama when the network decided to make some cuts.
