Dustin pulls me into his arms and hugs me close. My eyes shut of their own accord at the familiarity of it. For a long time, I didn’t have this from him, but since moving back a couple of weeks ago, he’s hugged me whenever we see each other.
“Come on, I’ll introduce you to everyone.” With his arm still around my shoulders, I start walking toward the back of the clubhouse.
“I’ve already met them,” I tell him, not wanting him to put the attention on me. I didn’t do well with attention. I haven’t been one for wanting the spotlight.
“You know my brothers, but you need to meet the others that are around here today,” he explains. “We’ve got Della’s family and those who work on the ranch here as well.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah.” He chuckles and stops us next to the first group of guys. Two of them I recognize. The others, I can somewhat remember their faces. “Amelia, you might remember her, but Maddox, Garrett, this is my little sister, Delaney. Laney, this is Della’s brother, his fiancée, and Garrett.”
“Yeah, we met a couple of years ago at one of the club’s cookouts. You were the girl with the book, and I was the lunatic running after a feral little boy, secretly wishing I had time to read.” Amelia smiles warmly. “It’s good to see you again.”
The man standing beside Amelia winds an arm around her waist, drawing her into the crook of his arm, making it clear he's her fiancé, and not the other man standing to her left.
His eyes leave Amelia, and he regards me with a curt nod.
“Nice to meet you, sweetheart.”
“Pleasure to meet you.” Garrett gives me a chin lift, his fingers on the brim of his cowboy hat.
“You all as well,” I say, feeling my cheeks heat at the attention.
“And you remember Shadow and Lucifer.”
“Yeah.” I nod, not really able to meet Lucifer’s gaze. It’s not that he wasn’t nice to me. It wasn’t even the fact that he could seem intimidating. I simply struggle to look into his eyes because when I do, all I see is him telling me that Davis is gone. He took it on his shoulders to tell me something tragic, and I respect him for it. He didn’t have to be the one to tell me. He could have left it to my brother or even one of the many officers on scene that fateful day to break the news, but he’d been the one to do it instead.
“Delaney, good to see you again.” My gaze slides to him, and a relieved sigh escapes me when I find his eyes are pinned to my brother. “What’s the matter, Mammon? Couldn’t find a saddle bunny to bring to the wedding, so you brought your sister instead?”
“Fuck you, man,” my brother grunts. “She needed a night out.”
“Well, whatever the reasoning, I’m glad you could come today,” Shadow says, pulling my attention toward him. “Mammon mentioned you’re gonna start teaching here.”
“Yes, I’m one of the new kindergarten teachers. I start orientation next week, then I’ll be able to set up my classroom and prepare for open house and the first day of class.”
“Her last school awarded her best teacher of the year,” Dustin brags, giving me a squeeze.
“It’s not a big deal,” I mumble and shake my head. Yes, I’d gotten the award, but all I did was do my job and make sure my students learned the material they needed to know. I didn’trush them as I helped them learn and thrive in the classroom, as many other teachers do.
Thankfully, Amelia turns the attention from me, and they all bustle about getting ready for the wedding to begin. My brother shows me to a seat, taking the one next to me.
“You don’t have to sit with me if you don’t want to,” I tell him while picking at a strand in the hem of my dress.
“I’m good right here.” I don’t know what this change is in him, but it honestly freaks me out.
For the last several years, he’s been pretty aloof. He talks to me, but it’s never been like this, just like with the hugging. That wall I have up was just like the one he had toward me. Only now it’s different with him, and I don’t understand why.
“What’s going on with you?” I blurt without meaning to. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to ask that.” Not out loud, that is.
“Mammon,” someone shouts, calling for him to join them.
Dustin looks at me. “I gotta go help Shade, but to answer your question quick-like, I was reminded not long ago that I don’t want to lose the only blood I have left. I watched Maddox nearly lose his sister. Shadow could’ve lost his woman, but she’s here. I’ve lost one sibling, I’m not losing the other. I’m not going through that again, Laney. I won’t. Now that you’re back, I’m fixing things between us. We’re going to get back what we shouldn’t have lost in the first place.”
With his words cutting me like a double-edged sword, he gets up and heads in Shade’s direction.
The ceremony starts moments after his departure, and I’m left with his words reeling in my head on repeat. I’m not sure how to handle what he said to me. Throughout the entire thing, I don’t really pay attention, not even when Shadow kisses his bride.
All I keep thinking about is escaping the feeling that my brother has embedded in me. Did he lose me? Did we lose eachother? For so many years now, we haven’t been the same as we were with each other. Could we get that back? I didn’t think so. I’m cursed to lose everyone in my life. I couldn’t go back, not with the fear lingering over me. Or without him learning my secrets that I keep deep down.
