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“Don’t look at me,” she counters as she steals the bottle and takes a long slug. After a cough, she goes on, handing it back to me. “I’m only twenty-one. I’ve got a life ahead of me before I start popping out little hellions for Mom and Dad to spoil. I know our sister isn’t, either.” Bailey tilts her head to the side and looks at me with a strange expression. “Did you just call kids crotch-goblins?”
Taking a drink, I nod and laugh. She shakes her head in response. “I don’t think you can call them that. You’re a teacher, for Christ’s sake. You’re supposed to be a good influence, Avery.”
“That doesn’t change what they are. I mean, I’ve got Karen Zucker’s kid in my class this year. Do you remember her? She was in Deacon’s class in school. An outright bitch, for sure. She literally always made a point of showing that I was just tagging along during their fun.” Bailey nods while taking the bottle from my hand to get another drink. “And her little asshole of a son is seriously just as terrible. I caught him trying to cut off a girl’s ponytail last week. He even tried to say it was an accident.”
I take the bottle back and swallow some of the burning liquor, relishing the way it feels as it floods through my veins.
“But he had leaned forward, and the scissors in his hand were wrapped around her hair. That poor girl had a high pony, too. She would have been practically bald.”
With the warmth of the alcohol flowing through my system, all the stress and worries from earlier vanish and I’m left feeling slightly tingly.
“Party’s started,” Bailey says a few minutes later. “And there’s a difference now, Big. You’re not tagging along on one of Deac’s adventures. You’re a force all on your own.”
I smile, unable to help myself, but Bailey doesn’t stop there.
“A ton of kids, adults, and people we generally want to avoid at all costs. Now that you’ve got your liquid courage, though, wanna go laugh at the single moms who try to get Deac’s attention?”
“That sounds like an amazing plan.” Watching all the women who are obsessed with getting a piece of Deacon’s attention is easily one of my favorite pastimes. Especially when we can spot them from a mile away. “When he finally finds someone, it’s not gonna be one of the wannabe groupies.”
Bailey snorts. “You’re not joking. If Deac hadn’t put his foot down about his kid’s birthday, I’m sure it would be almost X-rated out there.”
I take another longing look at the bottle, laughing when I see that we haven’t even made a dent, and decide enough is enough.
Anxiety is a bitch. Anxiety, mixed with a group of people I don’t know, and a bunch of random kids would normally be enough to send me into my room for a week. In the classroom, I control the rules, the environment, all of it. But out here, in the middle of the woods, for Rett’s birthday party? Not a chance in hell. Bailey knows, no doubt, and brought the alcohol as a mediocre coping mechanism. Usually, I’d just leave. That isn’t really possible, though.
“Let’s get it over with.”
Bailey grabs my arm, and that should have been my first clue to run in the opposite direction. Instead, I smile and pick up the still-mostly-full bottle of vodka and walk through the door with a smile on my face. A smile that promptly falls when I see the very devil of a woman that I’ve been dealing with since childhood hanging on my brother’s arm.
Karen Zucker, the woman who won’t lift a finger to do anything about her son terrorizing other students. The woman who’d stolen my first boyfriend. And now, the one who has apparently turned her eyes on Deacon.
“What. The. Fuck.” I let go of my sister’s arm and hand her the bottle.
Rage doesn’t even begin to convey the emotion pouring through my veins.
“She has no right,” I hiss. “None at all.”
“Too late to run,” Bailey snips cheerfully. “You’ll just have to get rid of her.”
My smile turns feral, and I go to do just that. The crowd parts, albeit reluctantly, since there are children running around everywhere. That, and the fact that I only stand about five-feet tall on a good day.
“Move…” I demand through clenched teeth as someone steps into my path. “Now!”
My order falls on deaf ears, though, when I look up and see one of the club hangarounds.
“Your brother is busy,” he says cheerfully. “I don’t think he’d want you bothering him.”
I put one hand on my hip and look up at him while biting my bottom lip while I think about the best way to handle this ignorant brute. Finally settling on blunt, I let him have it. “That’s your first mistake.” I move around him, but he steps in front of me again.
“I’m serious, Avery. Your brother’s busy.”
Though I don’t even know how this guy knows my name, because I don’t have a clue who he is. His short black hair and dark eyes might look intimidating to most anyone else… but not me. I deal with children who could tear him apart without even thinking about it.
“Leroy,” he says when it is clear that I don’t know him at all. “My name’s Leroy.”
“Look,Leroy.” I say with my tone overly saccharine-sweet. “You really don’t want to get in my way. Not today.”
When he puts his arm around me, he makes the biggest mistake he possibly ever could. He doesn’t need to fear my brother, or any of the men who actually belong in his club. He should have thought twice about touching me since I’m a force to be reckoned with.
