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Rafe growled. He couldn’t help himself. “Fair warning, jackass, if you’re going to act like a fortune cookie, I’m going to treat you like one.”
“Meaning what?” Aiden actually had the audacity to chuckle, the fucker. “You’ll break me in half and rip out my insides?”
Rafe’s answering smile was anything but friendly. “Something along those lines, yeah.” But his phone buzzed in his pocket before he had a chance to follow through on the threat.
Giving his friend athis-isn’t-over-assholelook, he dug out his phone and glanced down at the screen. The call was coming from Seattle, Washington.
“Nell, I think it’s for you,” Rafe said, tossing his phone onto the blanket beside her.
Her hands shook as she picked it up. For a second, he thought she would let it go to voicemail. But then she drew in a deep breath, mumbled, “Fuck it,” and slid a fingertip along the bottom of the screen. Even so, her brown irises were lost in a pool of white as she brought the phone up to her ear. “Hello?”
Two voices screamed on the other end, so loud that Nell yanked the phone away from her ear. Even Olivia leaned away, scrunching up her nose at the sound.
Rafe had a hard time following exactly how it went down after that. Nell screamed too, then cried, and then she was screamingandcrying, rolling around on the blanket with her legs kicking up like an excited puppy.
Words came out of her a mile a minute, but it was so disjointed and confusing, he couldn’t follow the conversation at all. As if the people on the other end kept finishing her sentences, and she kept completing theirs.
After a few minutes of this, during which the other three watched her with varying levels of bemusement, she looked over at Rafe with joy radiating out of her like literal fucking sunshine. “It’s Ben and Cady,” she mouthed, pointing to the phone, smiling like her greatest dream just came true.
Then she was up, pacing back and forth across the enormous front lawn, nothing but hints of her animated voice drifting over to him.
“I’m dying to know what that’s all about,” Olivia said, scurrying over to their blanket and settling between Aiden’s sprawled legs.
Aiden kissed the top of her head before saying, “That makes two of us.”
It took Rafe a few seconds to figure out how much of her story he had any right to tell. “The short version is, she got away from her major piece of shit ex a little over a year ago. The guy fucked up her relationships with her friends and family, and I’m helping her get back in touch with everyone. She talked to her sister yesterday, and those are her two best friends on the phone.”
“And the long version?” Aiden prompted, his voice carefully neutral. Olivia blinked back tears.
“You’ll have to ask her about that.”
Brows drawing together in concern, Aiden watched Nell pace for several long seconds. “The scars?”
“Like I said, her ex was a major piece of shit.”
“Christ. If I’d known that, I would’ve bid more in the auction yesterday.” Aiden drew his lips into a tight line. “No wonder you asked if she could keep the money.”
Olivia’s hands balled into fists somewhere along the line. He had no doubt that if Micah strolled across the lawn at that moment, she’d beat the ever-loving shit out of him without a second thought.
Yeah, well. She’d have to get in fucking line.
“She was terrified of me seeing her scars on her first day. Now look at her.” His chest swelled with pride. His strong, beautiful badass.
“Can I ask you a question?”
Rafe narrowed his eyes at Olivia. She sounded a tad too intentionally sweet and innocent. “Your tone tells me I’m going to regret this, but go ahead.”
“Do you like Nell?”
“Liv—” Aiden started in a warning tone.
But Rafe talked right over him, his brows shooting up. “Like her? Of course I like her. What’s not to like?”
“No, no, no.” Ignoring her own Dom’s tight grip on her upper arm, she waved a dismissive hand in Rafe’s direction. “I mean, do youlikeNell. Do you have feelings for her.”
If she sucker punched him in the gut, it would’ve surprised him less. Hell, the world could’ve erupted into nuclear war, and he might have taken it with more grace.
At least everything finally made sense. All the funny looks, the bizarre-ass comments...everyone thought he’d gone soft. That a woman had finally come along who could cage and tame the beast.
