AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I sweep her sixty pounds into my arms and almost lose my shit when our chests clash and tears burn the backs of my eyes. “June.” I press a kiss to her cheek. Her nose. Her neck. I press one to the top of her sweet-smelling hair, and swallow down a sob when my lungs jump and my breath catches. “Holy shit, June. You got bigger since I was last here.”
“I turned seven.” She frames my face with sticky hands and pulls back so I get a glimpse of tears on her cheeks and a wobbling smile that makes her lips quiver. “I missed you like crazy.”
“I missed you.” I pull her in for another crushing hug and simply back up until my heels touch the bottom of the stairs. Then I lower to sit, and wrap my baby girl in an embrace I had no clue I needed until I was already enveloped in it. “I’m sorry I left, Bug. Uncle Axe is sorry for doing that to you.”
“Mommy said you would come back.” Her voice shakes with an ache I know I put there. “Daddy stopped taking my calls a long time ago, Uncle Axe. He wasn’t very nice ever. But Mommy said this wasn’t like that.”
“Oh god.” I squeeze my eyes shut and bury my face between her shoulder and neck. She thinks I deserted her the way her deadbeat dad did long before he became a permanent resident of a hospital for psychos. “Not like that, Bug. I’m sorry if I made you feel that way.”
“Axel?”
My head shoots up and my eyes lock onto my sister’s. She’s older than me, but physically smaller, so as soon as she’s close enough, I reach out with my hand and yank her closer until her ass hits the step beside mine. Then my arm goes around her shoulders to crush us in together.
The three musketeers, the way it was always supposed to be.
Sure, Preston’s part of the team now. And Hannah was always around, serving up cake and flirting with me until my stomach hurt.
But beneath all the noise and glitz and sass, it was always me, Nic, and June.
Then I hopped a plane and stopped taking their calls.
“I’m sorry.” I press a kiss to the side of Nic’s head and wipe the single tear that dribbles onto my cheek in her hair. “I’m so sorry for running away.”
“Are you back?” Sniffling, lungs heaving, she pulls back enough to look up into my eyes. “Are you staying?”
“Do you want me to?” I press a kiss to the center of her brow and close my eyes. “Is that what you want?”
“It’s what I always wanted, you jerk.” She digs her elbow into my side, but puts hardly any effort into the move. “I have no clue why you ran, but you left a trail of broken hearts when you left.”
“Them too?” Ruiz hands his stack of pizzas to Preston and ambles closer, like my heartache is a soap opera he gets to watch. “You left all of them, like they might forget you and hurt less when you die?”
“What?” Nicole jerks, while June gasps.
“You’re dying, Uncle Axe?”
“No.” I shoot daggers at Ruiz and glance down to June. “It was a figure of speech, honey. He thinks he’s clever, but Uncle Axe is fine.”
Her jaw trembles with heartbreak. “You promise?”
“I promise.”
“You helped me bury my Ainsley…” Ruiz comes closer, unafraid of my wrath when I snarl at his proximity. “You saw me a broken man, and just like that, you decided to skip town, and hoped absence would make them forget you?”
“Are you serious?” Preston growls. “Are you fucking serious right now, Feeney?”
“I said mind your business,” I bite out angrily. “This is a private family dinner. Why are you even here?”
“I was invited.” Then he swings his hand out and claps my cheek—not a punch, and not a slap, but afuck youloud enough to send my temper flaring. “Do you have any clue how stupid you sound right now?”
“Mind your—”
“I would giveanythingfor five more minutes with Ains. Anything! But here you are, pissing everyone off and spoon-feeding them the very heartbreak you claim to be protecting them from!”
“Shut u—”
“No wonder everyone’s angry. No wonderyou’reangry! You might be the stupidest motherfucker I ever met, kid. And I’ve met my fair share.”
“I’m done discussing this.” Lifting June, I push up to stand and pull my sister along with us. “I’m enjoying dinner with my family. You know where the door is.”
