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Reluctantly, I looked back at Oakley.She met my gaze.
“If you need anything, call.The emergency numbers are on the side of the fridge.And Sarah can show you how to set the alarm.It’s easy.”
Oakley nodded.“Got it.We will be just fine.”
I had no doubt they would be.Besides, I had security cameras all over the house.I could check on things whenever I wanted.No need for her to know that though.
With one last wave to Sarah, I turned and left them there in the kitchen, making a mess that somehow made the place feel more like home than before.I wasn’t going to think too deeply into that.It was just because Sarah was happy.Nothing more.
Ten Years Ago
I stood, leaning against the white oak tree, watching Oakley walk toward me.The strapless pale blue sundress she was wearing barely hit her mid-thigh.Her feet were bare, and the smile on her face only added to the ethereal appearance.
There were moments she seemed too beautiful.Completely unattainable.And she fucking should be—to me at least.I was too old for her.I knew it, yet I hadn’t been able to stay away.The more I’d gotten to know her, be around her, the crazier about her I had become.
King had joked that I was obsessed.Maybe he was right.It sure felt different.Unlike anything I’d ever experienced before.When I was with Oakley, my world was right.As if nothing bad could touch us.
She stopped a few feet in front of me.Her long blonde hair cascading over her shoulders while strands blew gently in the wind.She belonged on the covers of magazines, the focus of paintings, on fucking billboards.The best part was, she had no idea how insanely beautiful she was.The power she held over men.
I opened the bakery box in my hand and held it out to her.“Happy birthday,” I said, wishing this were her eighteenth and not her seventeenth.
The chocolate cupcake with buttercream icing from Sweeties was her favorite treat.I soaked in the view of her face lighting up as she looked at the cupcake with one candle in it before lifting those incredible crystal-blue eyes to my dark brown ones.
“You remembered,” she said with a mix of awe and shock.
“It’s your birthday, Oakley.Of course I remembered,” I replied, smiling at her.
Was she serious right now?
She shook her head, and her soft, musical laugh met my ears.Those eyes, still wide with a touch of wonder, made me feel things in my chest that almost hurt.
“No one else did,” she whispered.
Frowning, I studied her.“No one else remembered to get you a cake?Or that you loved the chocolate cupcakes with buttercream icing at Sweeties?”I asked, hoping like hell that was what she meant.
The sadness in her eyes before she dropped her gaze back to the cupcake made it hard for me to breathe.I didn’t like this.Not one fucking bit.If she was about to tell me that my shithead of a cousin or her own father had forgotten her birthday, I wasn’t sure I wouldn’t go do bodily harm to both of them.
“My birthday,” she replied.
Fuck.I swallowed hard as my chest tightened—well past the point of discomfort.I wanted her to clarify, but I also couldn’t stand seeing her hurting.She deserved to be happy.The world needed those smiles.The ones only she could give.
I reached into my pocket and pulled out a lighter, then lit her candle.
“Happy birthday, Oakley.Make a wish.”
She bit her bottom lip, then leaned in to blow out the candle.When her eyes met mine, I could see the desire in them, the same fucking need clawing at me, and I had to fight the urge to grab her and press her against the tree.I wanted to devour her mouth, taste the soft skin at the base of her neck, hold her bare tits in my hands, and feel her naked body pressed against mine.
But she was only seventeen.I was twenty-four.It wasn’t the illegal factor that held me back.A life of crime was something I lived and breathed behind the protection of the family.
As much as I wanted to touch her, own her, keep her, I knew she wasn’t ready yet.She had to grow up some more.Mature.Be sure I was what she wanted.Until then, I would keep this a friendship.One where I fucking worshipped the ground she walked on.I would be there for her, protect her, never let her down.
When the day came that she was old enough to know what she wanted, then and only then would I get my wish.The only thing in this world I would ever want.Her.
Seven
Oakley
Grabbing Sarah’s hand, I hurried to the front of her school, silently cursing myself for forgetting to set the alarm.We had stayed up past her bedtime to finish carving the pumpkins for the front porch, and then we’d accidentally overslept.If Wilder found out about this, he was going to be pissed.
