Page 66 of Fighting the Odds

“We’ve got to start keeping condoms in all the rooms,” he jokes as he pulls his shirt over his head, cleaning up the mess.

He sits me down on the couch beside him and stands,leaving the room, returning a minute later with a rag, and cleans me up.

“I love you, Sierra. So, let’s talk about these boys that are going to make up the rest of your harem.”

Chapter 32

Zander

As we ride the elevator up to Sierra’s apartment, we’re all quiet, not sure how she’ll react to us just showing up at her home. When we messaged Cyrus last night and told him we wanted to take her to school, he replied with ‘okay’.

We need to take a step toward her trusting us and getting to know her more. So here we go.

The dinging of the elevator doors as they slide open coincides with my exhale. My hands are shaking and I can feel my armpits sweating.

I’m nervous as hell, and I bet my brothers are, too. Even Colton came.

We step out and stride down the hallway toward her apartment. The hallway is so quiet, you’d think the building was abandoned.

I begin to wonder how many other children live here. Did Sam have friends in the building she played with? Does she miss them if she did? I make a mental note to ask her when I get home tonight.

When we reach her door, we all look at each other, silently deciding who’s going to knock first, but that’s answered when Colton reaches out and knocks loudly three times.

“What do we say?” Braxton whispers.

“That we came to give her a ride to school,” I answer.

We can hear the disengaging of the lock as the door slowly opens. Sierra’s eyes go wide when she sees the three of us.

“What are you doing here?” she asks, as she closes the door some, blocking our view inside.

“We came to take you to school.” I smile.

“Why?”

I glance over at my brothers, not sure what to say, so I blurt the first thing that comes to my mind.

“Because we wanted to. And I figured we could plan a time to meet for our project. Maybe this afternoon. We can hang out here if it’s okay.” I pray she says yes.

“Umm,” she looks over her shoulder into the apartment, before turning back to face us. “I don’t know.”

“Okay. Are you ready to go? If not, we can wait for you downstairs.” Braxton shifts his body, bumping his shoulder into mine.

“Yeah, okay. I’ll meet you downstairs. Just give me a few minutes.” She shuts the door in our faces, not even waiting for an answer.

“Did she seem nervous?” I ask.

“Can you blame her? We just showed up at her door with no warning. We don’t know what this new guardian of hers is like, so we may have made things worse for her. Let’s just go wait downstairs.” Colton turns, heading toward the elevator, leaving me and Braxton looking at each other with wide eyes.

“Did he—” I start.

“Yep.” Braxton shrugs before following Colton, and I fall in line behind him.

The ding of the elevator sounds just as we reach it and we quickly step inside, Colton pushing the button for the bottom floor.

“You think she’s going to agree to working on your project today?” Colton asks, and I tilt my head and lift my shoulders.

I hope she does. But I’m not going to push her.

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