Page 79 of Rock Chick Bonus Tracks

Darius waited for his summons. Hank’s face had been weird.

What was weirder was the summons didn’t come.

The door closed behind Eddie and that was it.

“Sooooooo,” Ally drew that out, also drawing Darius’s attention. “Malia Clark. You two are hot and heavy, hunh?”

“Gonna marry her,” Darius said without hesitation, and he shook off the weird feeling he got from the look he saw on Hank’s face, the fact Lee and Eddie got the call, but he didn’t, and he was never left out, and he grinned big at Ally’s huge eyes.

Mostly, he grinned big thinking about Malia.

“She’s smart. She’s classy. She’s beautiful,” he explained.

“Check. Check. And check. But, dude…married?”

“Not like…now. After I get back from Yale and she finishes getting her law degree. Okay, maybe before she finishes that. We can get married when she’s in law school.”

Ally stretched out her lips. “Yikes. You have it all planned out.”

He did.

His dad told him he knew, the minute he met Darius’s mom. He knew that was the only woman for him.

Darius didn’t get it when his dad said it.

Until he met Malia.

One thing he did get, and always got, was that he was totally like his dad.

“I like you two together,” Ally said quietly. “You’re sweet. She’s sweet. You’re good-looking, or as good-looking as my brother from another mother can be.”

He shot her another grin.

“She’s gorgeous. Perfect match,” she finished.

“Yeah,” he agreed, distracted because the door opened again, and Eddie came through.

But he didn’t fully come in.

He stepped to the side and Lee filled the doorway.

They both had eyes to him, and he liked the looks on their faces a whole lot less than the one that was on Hank’s.

“Hey, bro, can you come upstairs a second?” Lee called.

“What’s going on?” Ally asked.

“Don’t know,” Darius said, pushing out of the couch.

Ally came up with him.

“Just Darius, yeah,cariño?” Eddie said to Ally, all gentle like.

And…damn.

Eddie didn’t pull out thecariñofor anybody.

Ally must have felt that too, because for once, Ally did what someone asked rather than doing whatever the hell she wanted.

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