Page 82 of Busted Dreams

“Beck?” I yelled once I hit the front of the house.

No answer. How had an Uber gotten here that quickly? Glancing up and down the street, I caught taillights at the corner before the car turned. I had literally missed him by seconds.

Pulling out my phone, I sent a quick text to get an address. I’d just meet him wherever he was going and hoped it wasn’t anything too serious. But it was very rare that Beck got worked up like that.

After it sent, I ran down the street toward my car. It was unfortunate Jeff didn’t have the driveway space Remi did. With all the cars parked on the street, it was a wonder they hadn’t had the cops called already. But a noise violation was much different than an actual arrest for fighting.

I reached out for the door handle after unlocking it when a heavy weight slammed against my back.

“Oof,” I grunted as my chin cracked against the window.

“You should have done this our way. We didn’t want it to come to this,” Brent whispered in my ear before pain exploded across my temple. Disoriented, I tried to fight back, but I couldn’t think straight while my ears rang and one of them pinned my arms. Each burst of pain made it harder and harder to defend myself, until I was a puddle of nothing on the sidewalk.

Something was shoved in my mouth, and then water was poured all over my face until I started choking and coughing. A hand covered my mouth, and whatever it was, I swallowed it.

I fucking swallowed.

“I would say don’t forget this is your fault, but I’m afraid it doesn’t matter.”

“Why didn’t you tell Beck about the scholarship?” I pressed deeper into the decorative pillow on the couch. It was embroidered, which was probably leaving very attractive thread lines all over my face. But I was still too sleepy to care. Anyway, this was Jonah.

“What was the point? He didn’t even know I applied in the first place.” Jonah cupped my toes, warming them. He didn’t sound upset anymore, but I still wanted him to have that type of connection with Beck.

“Because he’s your brother. You should tell him. And definitely should have told him when we went for food. He’ll feel like crap when you do tell him. All we talked about was how awesome it was that his video went viral.” I yawned.

“Nah. If I do tell him, I certainly won’t tell him I got the turn down the very day he was so happy.” He dropped his head to the back of the couch.

I lay there for a few more minutes, drifting in the warm haze of just waking up. But I had another question I’d been dying to ask. “What did you think of the cookout?”

Laughing a little under his breath, he said, “It wasn’t nearly as bad as I wanted it to be. Even after knowing they weren’t the bad guys, I still wanted to paint them with that same brush. Going there kind of blew that idea to pieces.”

“They’re actually really funny. I’d never thought a motorcycle club family would be more normal and healthy than my church-obsessed parents. But I guess that’s where I’m at.” I grinned and rolled onto my back to see him better.

“You know, sometimes I think about when my dad was home, before my mom started doing bad stuff. There were happy times, sure. But I don’t know that they ever had the tight bond Graves has with Angel, and they definitely never had it with me. It makes me a little jealous,” he admitted.

“Yeah, I get that.” My grin died. There had been a kernel of jealousy in the pit of my stomach too. “But they’re trying to bring you into their family dynamic. That’s pretty lucky. How many people get a chance to get a do over?”

Jonah slid one hand up my leg, just rubbing back and forth. Goosebumps traveled down my thighs. “Lots of people, Astrid. People constantly try to make their own family. Picking their friends, having kids, swearing to themselves they’re going to do it differently.” He lightly squeezed my foot. “I don’t know. I kind of think that’s what we’re doing here. The five of us are friends, and we keep growing closer. Look who I called when I was in trouble. The brother I hadn’t even realized was my brother. How’s that for fate?” He barked out a short laugh. “Hell, I know if I needed help right now, any one of you guys would be there for me.”

I liked that. We were building our own family in a roundabout way. With bonds much stronger than the ones forced on us by blood. No matter what happened in the future, I would do everything I could to keep all of us together. Even if we were only friends.

“Astrid…Do you ever…” He started but stopped.

For no reason at all, my heart started to beat faster. “Ever what?”

“You know what, never mind.”

I scooted into a half-sitting position. “Oh, no. You don’t get to do that. What were you going to say?”

He studied his hand on my calf for so long, I thought he was going to avoid my question completely. But he looked up, and so much heart was in his eyes, I stopped breathing. He’d never looked at me this way, like I was the sun, moon, and stars in his sky.

“I like you, Astrid,” he said softly. “And I don’t know what I’m doing. I know I can’t compete with the others, but I want to. It’s the first thing I think of when I wake up, the last thing I think of when I go to sleep. I just wonder, what would it be like between us? Do you ever wonder how it could be?”

“Jonah,” I breathed.

So, so slowly, he leaned closer. He tipped his head just to the side as our breath mingled. Fire raced through my veins from the anticipation, knowing this kiss would be so different from any one I’d had. The wait was too much, and I couldn’t take anymore, so I closed the distance between us and—

My phone rang.

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