Page 33 of Discord
“Does it have to do with your drinking?”
Only the slight rise in his eyebrows told me everything I needed to know. Over the next hour, Reid unwrapped everything, from how it started to what he needed to do next. After he was done, we sat silently for a long while. A shred of my previous optimism returned. Perhaps everything would be okay after all.
* * *
On a bright sunny day, Raven and Reid returned home for good. Life returned to normal, minus Milo’s looming presence.
Raven threw herself into her work and kept Reid’s drinking problem in check. He decided to quit cold turkey. I wanted to help him through this process, but their hushed whispers revealed they didn’t want my involvement, nor had they disclosed the whole truth.
All three of them hated when I helped. It embarrassed them. The best way to help Reid was by consenting to his unspoken request and not bringing more attention to the matter. History had taught me not to meddle in family crises because I reacted imprudently. So, I let myself drown in Brandon instead.
He returned from California on an ominous day. A day so dark and gloomy I almost missed the black Mustang parked outside. At first, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me.
With my sneakers barely over my ankle, I ran downstairs. My racing heart pushed me outside, and I halted next to his car. The door to the driver’s seat was flung open. One foot lazily rested on the ground outside while Brandon sat with his head leaned against the headrest. As if sensing my presence, he opened his eyes and turned to me.
Tension sizzled as I drank him in. Broad shoulders. Chiseled face carved into perfection. A new tan. All of it was beautiful, but it was the eyes that did it for me.
Something ethereal drew women to Brandon like a moth to a flame. They searched for the striking quality to hold them captive and often overlooked the most obvious culprit. It was all in the eyes—pale enough to be the color of slates rather than baby blue.
The pale blues coasted down my body, unhurried and unapologetic in their inspection of my V-neck heather gray t-shirt and denim shorts. Uncaring of prying neighbors, I climbed into the driver’s seat and straddled him. I had every intention of kissing him, but he kept me at a distance with a strong grip on my waist.
My heart started beating wildly inside my chest. “When did you get back from California?”
“Right now.”
“Right now, as in, right this second?”
“Drove straight here.”
I couldn’t speak for several moments with the concern etching onto my soul. “It’s a forty-hour drive,” I stated at long last. “Where did you sleep?”
“Spent a night in a hotel along the way.”
“That’s super dangerous. Why would you drive like such a maniac?”
“To see you.”
An honest and direct response, much like Brandon himself. The words sent a shiver down my spine. He admitted something deeply touching with only three short words:To see you.They might as well have been the other three words because something in his eyes resembled a feeling very close to it.
Love.
“Why?” I breathed.
Brandon cupped my face, eyes searching mine. He trailed the calloused hand from my cheek down to my neck. I swallowed when they lingered over my cleavage.
“After I found out who you were, I was resentful as hell at the situation because I couldn’t have you. In fact, you were the last person in this world I should have noticed. I still moved into this house to be near you. Chased you when giving you up would have been the right thing to do.”
He paused. There was a vibration in his body, and it took an eternity for him to finish the thought.
“But if giving you up is the right thing to do, then I’d rather be wrong. I drove here like a maniac to tell you that.”
The words sounded sweet, but he said them with such dark possessiveness that my voice left me. There was a lump in my throat in its stead, rendering me speechless.
He noticed. “Cat got your tongue, little Bunny? Aren’t you going to lash out at me today for burning your book?”
I couldn’t, not when he had lit my heart on fire. “Maybe another day,” I breathed, moving my lips closer to him.
Brandon held me in place still. I frowned, confused. “Mia,” he said, his voice suddenly serious. “Once your family finds out, they’ll try to turn you against me. The things I have done… There is no going back.”
