Page 75 of Nothing to Fear

“Your grandmother is looking forward to seeing you all,” Alice said. “I’ve threatened to chain Tripp to this very table to ensure he eats meals with us during her stay. And don’t think I won’t do it. Savanna, she’d be delighted to meet you.”

“Uh, maybe not a good idea,” Darroch said. “We might stay at Savanna’s that week.”

“All of us,” Caber said to another laugh.

“You think it’s a joke until one of you says something hurtful in front of her,” Alice said. “Please, remember she loves you.”

They had a lot of love, around them, in them, for them. What a way to grow up, and an incredible way to live. Support just oozed from all of them. It wasn’t the money, it was the rapport. Had she known a family could actually enjoy each other’s company? Not using hers as an example, no. Maybe there was another way.

TWENTY-THREE

“SHE’S NOT THAT BAD.”

Darroch sauntered into his bedroom as she tucked her phone into her purse.

“Who? Your mom? I love your mom.”

“My grandmother. She’s from California, you know what people from the Golden State are like.”

“No, actually,” she said, flashing him a quick smile. “I’ve never been to California.”

“Oh, they’re all drama queens.”

“Isn’t your mom from California?”

He came to plant his ass on the bed by her purse. “More girl talk?” She shrugged. Snagging both her hands, he guided her into the vee of his thighs. “You know more about my mom than you’ve told me about you.”

“You said that was okay. That you would wait until I was ready.”

“And I will,” he said, kissing her knuckles. “You belong here, Cherry.”

“In your bedroom?”

Except he wasn’t playing. “You don’t feel it? How right this is?”

“Says the guy sitting on the bed we slept in together last night.”

“What are you implying, Sweet Cherry?”

“I don’t know,” she said, sliding one knee onto the bed and then the other to straddle him. “That maybe you’re a man with one thing on his mind.”

He grabbed her ass and flipped her to her back. “Always with you around, Cherry.”

The point was to go back to the city, to… did he have to be so good? The heat of his mouth pressed hard. Her tongue begged his and it didn’t disappoint. Bold, broad, he sheltered and seduced her with the deep need of—

“Darroch!”

Shit, that wasn’t an adult voice.

Darroch sighed. “Astor.”

“Are you having sex?” the eager thirteen-year-old asked.

“No, and if we were, you should be backing up fast.”

“Are you touching her boobs?”

Another exhale from Darroch, but she laughed and patted his shoulders, signaling him to let her up.

---