Page 20 of Her Brother's Keeper

Nox: U do now, be there in 20min, get dressed.

Me: How, I mean, where are we going?

Nox: Leave that to me, dress casual, be comfortable.

Me: Okay.

Little did he know, I was still dressed from my errands from the day in a comfy pair of fitted jeans and an oversized sweater; all I needed was my boots back on and I was good to go. I closed my tablet cover and set it aside with a sigh and banked the fire. I sat back down and pulled on my knee high stylish riding boots and made sure my thick, long, cable knit socks showed above them at the knee. I pulled my matching cable knit sweater down over my ass to where it hit me mid-thigh and lamely went and checked my appearance in the bathroom mirror.

I ran a brush through my hair and pulled half of it up with a pewter clip I had in the shape of an owl, wings outspread. I stared at myself in the mirror for a few moments, put on a little lip balm, washed my hands, and went out into the living room to wait nervously. It was only eight o’clock and I had no idea what Nox had in mind.

When he knocked on the door, I jumped. I had expected him but hadn’t heard him pull into the driveway. I went to the door and answered and he smiled at me and I think my heart very nearly stopped in my chest.

“Hi,” I murmured and I think I was blushing. His grin grew wider and that pretty much told me that yes, yes I was blushing like an idiot, which of course made me blush even harder. I stepped aside so he could come into the house and he did, just inside the door, but only long enough to pull down my coat and hold it open for me.

He, like me, was dressed comfortably in his motorcycle boots and a pair of butter soft jeans. He wore a plain, black, hooded sweatshirt beneath his leather biker jacket and club vest and it looked good on him. He was rakish and, I don’t know… he just appeared so capable and it was gorgeous. He was a man who looked good, no matter what he wore.

“Have you eaten?” he asked, the timbre of his voice soothing to me after so many days without hearing it.

“Not yet,” I murmured. I didn’t want to tell him that I wasn’t hungry, or that I hadn’t really seen the point in just cooking for one. I was afraid to let anyone know the depths of my sadness lately.

“Okay, we’ll do that first.”

I shrugged into my coat and before I could flip my hair out of my collar, Nox’s hands were doing it for me. It sent shivers down my spine that had nothing to do with the cold and almost suffused me with a warm glow. I told my raging hormones to take it down a notch. There was no way a grown ass man had any interest in a dumb teenage girl. Nox had made it clear over the last few days, we were just friends and it needed to stay that way; I agreed. I didn’t want anyone to think ill of him, or for him to get into any kind of trouble. I didn’t want that for him at all.

“You okay, Angel?” he asked me as I wound my scarf around my neck.

“I’m sorry, yes I’m fine. It’s just another holiday, you know?”

“Another first without your pops?”

“Yeah.”

He gave me a slightly sadder smile and held out his hand. I took it and he pulled me into a hug. I closed my eyes and breathed him in, his clean cologne wrapping me in an almost sense of safety. He gave me a squeeze before letting me go and murmured, “Let’s see if we can’t make some memories that’ll get you through some of these tough times, k?”

I smiled and gave a nod, “Sounds like a plan, do you think the fire will be okay like that? I had one going,” I said, gesturing toward the fireplace. He went over, had a look and gave a nod.

“You did a good job, it’ll burn itself out and shouldn’t be any trouble glassed in like that.”

We locked up and left the house; only this time he made sure to switch on the porch light and told me to keep a lamp burning in the living room.

“For safety,” he said.

I smiled and acquiesced even though I worried about what it might do to the electric bill. I smiled when he opened and held the car door for me.

“I didn’t know anyone did this outside of books,” I said.

Nox raised an eyebrow, “What kind of lunkheads do you go out with?”

“None, actually… I haven’t had time to date in a very long time.” I got into the car which was still residually warm from his drive over here. He jogged around back and shrugged out of his leather vest, he got into the driver’s seat and laid it absentmindedly into my lap before reaching for his seatbelt.

“Surely you’ve gone on some dates already though?”

“A few, even managed to lose my virginity,” I made a face at that and he raised both eyebrows in surprise as he started the car up.

“Not fun times, I take it?”

“Rushed and awkward, second and third time with him wasn’t much better; then my dad got sick and I got busy and he… I don’t know, it’s like he just didn’t understand or didn’t get it. I legitimately didn’t have the time for him anymore, so we just kind of drifted apart…” except we hadn’t. The breakup had been ugly, and sadly, at least for me, remained ugly. It was like I had hurt Lucas’ pride or something, but it didn’t matter, he had hooked up with Robin Brown, one of the cheerleaders, and they’d been steadily making my life hell ever since.High School, ain’t it grand?

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