Page 77 of Her Brother's Keeper

“Yes, Stepmother dearest?” he said, a comedic twinkle in his blue eyes, just like his father’s.

“Eighteen, remember that.” She said coolly.

“If you can’t remember that,” Reaver said, “then at least remember you’re near Noah and Eden, and they’re at that age they can pick that shit up.”

Hayden elbowed Reaver with a scowl and he yelped, “Ow! Hey, what’d I say?” he asked.

I laughed lightly and cuddled back into Nox who kissed the side of my neck. He asked me, “You all set?” and I smiled, feeling lighter than air, loved and in love; and totally excited to get on the road.

“I can’t wait,” I said, and he chuckled darkly, the sound making me shiver.

“I can’t wait for it either,” he murmured into my ear and I closed my eyes.

Life wasn’t exactly perfect. When I say that, I mean, with being responsible for Sage, and both Nox and I’s work schedules, sex and intimacy didn’t exactly get to happen often or spontaneously. It was hard for us to hook up. We’d only managed to a couple of times so far, and I realized that adulting, and being an adult – seriously wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.

Though I wouldn’t trade having my brother with me for the world, it gave me even more serious pause before any decision making regarding having kids of my own. Not only when it came to the genetics, but because as selfish as it sounded, I really wanted to have a chance at a life of my own for a minute without having someone totally depend on me.

I looked back to Sage, sitting in the backseat laughing and talking with Connor and an overwhelming sense of guilt and resentment flooded me. It was a hard combination of emotions to deal with and so I did what I did best in those moments when they came up – I shoved them down and ignored them as hard as I could. Because, you know, bottling everything up wastotallyhealthy.

Nox had let me go and was setting about doing last checks on gear and making sure everything was lashed down and strapped tightly before we set off on our weekend adventure with the club. I was so focused on how the denim of his jeans hugged his ass I completely missed Dani slide up beside me.

“You okay?” she asked, half hiding behind a sweep of her black hair. I nodded and plastered on my ‘fake it ‘til you make it’ smile. She tilted her head curiously to one side and it made her man, Red-Thirteen stop what he was doing by his classic bike to look over.

“You good, Baby?”

“I’m fine,” she called back over her shoulder, but her eyes never left mine.

“She doesn’t believe you,” a soft male voice said from my other side and I looked over to Blue, who gave me his boyish grin. I blinked, I couldn’t remember ever hearing him speak before, but he did it again, when he said, “I don’t believe you either.” He took the sting out of his words by smiling wider and punctuating them with a wink of his light gray eyes, several shades lighter than Nox’s steel gray ones.

“If you need to talk about any of it, you know we’re here…” Dani said, and I turned my attention back to her.

I was completely unnerved by the two of them at this point and just managed a feeble, “Yeah, sure… okay.”

Dani smiled apologetically, “I don’t mean to creep you out,” she said. “I just see it, you know?”

“See what?” I asked.

“The adults in your life are so worried about Sage and his development, they’ve completely forgotten about you, haven’t they?” she asked.

I nearly startled, and found myself nodding before I could stop myself. She’d gotten right to the heart of my resentment. Sometimes I simply felt so taken for granted, I couldn’t even… I didn’t think anyone but Nox knew, and while he tried his very best – for the most part, he was right in the trenches with me when it came to Sage. It was less lonely for sure, but not something we talked about.

“Come find me sometime this weekend, I think you need to vent,” she said and gave me a quick hug before going over to Thirteen. The look he gave her was the same look Nox gave me, and it warmed me down to my toes to see it.

I had no doubt that I was loved, and that meant so very much to me. Another unsettling stab of guilt pierced my heart, only this time, for a different reason. I suddenly felt bad for any resentment that I harbored knowing how incredibly lucky I was to be so loved and by such a good man…

“Maren, you good, Angel?” I looked up and smiled, and felt like I had absolutely zero handle on my emotions lately. I hid it by nodding and went to Nox, wrapping my arms around his waist and hugging myself tightly against his chest. His arms went around me, and he tossed my long braid over my shoulder to lay down the leather covering my back.

“I love you,” he said suddenly, and I smiled with nothing forced about it this time.

“I love you, too. What was that for?” I asked.

“Just something in your eyes, it looked like you needed to hear it,” he murmured.

“I did,” I confessed and went up on tiptoe, pressing my lips to his. He smiled against my mouth and gave the guys making comments about his display of affection the finger. I laughed and we all turned to listen as Dragon’s voice boomed over the small crowd of bikers and bikes.

“Listen up!” he shouted, and we did, with rapt attention. Dragon was just that kind of man and leader.

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