Page 2 of Dream Chaser
I frown. “You’re offering to …helpme?”
“I’m invested,” he says with a wink. “I’d like to at least be wearing the right shirt.”
And somehow, that makes me laugh. Which is infuriating. Because I don’t laugh when I’m behind, and sweaty, and sorting through things I’ve already sorted through.
I should tell him to leave. Instead, I hand him a roll of preprinted labels and arch a brow.
“Fine. But if you mislabel anything, I’m going to make your locker smell like … goat cheese.”
He just grins and peels the first sticker.
It’s not two minutes after we find his shirt that his phone goes off.
He pulls it out of his pocket and looks at the screen. “Love to stay and help, but duty calls.” He looks around as he stands up, wiping his hands on his pants … as if he’s even dirtied them.
“Such a prissy, baby-tee wearinggirl,” I mumble under my breath.
His chuckle is dark, deep, and from his chest. “Not what the doctor said before he slapped me on the ass the day I was born. Didn’t even call me a boy.” He reaches up before passing through the doorframe, grips the top, and does …a pull up? “Couldn’t be just a boy with what I’m packing.” He drops down, looking over his shoulder. “See you around, Izzy.”
I begin lifting my jaw up off floor while trying to unscramble my brain, because I am never at a loss for words, and he gives me a wink …a freaking wink.
“I’m not alone, Mom.” I look in the rearview window and see CJ and Matthew following me in a black matte SUV. “I have two cousins up my ass.”
“Iz,” she sighs loudly. “With all the gossip sites talking about Blue Valley and everyone being related, it’s probably best you don’t say things like that.”
“Like what?” I ask, but then it hits me. “Ew, Mom. Gross.”
She laughs softly then sighs before finally asking, “Where are you heading now?”
“I’m going to stop at the brewery to see if Lo and Ry need anything from me before hitting the post office to send back allthese hats.” I groan. “How the hell the printer left out theNin Knights is un-freaking-explainable to me.”
“People do make mistakes, but yeah.” Mom sighs, frustrated. “A couple maybe? Not two hundred.”
“Right?” I huff.
“What’s the plan after that?” she asks.
“I might head down to see if Sydney and Beau need anything.”
“And then?”
“You do know we’re off lockdown, right?” I ask because, like … we are.
I glance in the rearview and see the twins are still riding my ass. Clearly, Mom’s not the only one still on high alert.
Life has never been what most people consider normal in a small town, so I’ve come to discover, Blue Valley isn’t your typical small town. I was too young to remember Uncle Lucas playing pro football, and he wasn’t even my uncle then. Aunt Tessa was married to Uncle Collin then. And as cringy as it sounds, he was my first “love.” There was just something about his quiet intensity. He was different from the other uncles, some of whom are actually Dad’s first cousins, but their age being what it is, and how close our family is, they’re aunts and uncles, which is less confusing on all parts. Dad’s intense, the uncles are intense, but Uncle Collin … he was always more so, and he never fully relaxed,like ever.
As I got older and learned more about him, I realized why. The man, an MD trained in the military, took Doctors Without Borders to the next level. He was a doctor who took a small self-made army of his choosing—all highly strategic—into communities around the world and legit built borders.
He trained the locals how to survive and protect their communities so that when he was done—typically spending a year in each place—he knew they had a fighting chance againstnot only the elements and environmental challenges, but the pieces of shit drug lords, war mongers, human traffickers, and those kinds of humans—no screw that—animals.
Unlike the military run by the government, he didn’tdipand leave them high and dry; he trained locals, armed them with not only skills but weapons for protection. And, most importantly, he checked in to make sure they were okay. He supported them.
When he was murdered—my eyes burn at the thought—I was devastated. We all were, the entire town, and the world around us.
His sons, trailing me now—even though their mom, Aunt Tessa, truly tried to get them to go another direction—are following in his footsteps. They run a security firm and get paid out the ass to protect the rich and famous, and they also look over those communities that Uncle Collin helped. My cousin Remmington works with them, as well. Jackson, too, but he is specific about what he takes on. And what is that? Great question. One in which they never give you an honest answer to when asked.
There was a time that I wanted to join them, but the way my brain works, I was on to the next thing within a week. Now, as I’m thinking about it, that desire is back.
