Needing Nevaeh

by Terri Anne Browning

  “Where are those two anyway?” Mom asked, frowning in Mia’s direction. “I want to thank them again for letting Nevaeh stay here before we go.”

  “They went to do a security consult for a local business,” my cousin told her. “I’m not sure when they will be back, but it shouldn’t be too much longer. Why don’t I order some dinner, and they can pick it up on their way home? Then once we’ve eaten and you’ve thanked them—yet again—you can get to the airport without missing your takeoff.”

  While Mia handled my parents like an expert, setting their minds at ease and letting them stay a little longer, I walked over to the couch and took a seat beside Aunt Emmie, who put her arm around my shoulders and gave me a squeeze. “It will be okay,” she promised in a whisper only I could hear. “I’ll take care of them.”

  I knew she would help them, but I appreciated her reassurance. My parents weren’t weak or unable to take care of themselves. My mom was one of the strongest women I knew, and even though Daddy seemed like a bowl of squishy Jell-O with me and our family, to the outside world, he was viewed with awe for his no-fucks-given attitude and his reputation for tossing paparazzi out windows. He was Drake Fucking Stevenson after all. Revered guitarist for Demon’s Wings and one of the biggest badass rockers the world had ever seen.

  But he was also an emotional father who was dropping his baby girl off at college for the first time and would spend the next few days mourning my not being in the same house with him and Mom. There were going to be tears and maybe even a few emotional breakdowns in his future, and that was making my heart throb. “Thanks, Aunt Em.”

  It was almost an hour later before the front door opened and in walked Barrick with a bag of takeout from the local Mexican restaurant. Mia said they had the best tacos, and we were all in agreement that comfort food needed to be on the menu for the evening.

  Behind him, carrying a second bag, limped Braxton. He was dressed in black dress pants, a white button-down that molded across his chest, with black combat boots to complete the outfit, and it took me a moment to pull my tongue from the roof of my mouth…because damn. His dark hair was cropped short, his dark eyes hauntingly beautiful with the longest, thickest eyelashes I’d ever seen on a guy. I wanted to spend uninterrupted hours while I just memorized the planes of his face.

  How could someone so masculine be so fucking beautiful? It didn’t make sense, but the proof was right in front of my eyes and I couldn’t pull my gaze from him.

  A whine drew my attention away from the Marine vet to see an older German shepherd walking slowly behind him. There was gray in her fur, and she moved like her entire body hurt. From the many phone conversations I’d had with Braxton in the last several months, I knew her name was Sasha and she was seventeen. I knew a lot about the dog, had even fallen in love with her just from the stories he’d told me about her.

  But upon seeing her in person, I felt my heart instantly leap, and I found myself greeting her like an old friend. “Hello, sweet puppy,” I murmured as I crouched down in front of her, letting her sniff my hand.

  I was rewarded with a soft lick to my palm, then one to my chin. I hugged her neck gently, afraid to hurt her. Sasha’s tail wagged happily, and she buried her snout in my neck, making me giggle.

  “Sasha, easy,” Braxton’s deep voice commanded, surprising me with its closeness. Lifting my head, I found him standing beside us. Crouching, he smoothed his hand down the dog’s back. “She likes you,” he murmured. “She’s not normally all over people.”

  “I’m not people,” I said, scratching her head. “I’m Sasha’s. Right, Sasha baby?” She whined as if agreeing with me, and I laughed. “See? She claimed me.”

  “That’s because Sasha is a smart girl. Aren’t you, precious?” he cooed to the dog, stroking her fur.

  “Hey, you two,” Mia called out. “Food’s getting cold. Come eat.”

  Glancing around, I realized we were the only ones in the living room and Braxton was very, very close. Heat instantly filled my face, and I cleared my throat as I straightened, thankful I wasn’t spewing all the things in my head out into reality for him to hear. Like that I wanted him to brush his massive hands down my back like he was Sasha, or that I wanted him to claim me as his just as the dog had.

  When he stood, he reached out, stroking the backs of his knuckles down my cheek. “I’m glad you’re here,” he said with a smile before walking into the kitchen.

  I stood there, my heart pounding in my chest, and watched him walk away. “Me too,” I whispered, touching my fingers to my cheek where his had made contact.

  Chapter 2

  Braxton

  It was snowing as I walked across campus. My first class of the day wasn’t for another hour, but Mia and Nevaeh each had one that was about to end. Thankfully, they were both in the same building.

  “Hey, Braxton,” someone called out, and I didn’t even look to see who it was. I tossed up my hand in a salute and kept walking.

  Opening the door, I walked into a wall of heat, and my muscles started to relax a little as I walked toward Nevaeh’s class first. Before I reached the thick, closed door, it opened and students started spilling out.

  None of them was my kitten, though.

  I waited impatiently for everyone to exit then walked in to find Nevaeh talking to the professor. Arguing was a better word for it.

  “Look,” she said, frustration heavy in her voice as she waved her hand to the whiteboard where some crazy math equation took up the entire space. “You miscalculated here, and then again here.”

  “How could you possibly know that just by looking at the equation, Miss Stevenson?” the professor, a man in his late forties, demanded in a tone that suggested Nevaeh couldn’t dream of knowing more than him.

  “My brain is like a computer when it comes to math,” she said with a shrug as if it were no big deal. “I understand mistakes are part of life, but if you can’t correct yourself, how will you ever learn?”

  “If you know so much, why are you even in this class?” he demanded. “Sounds like you think you already know more than me.”

  She shrugged. “Probably. But apparently this class is required for my major.”

  “Miss Stevenson—”

  I quickly moved forward when I heard the coldness in his tone. Fuck no, he wasn’t going to talk to my little kitten like that. I would knock his damn teeth down his throat before I let him hurt her feelings. “Nevaeh, are you ready?”

  She snapped her head around and smiled warmly, seeming to forget about the professor and his mistakes. I glanced at the board again, amusement making my lips twitch that she’d caught this dick in not one, but two mistakes when it looked like a foreign language to me.

  “You didn’t have to come get me,” she said as she walked back to her desk and started packing up her things.

  “I want to make sure you get to your next class with no issues,” I told her as I picked up her backpack.

  She rolled her blue-gray eyes at me, but she couldn’t hide the pleasure in them. “You’re worse than a new father, you know that? I mean, I’m fairly sure I can read a map if I did happen to get lost.”

  “I don’t doubt that for a second,” I assured her with a grin as we left the room and walked toward the exit. As we reached it, Mia came down the stairs nearby and met us at the door.

  “I need coffee,” she complained.

  “Me too,” Nevaeh agreed, lifting her eyes to me hopefully. “Do you have time before your class?”

  Grinning, I tossed an arm over Mia’s shoulders and steered them in the direction of the campus café. “There is always time for coffee.”

  The café was crowded when we walked in. Mia grumbled unhappily as she pushed her way through students to get to the front so we could order. I kept closer to Nevaeh but made sure Mia was in my line of sight at all times. Old habits died hard, and I was constantly assessing a room for dangers to the girls as they studied the menu while a group of guys ordered in front of us.
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  They finally stepped out of the way so the girl at the cash register could take our orders, and I waited for the girls to make their selection before ordering a black coffee along with a bagel and handed over one of my credit cards.

  “I can pay,” Nevaeh said as she opened her backpack to grab her wallet.

  “Your money’s no good here, Kitten,” I told her with a smirk as I took the receipt.

  That only got me an adorable huff as she went to stand in line to get her drink.

  “Grab my drink, guys. I’m going to find us a table,” Mia instructed.

  I swallowed my groan, my muscles tensing as I tried to watch her in the crowd now that she wasn’t within arm’s reach and still keep an eye on Nevaeh. I was so focused on Mia as she spoke to a group that appeared to be leaving their table that I didn’t even realize someone had been talking to Nevaeh for several seconds.

  “…should come. Our house is just off campus.”

  “I’ll think about it,” Nevaeh replied, and I snapped my head around so fast, I almost gave myself whiplash.

  I took in the tool who was talking to her. Dark-wash jeans, a fraternity hoodie, and overly gelled hair. I put him at twenty, maybe a little older, with an addiction to teeth-whitening, given how blindingly white his teeth were when he flashed a smile at my kitten.

  Nevaeh was barely paying attention to the guy, her gaze shifting toward the counter where the baristas were placing drinks and calling out names.

  “Here, take my number and text me if you decide to come. I’ll make sure you have a great time,” the tool said, reaching out to take Nevaeh’s phone from her hand.

  I grabbed his wrist before he could touch it and twisted his arm behind his back. “She doesn’t want your number, dumbass. The girl isn’t interested.”

  “Braxton,” she admonished, but there was more amusement in her voice than displeasure. “Don’t break his arm.”

  “Dude,” the tool whined. “I was just inviting her to a party. Geesh, relax.”

  “She doesn’t want to go to your fucking party, asshole.” I released him and pushed him back a few feet. “Get lost.”

  “Who the fuck are you anyway? Her brother?”

  I took a menacing step toward him. “No, but I’ll be your worst nightmare if you come near her again.”

  Soft hands touched my arm, stopping me from getting in the guy’s face and, surprisingly, calming the rage that was just below the surface, ready to erupt and blow the café apart. “Excuse us,” she murmured to the guy as she tugged me toward the counter. “Our drinks are ready.”

  I kept her hand in mine, asking the server for a tray so I could carry the drinks and my bagel without having to let her go. She took her drink and then glanced around for Mia.

  “You don’t have to scare every person who talks to me, you know,” she commented as we made our way through the crowd toward the table where Mia was camped out, waiting on us. She had her phone out, texting rapidly, and I figured she was either talking to her mom or Barrick. “Not everyone is the boogeyman who will snatch me and chop me into tiny pieces.”

  “You don’t know that,” I grumbled. “And I wasn’t worried so much about the tiny pieces thing as him trying to get in your panties.”

  A tiny laugh escaped her, and she glanced up at me through her lashes. “If I didn’t know better, I would say you were jealous.” She laughed again and tugged her hand free of mine so she could pull out a chair for herself.

  I stood there for a second, just looking down at her. Did she honestly think I wasn’t jealous? The girl was smart as hell but apparently blind as a bat, even with her glasses on. I was so eaten up with jealousy whenever any guy looked at her, it was a wonder I didn’t lose my shit every ten minutes.

  Nevaeh Stevenson was mine; she just didn’t realize it yet.

  But it wasn’t like I could stake a claim to her. Not when she was only sixteen fucking years old.

  The next two years were going to be pure torture.

  Chapter 3

  Braxton

  Two Years Later

  I knew it was going to be a shit day when I heard the thunder booming and my alarm hadn’t even gone off yet.

  Sasha lifted her head, a whine leaving her, and I sat up so I could scratch her ears. My touch soothed her, and she began to relax again as she laid her head back down. Within minutes, she was back asleep at the end of my bed.

  A soft tap on my door told me I wasn’t going to get to attempt going back to sleep. “Yeah?” I called, and Mia stuck her head in, the light from the hall haloing around her.

  “I’m making breakfast. Do you want some?”

  I glanced at my alarm clock. I only had ten more minutes before I had to get up anyway. “Give me five minutes, and I’ll be out.”

  “No rush,” she said, flipping on my overhead light. “I just got a text that this storm has delayed our flight anyway.”

  And there it was—the real reason this was going to a shitty as fuck day.

  Mia and her cousin were flying back to California. It was only for the weekend, so Nevaeh could celebrate her birthday with her family, but it reminded me that their time with me was limited.

  Even more so for Nevaeh.

  She had one more semester, and then she would graduate. Her parents expected her to come back to Cali for graduate school, and she hadn’t argued.

  Once May arrived, my sweet little kitten was going to leave me.

  Scrubbing my hands over my face, I groaned.

  “We’ll be back Sunday night,” Mia reminded me, compassion in her voice.

  “But Barrick and I aren’t going with you.” Tossing back my covers, I moved to the edge of the bed and reached for my prosthesis. The cold, wet weather was making my leg hurt even more than usual.

  “Am I going to get a lecture from you, too?” she asked with an exasperated huff. “Look, Barrick is taking us to the airport, where Nevaeh’s grandfather’s jet is already waiting on us. Marcus is on board and won’t leave my side all weekend.”

  It was a relief that one of her old bodyguards would be with her during this trip, but that wasn’t why I was having a hard time with them going without us this time.

  Nevaeh was turning eighteen tomorrow, and I wasn’t going to be with her to celebrate.

  We’d had a huge dinner the night before in her honor, with cake and a taco buffet in the kitchen. Lyla and her little family had shown up, along with a few of Nevaeh’s friends from school. Mia and I had spent the day making Nev’s favorite cake and decorating it.

  Neveah had had so much fun that she’d passed out on the couch after everyone left. I’d carried her to bed, and it took everything inside me to turn and walk back out of her room.

  I was so close to the finish line, I could taste it. But there was still a little bit more to go.

  It didn’t matter that she was just days away from becoming legal. It wouldn’t have mattered if she were minutes away. She was still seventeen. I couldn’t touch her the way I’d been aching to.

  Not yet.

  And now, I had to fucking wait until she got back from visiting with her family before I could start showing her what she really meant to me.

  “Are you guys going to eat or what?” Barrick called out from the kitchen. He sounded about as happy as I was, and I knew us not going with them was pissing him off just as much as it was me.

  But both his and my parents were expecting us to show up later. Barrick’s mom and stepfather had flown in just for this damn family get-together, and my parents had already given me the whole guilt trip because I’d blown off all the other major family events over the past few years. Thanksgiving, Christmas, Mother’s and Father’s Days. I’d sent presents when I was supposed to, called them once a month to let them know I was alive, but I tried to avoid face-to-face contact with them.

  I was about to say fuck it all, pack a bag, and go with the girls.

  To hell with my parents and whatever this was about. I wasn’t in the right frame of
mind to deal with their shit anyway. All they did was criticize and hover and make me feel like an incompetent ten-year-old who didn’t know up from down. As if I needed them to hold my hand to cross the damn street.

  Barrick was going because my mom knew how to lay on the guilt like crazy, but also because he had my back—and Mia had yelled at him and told him he had to go with me or else.

  I didn’t know what the “or else” entailed, but from the look on my cousin’s face, I figured it was something more horrific than death, in his eyes.

  “I better get out there,” Mia muttered. “Mr. Grumpy is waiting on me to eat.”

  She turned to go, her long red hair flying over her shoulders. At the door, she paused. “I can stay if you really want me to, Brax. I have your back, you know that, right?”

  “I know,” I told her honestly. “And if anything, I’d rather you were out of the line of fire if things get ugly tonight. My parents aren’t fans of Barrick, and you know why. Whatever they shoot at him could hit you, and I don’t want to have to kill one of them if they hurt you in any way.”

  A sad smile tilted up her lips. “Call me after, okay? Let me know you’re all right.”

  I nodded, and she closed the door on her way out. Alone again, I finally stood and cursed the pain. It quickly faded, but I was still clenching my teeth as I limped into my bathroom.

  Ten minutes later, I walked into the kitchen to the smell of freshly brewed coffee and bacon. A plate was already set at my usual place at the table, loaded with eggs, sliced tomatoes, and toast. A mug full of steaming coffee the way I liked it was beside the plate, and I was already picking up my fork before I’d even sat down.