But then Conrad gave a gurgle and tugged on my hair. He was so tiny, barely able to hold his head up on his own yet, but he was the most beautiful little baby boy I’d ever set eyes on. I couldn’t tell yet if he looked more like Nevaeh or Braxton, but one thing for sure was that he’d inherited those alluring Stevenson eyes.
Laughing, I blew a raspberry at my adorable nephew and kissed his chubby cheek, earning me a drooly, toothless grin. “Hey there, little man.” I rubbed my nose against his, making him giggle. According to my older sister, he hadn’t stopped laughing since he’d first started only the week before, and I had to admit, it was the most precious sound I’d ever heard. “How’s Auntie’s favorite little man?”
Daddy adjusted him in his arms. “He’s wet, actually. I’m going to hand him over to one of his parents.” He grinned. “One of the perks of being the G-Pop.”
I rolled my eyes at the name he’d come up for himself for his grandson. “I’m still not feeling that title, Daddy.”
He gave me a pout. “But I thought about it long and hard, Arie. Your mom likes it.”
“What does Mom like?” she asked as she came up beside us.
“Conrad calling Daddy ‘G-Pop,’” I supplied, and she quickly schooled her face, even though I saw the flicker of humor in her eyes. After how sad she’d been since Pop-Pop died, I was relieved to see even that small flash of happiness from her.
“Of course I do,” she was quick to reassure.
Daddy grunted. “I don’t care if you two like it or not. I’m sticking with G-Pop.”
“But what if Conrad doesn’t call you ‘G-Pop’?” I asked, and Mom and I shared a conspiratorial look before Daddy could catch on. We could so easily teach Conrad to say something else that was less cheesy.
“Then I’ll have to accept that,” he said with reluctance. “But I’m going to try my best to get him to use it. I don’t want the same grandpa title as everyone else.”
“What’s wrong with ‘Grandpa’? I like it—a lot, actually.”
He shook his head. “Boring. I’m Drake Stevenson. I need a cool title, kid.”
I had a feeling Mom and I were going to lose this battle, but I didn’t mind if we did. If it made him happy, I wasn’t going to take it away from him. He deserved every drop of happiness the world had to offer.
“He’s looking a little full in the tushy,” Mom commented as she took Conrad. The baby giggled when she kissed his cheeks. “Come on, you rotten little devil. G-Mom will get you a dry diaper.”
I groaned.
“What?” she asked, then winked. “If you can’t change it, embrace it.”
Daddy followed her out of the living room with his hand on her ass. I wanted to gag at the proof that my parents were still very much sexually active, but part of me thought it was romantic and so damn adorable, it made my heart squeeze.
For the next hour, I made a point to talk to everyone. I loved each person in this house—some more than others, but I loved them, nonetheless. Eventually, I journeyed into the kitchen where a buffet-style meal was set up. For the moment, there was no one else in there to judge me, so I grabbed one of the plates, tore open a huge yeast roll and smothered it with mashed potatoes, ham, green bean casserole, and a huge scoop of mac and cheese.
It was while my mouth was full of my first bite that Jordan walked into the kitchen. Mentally groaning, I grabbed a napkin and wiped my mouth as I quickly chewed and swallowed while he walked toward me. From the set of his shoulders and the look on his too-sexy face, I got the weird feeling he was determined about something, but I didn’t understand what it could be.
“What are you doing, hiding in here?” he asked with a small grin teasing at his lips.
“Feeding my face, actually,” I told him with a shrug. “My stomach started making angry noises, so I figured I needed to feed the beast.” Wiping my mouth again, I tilted my head at him. “You’re awfully late to the party this year. Normally, you’re one of the first to arrive, usually right behind Mia.”
“I stopped by your apartment, thinking we would ride together, but I stood outside your door for a good ten minutes before your neighbor told me she hadn’t seen you in at least a week.” His jaw clenched as if that angered him, and I nearly rolled my eyes.
“You didn’t think to maybe call and ask if I wanted to ride with you?” I dropped my plate on the counter beside the sink and grabbed a soft drink from one of the ice chests set out for the guests. There was everything anyone could possibly want, except alcohol. Out of respect for my dad’s sobriety, Aunt Emmie never served booze at any of her parties.
As I uncapped the diet cola, I saw him rub a hand over the back of his neck. “I wanted to surprise you. I didn’t even get back to town until this evening, and I went to your place straight from the airport. Work has been kicking my ass lately.”
Yeah, I thought. Work, sure. It couldn’t have possibly been Letizia or the Danish princess or any number of other redheads who warmed your bed.
Reminding myself it was none of my business and that I’d moved on from this guy and the future I’d envisioned us having, I decided to skip the main course and eat dessert. Turning away from him, I grabbed a new plate and dished up a huge slice of chocolate cake.
Not caring if he saw me stuffing my face, I picked up a fork and crammed a huge bite into my mouth.
“Damn, that looks good,” he said with a groan. When he picked up a fork for himself, I thought he was going to get his own, but instead, he stuck it in mine.
“Hey,” I whined when he lifted a bite of my cake to his mouth. “That’s mine.”
His grin was wicked and made my heart do a crazy little flip, while lower, I had a different kind of uncomfortable going on. Without thinking, I pressed my thighs together to try to relieve the sudden ache and watched as his eyes darkened.
“And it’s fucking delicious,” he growled as he started to lower his head. “But I need another taste.”
I held my breath, wondering if he was going to kiss me—secretly hoping he would.
Then the kitchen door opened, and Mia walked in. “Jordan!” she squealed, and Jordan’s head snapped up so fast, you would have thought he’d been caught murdering someone. “I thought I saw you come in a little while ago.”
My heart sank, and I became pissed at myself for daring to hope for something I knew was never going to happen. I dropped my cake in the trash and muttered an “Excuse me” as I left the kitchen.
It suddenly felt way too hot in the house. Needing some fresh air, I kept my head down as I made my way to the front door so no one would try to speak to me. When I was out on the porch, the urge to cry faded, and it was only then that I realized I’d been fighting it.
“Stupid, stupid, stupid,” I chastised myself as I stomped off the porch.
“That’s not a nice thing to say about my favorite cousin,” a deep voice said to my left.
I swallowed the scream that had bubbled up and then threw myself into Luca’s arms when I saw him standing there with Violet’s bodyguard, Jenner. The brief shot of fear straight on the heels of what had happened in the kitchen made me tremble, but that quickly passed as Luca hugged me back.
“Hey, hey,” he murmured, leaning back to look down at me. He was huge, just as tall as the bodyguard and with at least ten more pounds of muscle on him. “What’s wrong?”
I forced a grin and shook my head. “Nothing. Everything. A million things I can’t control.” I breathed in deeply, taking the chilly December air into my lungs, and lifted a shoulder. “You know how it is.”
“Yeah,” he agreed, keeping one arm around my shoulders. “I know exactly how it is.”
I glanced between Luca and Jenner. There wasn’t a strained tension between them like I would have expected. If anything, they appeared to be friendly. That just seemed weird as hell to me. Jenner, Violet’s personal muscle paid for by her billionaire husband, being friends with her ex? I just couldn’t wrap my head around that, but I didn’t question eit
her of them about it.
“I think I’m going to head home,” I said as I pulled away from Luca, suddenly feeling so tired, I didn’t think I could keep my eyes open for much longer. How I was going to drive all the way back to my hotel, I wasn’t sure, but I’d figure it out. Even if I had to stop for a nap.
“Don’t rush off,” Luca stopped me. His gaze went to the house, and I felt him begin to tense. “I don’t know if I can go back in there, Arella. I was going to go to my parents’ house and just crash in my room. Could you…keep me company?”
Seeing the loneliness in his brown eyes, I didn’t even hesitate. “Sure. Let’s raid the pantry and eat all of Aunt Layla’s junk food like we used to do when we were kids.”
“Perfect.” He glanced at Jenner. “Thanks for the talk, man. I’ll be seeing you.”
Jenner inclined his head. “Possibly sooner than either of us realizes, Mr. Thornton.”
Luca stiffened. “For her sake, I really hope not.”
“What was that about?” I asked once we were out of earshot of the bodyguard.
“Nothing,” he deflected. “What were you running from back there?”
“Nothing.”
Our gazes locked, and we both snickered. “For an award-winning actress, you can’t lie for shit.”
“I wasn’t really trying,” I excused as he unlocked the front door. We walked through the house and straight into the kitchen. He opened the pantry door and grabbed a package of Oreos and some cake icing. When I saw it, I shook my head, not wanting to think about the chocolate cake I’d abandoned to get away from Jordan and seeing him fawn all over Mia.
It was stupid. I loved Mia so damn much, but she was the one person in the world I was the most jealous of.
Luca replaced the icing and grabbed an unopened bag of Cheetos. I pushed him out of my way and started grabbing a few things, but since none of her children lived at home any longer, it seemed that Aunt Layla didn’t keep very much junk food in stock.
“This is a sad stash,” I grumbled as we walked up the stairs to Luca’s old room.
“It really is,” he agreed. “But it’s better than having to go back to Aunt Emmie’s and watching Violet be happy with someone else.” Jaw clenched, he dropped down on the floor beside the bed and leaned his back against it. “She glows, Arella. Fucking glows.”
I grasped his arm and gave it a sympathetic squeeze. “I’m sorry.”
He closed his eyes. “Don’t be. I’m the one who fucked everything up. I don’t deserve her.”
“I don’t know what to say here, Luca,” I told him honestly. “I want to tell you it will get better. That you’ll find someone else and be happy. But I can’t picture you with anyone but Vi.”
“Me either.” Opening his eyes, he grabbed the first thing his fingers touched and opened the cookies. Stuffing four into his mouth, he picked up the remote to the television mounted on the wall and clicked it on. “Thanks for coming with me,” he said after we’d both been silent for several long minutes. “Even if we don’t do anything but sit here, it’s nice to have someone to be quiet with.”
I leaned my head against his arm, comforting him and accepting comfort in return. He didn’t know what was going on with me, but that didn’t matter. Just being beside him made things…not better, but more bearable. “Yeah, this is kind of nice.”
After a while, he told me about the house he was about to close on. It was right next door to Uncle Wroth’s farm and just a few miles from Uncle Axton’s house. It was less than an hour’s drive to work for him, but I knew he’d bought it because Violet had always loved West Bridge, Tennessee, so much.
It only made me sad for him, but I let him tell me every last detail about the place. He needed someone to just listen, and I needed someone to just sit beside and not have to worry about what was going on with my stalker or how much it had hurt that Jordan had jerked away from me earlier like I had something contagious he didn’t want to catch.
Would I ever learn not to get my hopes up where Jordan Moreitti was concerned?
Three
Jordan
Mia waited until the door closed behind Arella before putting her hands on her hips and glaring at me. “For such a smart guy, you’re pretty fucking stupid at times. You realize that, right?”
“No one told you to follow me in here,” I grumbled. “Everything was going perfectly until you showed up.”
She rolled her pretty green eyes at me. “Well, excuse me. I’m a little absent-minded right now. I didn’t realize I was going to walk in on you about to kiss the girl.” She poked me in the chest, hard. “But you didn’t have to act like you got caught red-handed with the crown jewels. You just broke her heart. Again, I might add.”
I scrubbed my hands over my face, knowing I’d fucked up—again—but not knowing how to fix anything. Where Arella was concerned, I didn’t seem to have any game at all. It wasn’t until Cole Steel died that I realized I’d fucked up in the first place. After my girl had left me standing in her kitchen after her grandfather’s funeral, Mia had clued me in to how let down Arella had been that I hadn’t shown up for her eighteenth birthday party.
While I’d been running to protect myself, she’d been waiting for me to make all her dreams come true. My selfishness had ruined everything, and she’d been more or less running from me ever since. The few times I’d been home since the funeral, she’d gone to dinner and the occasional movie with me, but it was obvious to me she’d put up walls that a wrecking ball would have trouble knocking down.
“What should I do?” I demanded of my best friend, pissed at her for barging in on us to begin with. I’d thought it was one of her parents interrupting, and after how cold Lana and Drake had been with me, I didn’t want either of them walking in on me trying to kiss their daughter until I had that girl marked as mine. Otherwise, they might try to keep her away from me, and I was barely functioning without her as it was.
“Going after her would be my first suggestion,” Mia snipped.
“Shit. Right. Okay, I’ll find her.” I started to head for the door, but Mia began to sway. Grasping her by the hips, I steadied her and realized she was sweating. “Holy shit, Mia. Are you sick?”
She was already fair-skinned, but she looked almost deathly pale. “Fuck, this isn’t like the last time. I think I would take the nonstop morning sickness over this crap.”
My eyes widened. “You’re pregnant?”
She groaned. “Yes. I’ve been holding off on telling anyone because I want to tell Barrick as a kind of Christmas present in the morning. But I’ve been so dizzy that my brother has already guessed, and now you.” Tears glittered in her eyes. “I wanted Barrick to be the first to know, and now I’ve ruined everything.”
Movement at the door pulled my gaze, and I saw Barrick step silently into the room. He lifted his finger to his lips, and I shifted my attention back to Mia before she realized we weren’t alone. “Why is everything ruined?” I asked her softly.
“Because he was supposed to know before anyone else. Not Jagger or you or even my parents. Just Barrick.” Her chin trembled, and I tightened my hold on her. I never could stand the sight of her tears. They gutted me and made me want to eviscerate whatever had dared to cause her to cry.
I cared about Mia like no one else in my life, and even though we’d taken things too far once and only once, I’d never loved her as more than a friend. She was like family to me, and I couldn’t imagine my life without her.
But what I felt for Arella? That was on a level I’d never experienced before, and I’d been screwing up left and right with her.
Other than at her grandfather’s funeral and when her dad had his liver transplant surgery, I’d never really seen Arella cry, but both times had been enough to bring me to my knees.
“I’ve been saving this news just for Christmas because we’ve been trying for so long for another baby with no results, and…and…I only wanted to make it special.” Her sobs hurt my heart, but it was nothin
g to the agonized groan Barrick released behind her.
Startled by the sound, she turned around. “Barrick,” she whispered. “It…It was supposed to be…”
He enfolded her in his arms, tears already spilling down his face and into his beard. “It’s the best surprise ever, firecracker,” he choked out. “Adding another baby to our family is the best present you could ever give me, second only to you loving me.”
Giving them a moment to themselves, I silently left them in the kitchen and went in search of Arella. It took me twenty minutes to check the entire house before I asked one of her many cousins if they had seen her.
“I think I saw her leave,” Remington Sawyer informed me as he and Violet stood in a group with Violet’s parents and a few others. “That was a while ago, though.”
I muttered a thanks and quickly made my way out of the house. Her leaving could be a good thing, I told myself. We would be alone, and I could finally tell her everything I should have already said.
But when I got outside, I saw her car was still there. “Fuck,” I groaned. “Where did you go?”
“Something wrong?”
I turned at the deep voice I didn’t recognize and found some hulking goon in a suit. Figuring he was one of Barrick’s men, I stepped toward him. “Arella Stevenson. You know her?”
He tilted his head to the left. “She went with her cousin to the Thorntons’.”
“Lyric?” Luca hadn’t been home for Christmas in a few years, from what I understood.
“No, sir. It was Luca.” He opened a car door and got behind the wheel. “I guess they’re doing some family bonding. Hadn’t seen each other in a while, from what I heard.”
“Thanks,” I told him, but I just stood there, trying to decide what course of action I should take. Go to the Thorntons’ and carry her out? Wait for her? Go to her place and ambush her there when she got home?
Needing Arella (Rockers' Legacy Book 6) Page 4