I Need You (Meant For Me Book 1)

by N. Natishna

  “Doesn’t that get kinda lonely?”

  “No, not really. I’m barely home anyways, so I don’t really notice. My sister comes by a lot to check up on me, though. And it’s not like I never see my dad. He always finds time for family, especially me.” Her grin grew wider and I admired the look of devotion in her eyes as she talked about her family.

  I nodded, remembering Reggie saying that Emma had an older sister who was ‘smoking hot’ as he’d put it. If she looked anything like Emma, I wouldn’t doubt it.

  “How old is your sister?”

  “Twenty-four, she’s married, and has the cutest seven-year-old boy. His name’s Taylor James, but he goes by TJ.”

  I looked over at her smiling face as I pulled out onto the street. Man, she was beautiful. I reached over and grasped her hand, locking our fingers together.

  “How was the game?”

  “Oh, it was great! We won, but only by three points. I think Aria burst her wind pipe from screaming so loud.”

  I squeezed her hand and glanced over at her. “Tell me more about you,” I said. I wanted to know everything about her. She was right when she told me we didn’t know each other enough to be anything more than friends. She knew that I wanted to be with her, I didn’t hide that fact.

  She laughed. “What do you want to know?”

  “Start with more about your family.”

  The rest of the ride to the beach she talked. I noticed that she was an animated talker. She waved her hands around while she talked, and I found it incredibly endearing.

  I learned that her sister married her childhood sweetheart. She told me that her brother-in-law had been Kat’s best friend since they were kids and Kat found out she was pregnant with TJ when Jon joined the Navy. I could tell that Emma and her sister were close by the way Emma’s eyes brightened and her smile grew while she talked about her.

  The housekeeper – the one that wore a pantsuit – lived in their pool house. I always thought housekeepers wore like a maid outfit or something, so I was thrown for a loop with that one. And apparently Emma lived in a giant mansion that was nothing like I’d expected, with its warm atmosphere and decorations. Her life wasn’t what I’d expected, but in a good way.

  We pulled into a crowded parking area next to Zane’s jeep wrangler and I saw Aria, Molly, and Bianca there. Zane, Luke, Jeff, Reggie, and Liam were all standing at the back of Reggie’s truck. I got out of the car and hurried around to the passenger side before Emma could get out, opening the door for her. She grabbed the hand I held out for her and I helped her out.

  “Such the gentleman,” she teased and I winked at her.

  “I aim to please, ma’am.”

  She laughed and I reveled in the way she did it. She wasn’t afraid to use her lungs when she laughed, and it didn’t sound all shrill or fake.

  “Hey, what took so long?” Reggie called out as the guys made their way over. “You guys didn’t make a quick pit stop, did you?”

  Emma rolled her eyes. “Ignore him, that’s what we try to do.”

  “Aw, come on, Slim,” Reggie said with a grin and threw his arm over her shoulders, sweeping his hand up and down his body. “You know you love this, don’t lie.”

  “Ha! You’re a pain in my ass, Reg. We just can’t ever find a way to get rid of you.”

  He rubbed his chest and feigned hurt. “Ouch, Slim, that went straight to the heart.”

  I laughed. I never had friends like this in my old neighborhood. Sure, the guys in my band were close, but it wasn’t like we were second families to each other, like these guys were. I looked over at my sister, who had small smile on her face as she watched the exchange between the friends. I could see that she wasn’t all the way relaxed, but she wasn’t uncomfortable. I wanted her to see like I did, that she belonged here in this group.

  The guys led the way to a big bonfire on the beach and then split up. The place was packed with kids from school. I recognized a few so far, but the school here was huge and contained a shit ton of students. I held onto Emma’s hand and she allowed me to pull her along with me. I was 6’4, so girls were all really small to me. Emma, though, had to be the tiniest girl that I’ve ever been attracted to. She made me feel large and clumsy, and I felt like I had to handle her like I would fine china.

  “Do you want something to drink?” I asked her when we stopped walking. I kept her close so she didn’t get pushed around or trampled on by people.

  She nodded. “Yes, please.”

  I walked off, but spotted my sister with Bianca. They were standing with another group and Molly looked nervous as they all chatted. I wanted to play the big brother role, but Molly was right, I didn’t need to hover over her. She looked perfectly safe with Bianca there with her. Running a hand through my hair, I went over to a cooler that I saw Liam, Jeff, and Reggie standing around with a group of girls. Liam smiled and Reggie nodded my way.

  “Hey man, need a drink?” Liam asked. Reggie opened the cooler for me and I pulled out two sodas.

  “So listen,” Reggie started. “You’re pretty cool, and one sweet ass drummer, and I’m glad to have you with us.” His eyebrows puckered in an unusual way for him. “But Emma’s our girl, man, and we seriously give a shit about her, so try not to fuck up too badly with her.”

  I looked at him a little surprised, but nodded, because I knew what he was telling me. I’d do the same thing for someone who wanted to be around my sister.

  Liam chuckled and squeezed my shoulder. “What this dipshit is trying to say is that we don’t want anything happening to her. The last boyfriend she had was just with her because she was head cheerleader and he thought he’d be part of the high life…do you get what I’m saying?”

  “Cody Hudson?” I asked and they all three nodded. “I kinda figured that. Every time he looked at her I saw dollar signs in his eyes.”

  A couple girls giggled next to Liam. “Liam, come dance with me,” one of them whined as she pulled on his arm. Liam chuckled and winked at me, letting her lead him away. I shook my head and watched Reggie and Jeff flirt with two chicks. These guys must love the attention they got.

  Emma was just where I’d left her, talking to a guy that was in our French class with us. He was tall and lanky and his brown hair was in a buzz cut. I didn’t like him for two reasons. One was the fact that he was looking at Emma with more than a friendly gaze, and the second was that he was standing way too close for my liking.

  When Emma saw me coming she grinned wider and it made the jealousy recede. I held out a can to her and she took it.

  “Andy, you know Deklan Mayfield, don’t you?” She pressed her side into mine and put her arm behind my back. I smiled smugly at the dude’s face and pulled her in closer to me.

  “Nice to meet you,” I said and a look of annoyance passed over his features. Whatever, let the guy be a douche. I wasn’t gonna waste another breath on him. Looking down at Emma I rubbed my hand over her shoulder.

  “You wanna dance, sugar?”

  She nodded her head enthusiastically and I pulled her away, not bothering to say goodbye to Andy. When we were closer to the music I turned to face her, putting my hands on her waist. Her arms snaked up to my shoulders and I felt her sigh as she pulled me closer. When she rested her cheek against my chest and snuggled closer, I tuned everything out but us. Her heart was beating against me and her breath was heating me through my shirt.

  “I can hear your heartbeat,” she told me. I grunted and pulled her firmly against me. I enjoyed the way she fit against me and how she kept trying to burrow further into me, even though we were already as close as possible. When the song ended she pulled back and smiled at me. “Do you want to go for a walk?”

  I pretended to think about it and looked down at her suspiciously. “Is this your way of trying to get me alone so you can take advantage of me?”

  The way I said that made me cringe on the inside. Painful memories were on the verge of flashing through my mind, but then Emma laughed and punch
ed me lightly on the bicep. “You’re adorable, but no.” Then she pursed her lips. “Well, maybe. Come on.”

  She grabbed my hand, but I stalled before she could lead me anywhere. I’ve been in this same situation and I’d chosen the wrong path to follow. Looking around until I spotted my sister. She was with Bianca, Aria, Zane, and Luke, talking and laughing. She looked directly over at me, as if she had known all along where I was. I gave her a look of concern and tilted my head. She shook hers hastily and held her soda can up to silently toast me, giving me a genuine smile.

  Nodding, I looked back down at Emma’s confused look and smiled softly. I motioned for her to go ahead and let her pull me through the throng of people until we broke out. We walked hand in hand farther out of view from the party. She’ll be fine. She’s with good friends. She’ll be perfectly safe. That was the mantra that ran over and over in my mind as I followed Emma. She giggled and reached down to slip off her sandals, and then she looked up at me with an eager face.

  “Come on, Dekky, take off your shoes and roll up those jeans!” I couldn’t possibly say no to her when she looked at me like that and used that cheesy ass nickname that I’d only let her get away with. After I took off my shoes and socks, I rolled my jeans up above my ankles. Emma grabbed my hand with her free one and we walked down to the edge of the water. She yelped as the cold water sloshed over her feet.

  “Let’s not stay here long,” I told her seriously. I frowned down at her bare feet in the freezing water. It wasn’t that cold out, but there was still a chilly breeze. “The last thing you need is to catch a cold.”

  She laughed softly as she looked down at her toes digging in the sand. Then she glanced sideways at me. “I’ve never met someone like you.”

  Now I laughed and winked at her. “I hope that’s a good thing.”

  “It is, trust me. The guys I’ve gone out with never cared about me getting sick.”

  I grimaced and gave her hand a squeeze. “Let’s not talk about guys you’ve dated. I can only take so much.”

  “Okay, my bad, but you should know that I’ve only had one real boyfriend. I’ve only been on a few dates, though.” She sighed and leaned her head on my bicep. “Tell me about your family now, Deklan.”

  I hesitated, wondering if telling her about my past was such a good idea. My childhood wasn’t as regular and nice like hers was. Would she still want me after I tell her about the pieces of shit I was spawned from? Emma was my sunshine, when I thought I’d live in darkness the rest of my life. It was hard to believe how explosive this need to be with her was. She made me laugh, wasn’t afraid to get feisty with me, and warmed my soul with just a smile.

  I needed to be honest with her if we were going to get any farther. I didn’t want to keep anything from her, so I had to grow a pair of balls and man up. I softly kicked at the water, sending droplets flying.

  “My life wasn’t anything like yours, Emma. My parents were the strict kind and weren’t as in love with each other like your parents. My dad…he was a construction worker, a damn good one at that. He loved building and working hard – construction was practically all he knew, while my mom worked at some corporate office for years. They were so strange to me and my sister, and they both had a twisted way of thinking.”

  I cleared my throat, and Emma tightened her hand on mine while she rubbed my forearm with her other hand.

  “Anyways, Molly and I have always been like partners in crime, two peas in a pod, best friends…you get what I’m saying?” She chuckled and nodded. “Molly is what I like to call a prodigy. She’s one of the smartest people in the world. She can read an entire novel, and then recite the whole thing to you right after. Or play any instrument you give her and perfect a song before an hour is up.

  “She’s so intelligent it’s kinda scary. I’m serious when I say that; my parents had her head examined because they thought she had a problem.” I snorted and shook my head. I remembered my sister’s face as she was led back into an exam room. She’d been only nine and had been so terrified. My parents had to pry her off me to even get her back there. My heart had broken for the first time that day.

  “Like being way too smart is a problem. People thought she was a freak because she’d spout off information that even some of the teachers didn’t know.”

  I stopped walking and ran a hand through my hair. “Can you believe that they restricted Molly from going to the library, because she was reading too many big books for their liking?” I let go of her hand and curled both into tight fists. I hated recalling everything my sister had to deal with since the time she learned to read. I squeezed my eyes tightly closed.

  Emma’s arms came around my waist and she held me close to her. The feel of her calmed me, but couldn’t erase the memories. Unclenching my hands, I rubbed them down her back. “You don’t need to say anymore if it’s difficult for you, Deklan.”

  I bent to kiss her forehead, letting my lips linger. It was the first encounter of my lips on her skin and I reveled in the rightness I felt. I pulled back and smiled down at her flushed face. I liked seeing that I could inflict the same feeling in her.

  “No, it’s okay. Let’s go sit down.” I led her farther down the beach until I found a secluded sand dune. I pulled off my button up shirt and laid it down for her to sit on. I sat down next to her and wrapped an arm over her shoulders, wanting to remain in contact.

  “You really don’t have to say any more, Deklan. I don’t want to pry.” She laid her head on my shoulder.

  “It’s fine, it’s just hard remembering what Molly went through at a young age. Have you ever heard of an eidetic memory?” She shook her head. “It’s also called photographic memory. Well, people at school never stopped picking at her for it. I couldn’t be with her during school, and it killed me. I hated when I wasn’t able to be there for her.

  “One night she begged me to take her with me to a party at some guy’s house. I didn’t want her to go, because I knew how people were with her, but she wouldn’t let up. She said that she was tired of hiding away in the house every day. She just wanted to show people that they couldn’t break her. I couldn’t deny her that. I could never deny her anything, so I let her come and promised that I wouldn’t let anything happen to her.”

  “That shows how great of a person you are, Deklan,” Emma said softly. “Not a lot of brothers like having their sister hanging around with his friends.”

  “People were only friends with me because I was one helluva linebacker, Emma. They never said anything about Molly while they were around me, but I knew they messed with her behind my back. She wouldn’t tell me, but I’m not that stupid. Anyways, everything was going fine when we got to the party. People were actually being nice and talking to her. Molly wasn’t used to it and I knew she was uncomfortable, but she told me she wanted to stay, so we stayed.

  “When some chick came up to me and handed me a drink, I took it and chatted her up, but I always kept my eye on Molly.” I shifted my eyes away from Emma and cleared my throat. I didn’t want her to hear what kind of guy I’d been back then. “I – uh, after so many cups of beer I was feeling more than buzzed. The chick I was with started kissing me and I let her lead me away from the crowd to some bedroom.” I felt Emma tense beside me and I rubbed her back. “I’m not saying this to hurt you or anything, Emma; I just want you to know the whole story.”

  She took a shuddering breath and let it out, nodding. “I know that, sorry. I’m good, you can keep going.”

  I stared at her until she looked up and smiled warmly, and then I looked out toward the surf. “Okay…um, well when things started getting intense between us until my mind started to see some reason. Something didn’t feel right, and when I tried to pull away from the girl she became more aggressive…like she was trying to distract me. I pushed her away from me and went back to find Molly. When I couldn’t find her I started to panic, and then I saw some of the students – the ones that had a little decency – giving me guilty looks, and I knew
that I’d been set up.”

  My eyes burned as I went back to that night and I tightened my hold on Emma. It had been the worst night of my young life. But not as horrible as what my sister was put through. “I ran and ran, screaming Molly’s name as loud as I could. When I heard her cry out for me from behind a shed, I don’t think I ever ran so fast in my life.”

  My throat went dry. As I recalled that night, it was like a movie playing behind my eyes. The view of the ocean disappeared as I was transported back three years ago. My sister, the one person in my life that I would die for, was beaten and bleeding on the grass. “And then I saw her,” I whispered. “I will never get the image of how she looked out of my mind.”

  I barely felt the hot tears as they leak down my cheeks, but I didn’t try to hold them back anymore. I don’t think I could have if I tried, not this time. I never really looked back on the night with detail, until tonight. I cleared my throat again and kept going. I had to get this out before the pain of it consumed me. “Her face was so swollen with dirt and blood, her clothes were torn, and bruises had already started covering most of her body. And then…and then I saw blood smeared down one of her thighs, from under her skirt. I wanted to tear into everything around me. I wanted to kill the mother fucker that hurt her.”

  I swiped the back of my hands over my face. “But then Molly started reaching out to me and crying my name over and over again. I knew then that I had to be strong for her or she’d never come back from it.”

  “Oh Deklan,” Emma said sadly as she gripped my waist, but I didn’t stop. I wanted to get this all out before I broke down any more than I already have.

  “I called 9-1-1 and when the ambulance finally got there, I let them take her away, and ran back to the house. A lot of people had left, because of the cops, but the guy who threw the party was still there, cleaning the rest of the house, with a few of his friends. I warned them that when I found out who was in on what happened, they’d regret ever doing it, ever thinking it.”