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“Oh, that’s great! Thanks man. Thank you so much. I owe you. I owe you big time.”
Did…did Spade just say yes? Is…is he okay with me coming to stay with him? My heart is pulling double time as I lean closer to hear anything else, but just as I get as close as I can the fucking door slides open.
And I fall in the room. I have no femme fatale in me. None at all.
“I…,” My brother looks at me with his head cocked sideways and gives me a little smile. “I’ll talk to you later, Spade. Thanks again, brother.”
He hangs up after giving me the one hundred percent confirmation that it was Spade on the other end of the call. I get to my knees and try to act as normal as I can.
“Are you alright, sis?”
“Yes.” I finally find my feet and stand staring at him. Might as well accept the crime and move on. I straighten my spine - to make myself taller - and tip my chin up in clear defiance.
“I assume you heard.”
“I…some of it, I suppose. I heard enough to know you don’t trust me by myself.” I don’t even try to pretend to be all dignified any longer. “How could you ask Spade to… babysit me like that? I’m not a little girl, Roman! I can take care of myself. I don’t need someone watching over me all the time.”
I don’t look too closely at what is making me so mad about the whole thing. There is a bunch of wrong shit with this whole thing, the fact he didn’t tell me and wasn’t going to until…what, he left? The way he called the cute guy I am secretly crushing on to babysit me like I’m nine isn’t really going over too well with me either. Or how about the fact he doesn’t trust me to take care of myself? All of it is utter bullshit.
“It’s not like that, Pearl. You know it’s not like that. I just…I just don’t want you to be lonely while I’m gone, and I'm not sure how long I will be.”
“You…you told Spade it would only be for a few days.” Now all the fight goes out of me.
“Yeah, I know. I just… it should only be a few days, but it might be longer and I can’t stand thinking of you here all alone. Trapped in my apartment like some modern-day Rapunzel. I would just worry all the time and couldn’t do any of the things I need to do to get done. Not to mention it would take me twice as long because I would be so distracted.”
Damn it. Roman is good. He’s much better at this whole guilt thing than I am. I give a heavy sigh before relenting.
“Alright. I don’t want you to worry.”
“You mean, you don’t mind staying with Spade for a couple of days, so I won’t have to worry myself sick the entire time I am away?”
I know when I am defeated. “No, I don’t mind. I’ll go stay with Uncle Spade.”
My answer pulls a laugh out of him and he comes over to give me a big hug. “I love you, sis.”
“I love you too, Rome.”
No use trying to fight Roman. He always seems to win. I keep myself busy for the rest of the day, so I don’t have to think about the ramifications of my brother’s actions. But late at night…when Roman is asleep and the apartment is quiet, I don’t have anything to keep me distracted and all of the what-ifs come flooding into my mind keeping me up all night long.
How am I ever going to be alright sleeping under the same roof as Spade Davenport?
Chapter Six
Spade
What the hell have I agreed to? What am I supposed to do with a nineteen-year-old girl? Especially one I’m hugely attracted to? And Roman, the asshole, just had to rub salt into the wound when he told me I was the only person he trusted with his kid sister. God damn it.
I watch as he pulls into my driveway, the ‘kid sister’ in question sitting up front looking up at the home I recently purchased. I can’t help but wonder what she thinks of it.
I watch her speak to her brother using big hand motions before finally throwing her hands up and leaning over to give him a kiss on the cheek. The gut response hits me, and I step away from the window to try to grab ahold of myself. I can’t be jealous of her fucking brother getting her kisses when she isn’t even mine. I wouldn’t want to be like that even if she was mine. But the gut reaction is there nonetheless.
I open the door just as they step up on the porch. Pearl turns to her brother, “I’m here, ready to be babysat. Are you going to tell him my bedtime and not to give me sugar before or feed me after midnight - yes, that is a Gremlins reference and I stand by it.”
“I am not dropping you off so Spade can babysit you. I just don’t want you to be lonely.”
“Don’t worry. I won’t get you wet or put you in the sun either.”
Pearl’s face brightens like I just told her she was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen, which she is. Even standing on my porch in nothing but an oversized t-shirt and leggings she makes everything in me go tense and feel too tight and I’m left wondering if I can keep that promise about not getting her wet. And how sexual the rules sound. Thankfully, Roman saves me.
