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“You can put those on that shelf.” He pointed at the bookshelf I’d had to empty of my book collection overflow. Unfortunately, Mom had made me go through my fantasy books and pack up older ones for donation, since I had to now share the upstairs with someone else.
At first, the idea of another teen imposing on my space had twisted my stomach. I hadn’t slept much since Mom had told me about Devlin and Drake, but neither of them had made me uncomfortable.
Drake especially wouldn’t be anything near a bother since his hugs were freely given and just…perfect. Even if he farted around me, peed all over the toilet seat, or smelled like sweat after working out, which I expected he did a lot of considering the muscle on his huge frame, I wouldn’t mind sharing the penthouse with him. Maybe it would finally begin to feel like a real home.
Smiling when I’d expected to be miserable, I carefully made a shrine to Drake’s athletic abilities on the top shelf.
“Are you going to play football this year?” I asked, setting up the final trophy and angling it just so before breaking down the box.
“Nah. Too much going on, and I’m sure the season has already started.”
I wouldn’t know. “Does your best friend play too?”
“Sean—and no. He’s got two left feet and is too small for the gridiron.” Drake sounded like he smiled again.
Sure enough, when I turned from finishing with the cardboard, he grinned.
“You guys are pretty close even though you’re opposites?”
“We’ve been best buddies since elementary school.”
“Must be nice to have a friend like that,” I murmured, more to myself than Drake.
“You don’t have any close friends?”
I shook my head, hating the tightening in my stomach.
“Well, I’m here now. I’ll have your back.”
Warmth spread through my chest, and my face heated. “Thank you,” I whispered.
He used his foot to push a box toward me. “That’s shit that can go on the desk. In it, or whatever. I’m not picky.”
Nodding, I set to work unpacking a mess of items that appeared to have been tossed in without care. School supplies, framed pictures…old chargers, and even an empty Sam Adams beer bottle.
“You drink?”
Drake glanced my way, saw what I held, and chuckled. “That’s the first bottle I ever cracked open. But yeah. Sean and I love the shit.”
Shit was right. I couldn’t stand the smell of hops. “Dad—Nancy—loves Sam Adams too. I think it’s gross.”
Drake laughed again, and I couldn’t help my smile over hearing the lighthearted sound. “She and I will get along without issue.”
My throat tightened even though my lips still curved upward. Drake had no problem using my father’s pronouns, something I still on occasion struggled to remember even though it had been a couple of years since she’d been forced from our home. “Nancy is great.”
“She took part in making you, so I’m sure she is.”
Eyes welling and heart fluttering at the first genuine compliment I could ever remember hearing outside of Nancy, I swallowed hard. I focused on keeping the tears from falling while arranging pencils, pens, and old markers in the desk drawer. After the divorce, Mom had legally changed my name to Casswell, erasing all evidence of Nancy from my life. She also had the money and lawyers to strip my dad of all rights even though no court of law should have granted it. My age allowed me to suggest who I wanted to live with, but Nancy had a new future to figure out. She’d hugged me goodbye, promising she would be waiting for when I was old enough to visit without needing Jacqueline’s permission.
But now?
I could go whenever I felt like it. Drake’s offer to sneak me to dad’s place had filled me with a willfulness I’d never experienced before. For the first time, I was ready to go against Mom’s rules and thought I might finally have found the balls to do so.
Maybe someday, after a few more baby steps of independence, I would even reclaim the surname Mom had stolen from me.
Guts clenching at the thought, I focused on the steadiness of Drake, his strength, and his promise to have my back. My nervousness had eased a lot thanks to his awesome hug. It helped that Drake didn’t have an intimidating bone in his body even though he towered over me by at least a foot. Hopefully, I had some of Nancy’s height still hiding in my DNA even if the rest of me was almost a spitting image of my mom.
“So are you nervous about high school?”
