Braxton
Chapter fifteen
Zander’s been fidgety the whole ride home.
Ever since he sent that last message to Sierra.
I don’t know what he said to her, but something doesn’t feel right.
I keep glancing over at him, but he won’t look at me.
And when I check the rear-view mirror, Colt looks like someone’s punched him in the stomach.
When we get home, we need to have a brother meeting.
We need to be on the same page and it’s time we got everything out in the open.
Zander and I both know we want to pursue Sierra.
But it’s time for Colton to get his head out of his ass.
And even if he doesn’t want a relationship with her, he needs to accept that we do.
In a last second decision, I pull into the parking lot of the pharmacy and turn off the jeep. I don’t want to wait until we get home.
“What the hell, man? What are we doing here?” Colton barks from the back seat.
I shift in my seat so I can look at Zander and him at the same time. Zander mimics me, but I can tell something is bothering him.
“I decided I didn’t want to wait to discuss this. Let’s put everything on the table. No secrets. I know Zan and I want to date Sierra, even if we share her. What do you want, Colt?”
“Does it even matter? I’ve ruined any shot with her I ever had.” Colt sighs as his head falls back on his seat, his hands run through his hair, tugging gently on the ends.
“You’ll never have a shot if you don’t try to contact her. You want to wait until you can see her in person, but you need to man up and message her now. Tell her you were a fucking tool,” I rant, wishing he’d see how insane waiting is.
“I may have ruined it for all of us,” Zander says sheepishly, and our heads whip toward him. What the fuck?
“What do you mean?” I ask, massaging my temples. I can already feel a headache coming on from these two.
I love them, but they are driving me crazy. I’m always going to regret not pursuing her harder the day I saw her in the shoe store. I knew then she was it for me. I’ve never felt as intense about someone as I did her. It was an instant connection. Some would say love at first sight.
“She told me about the charges against her about abusing Sam. Sierra actually thought I believed them. I told her I didn’t and promised to send her pictures of Sam. Which, by the way, we need to keep a secret from Dad.”
I still don’t see why this would ruin anything for us.
“Okay, and what's bad about that?” I gesture between Zander and myself. “You told her we didn’t believe them either, right?” Again, I feel like I’m asking a stupid question.
“Of course I did. That’s not the problem. She told me she was coming back to school and agreed to let me see her. I used our project as leverage. Then I asked her if she would want to know who turned her in.”
“You fucking told her?” Colton blurts from the back seat.
I shoot my gaze back and forth between the two of them, waiting for Zander to deny what Colton said.
But he doesn’t.
He just nods his head.
“Why would you fucking tell her that? Not even talk to us about it before you did it? She probably thinks we were in on it. Has she messaged you back?” I could kill him right now for taking that group decision away from us.
“No, she hasn’t, and I told her because she was upset and deserved to know. I didn’t want her to find out later that we knew and didn’t tell her. Now I think I’ve fucked it up for all of us.” He slams his fist into his thigh and blows out a deep breath.
“It’s okay, we can fix this. We’ll keep messaging and letting her know we’re here for her. Each of us will be doing it along with sending pictures of Sam. That’ll let Sierra know we still care about her.” I give Colton a pointed look. There’s no way in hell he’s going to slack on this.
“Okay, but do you think she’ll believe us?” Zander picks up his phone, frowning.
“She will. So let’s get home, eat and tell Sam the news that we’ve heard from Sierra.”
They both nod and I start the car back up, pulling out of the parking lot.
I have to believe she will, there’s no other option. I don’t want to think about the future if she doesn’t.
She’s going to be with all three of us, we just have to show her that’s what we want. I’m still not sure how the guy in her apartment fits into all of this, but that’s a question for another day.
“So, we’re just going to share her and be okay with it? Is it even something you think she wants?” Colton asks nervously.
“I know she reads books where it happens. We’re even doing our English project on authors who write that type of relationship,” Zander tells us.
“As long as she knows we’re unified, I think she’ll be okay. Plus, we look exactly alike, Colt. So, even if she was with one of us, it would be like she’s with both of us.” It sounds crazy, but in my mind, it makes perfect sense.
The rest of the ride is silent. We are all stuck in our heads.
I glance over at Zander, who’s fidgeting with his phone.
As we pull into the driveway, I go over the plan again.
“Remember, we’re going to eat, then talk to Sam, and then each of us is going to send a picture of her to Sierra, along with a message.
We keep doing this until she answers. Then when she returns to school, we support her.
No one is going to fuck with her again.”
I turn the car off and turn around in my seat to face Colton.
“And you need to end this friendship with Wes. He’s a dick and only causes trouble. We should have never listened to him, especially when he wouldn’t even tell us what he thinks Sierra did.”
“I know. I was an idiot. It’s just I wanted to fit in here so bad. Moving at the beginning of senior year sucked. I was looking forward to playing football and being captain this year,” Colton finally confesses.
We all know he gave up a lot to come here. Zander and I liked to play sports, but never played for the school team like Colton did. He worked hard to get the captain’s position at our old school, just to give it up to come here.
“Let’s go. We don’t want the pizza to get cold or the ice cream to melt. And we have some groveling to do.” Colton puts his backpack on his shoulder and picks up the food as he gets out of the car.
Zander and I both look at each other, surprised, before we smile at each other. It feels good to finally have something to smile about.
Colt’s the perfect leader when he wants to be. Maybe he can be the one to take charge of getting our girl.
“Guess we should get in there and make a little girl happy. You know if this works out with us, it’ll be like she is our little sister.” I laugh.
“Sam’s amazing, just like her sister. I just wish we could let her talk to Sierra, but that would be really pushing it. Maybe we can have her make a video and we can send that to Sierra and then she could do the same for Sam,” Zander says with a hopeful look on his face. .
“You’re fucking genius, Zan. That’s even better than pictures. There’s no way she could stay mad at us. We just have to be careful around Dad. If he knows we’re doing this, he’ll put a stop to it right away.”
“Agreed.” Zander nods, opening his door and getting out. I follow as he heads inside.
Dad and John are sitting at the table with Sam, who has dark circles under her eyes.
She cried most of the night. We tried to comfort her and let her know everything was going to be okay, but nothing we said or did helped.
She finally asked to be excused and went to the guest room that we set up for her.
Colton’s at the refrigerator putting the ice cream in the freezer with his back to us.
“Come on and sit down, boys. We figured we could eat a little early tonight, but if you get hungry later, you can eat leftovers in the fridge.” Dad gestures toward the chairs.
Oh, shit. Today is Wednesday. It’s their date night.
We are idiots. If we can get them to go, it gets them out of the house and gives us a chance to talk to Sam in private.
“Where’s date night tonight?” I ask, and my brothers’ eyes shoot to mine. Guess they forgot too.
“Nowhere. We decided to stay home since it’s Sam’s second day here.” John looks at him and they smile lovingly at each other.
“Nonsense, Dad. The two of you should go. We can keep Sam,” I tell him. Zan and Colt nod in agreement.
They look at each other, then at us, silently debating on what to do.
Dad sighs. “Okay. If you insist. Is that okay, Sam? Are you alright staying here with the boys?”
She nods without looking up.
I’m anxious for Dad and John to leave, knowing that we’re going to make her just a little bit happier.
We continue with dinner. “So how was your day?” Dad asks, his eyes shifting between us.
“Okay. You know, the typical high school drama.” I let out a laugh, but it’s forced.
“Had a quiz. Not sure how I did,” Zan adds.
Dad doesn’t say anything, as he finishes chewing the food in his mouth. “If you did your best, that’s all I can ask. If you’re having trouble with something, I’m sure the teacher will be glad to give some tutoring on it. Want me to ask for you?”
“No, that’s okay. I can. Heck, I may just be worrying too much about it and aced it.”
Dad nods and we continue with light conversation while we eat. None of us say anything about Sierra, saving that news for Sam.
“Okay, boys, if you can handle cleaning up and doing your homework, we are going to leave so we can get back a little earlier than normal.” He looks at Sam. “Sweetheart, we know this is hard for you, but it’ll get easier. If you need us, our cell numbers are on the fridge.”
“Yes sir,” she says softly.
“Alright, be good,” Dad says as he and John stand from the table and head out the door.
We are silent until we hear the car start up and leave.
“Want to know a secret, Sam?”
She looks at me in question.
“Okay. Well, I have one, but you have to keep it between the four of us. No one can know, especially Dad. Can you do that?”
She looks at all of us before she finally nods.
“Good. We talked to Sierra.”
Her face lights up instantly at the mention of her sister. “You did?”
“Yes. She can’t talk to you until they prove those allegations are false. But we promised her we would help. She wanted pictures, but we thought of something even better.”
“You did?” She sniffles, grabbing a napkin to wipe her nose. I vow right then to see her smile, no matter what it takes.
“We did.” Zander smiles, scooting his chair closer to her.
“I’m going to give you Colt’s phone, and I want you to record a message for her. When you’re done, come back. Every day, one of us will give you our phone so you can record another message. We’re going to ask her to do the same, and send it back for you,” I explain.
Her eyes light up, and I know she’ll sleep a little better tonight.
“Here you go.” Colt hands his phone across the table and she grabs it, running with it to her room.
We sit in silence, watching her until she disappears.
“Why did you pick me first?” Colton asks.
“Because you have the most to make up for. Plus, this gives you the push to do it. You’ll have the video, so you have to message her. Now, let’s get dinner cleaned up.”