Wildflower (Colors #4)

by Jessica Prince

  I didn’t think I’d ever stop loving the noises he made every time he lost control. Hearing him moan, and curse, and grunt was one of the hottest things I’d ever experienced.

  A loud ringing sound cut through the room and pulled me out of my blissful haze. Feeling a little groggy, it took me a few seconds to get my bearings and realize it was coming from my phone.

  Noah and I were still breathing hard, having just had world-class sex, so we both chose to ignore it until it went silent.

  “What the hell?” Noah grumbled as my cell started up again. “It’s two-thirty in the fuckin’ morning.” Before I could so much as move, Noah had pulled out of me and was rolling to reach my phone on the nightstand. “This better be fuckin’ good,” he growled into the phone. After a second, his body went solid. “Derrick? What the fuck, man?”

  Derrick? What the hell was Derrick doing calling me at two-thirty in the morning?

  “Yeah, she’s right here?”

  It was my turn to go solid as Noah put the phone to my ear. “H-hello?” I asked as dread began to course through me.

  “Harlow? I’m so sorry to call at this hour. But we’ve got a situation—”

  “Oh, God,” I choked. My throat clogged with tears and panic gripped my chest tightly. Ethan was all I could think about. “Is it Ethan? Is he okay? Oh, God, please tell me he’s okay.”

  I felt Noah’s body hit my back as his long arms wrapped around me. I was so lost in my fear I’d almost forgotten he was there.

  “Shit, no,” Derrick spoke. “He’s fine, he’s fine. Damn it, Harlow. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you like that.”

  My body slumped in instant relief as I fell back into Noah’s firm hold. “Oh, thank God,” I sighed, my heart still beating a million miles an hour. “Jesus. You scared the hell out of me, Derrick,” I said on a small laugh.

  “Well…” He drew out that one word and I knew whatever he was about to say wasn’t going to be good. “I got some news that might not make you all that happy, Harlow. We got your brother down here at the station.”

  “What? Why?”

  “He and his buddy Kyle thought it’d be fun to take Kyle’s dad’s Corvette out for a little late-night joyride. Ethan was behind the wheel and managed to drive the thing right into a light pole. Fucked the car all to hell. We got them both down here right now. Just waiting on you and the other kid’s parents. Not thinking the dad’s gonna take too kindly to his son and his son’s friend fuckin’ up his baby, seeing as he rebuilt it from the ground up.”

  In the span of three minutes, I’d gone from scared out of my mind, to relieved, to pissed to high hell. “I’m going to kill him!” I shouted into the phone as I pulled out of Noah’s arms and began the hunt for my clothes. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

  “See ya,” he replied just before I disconnected.

  “Baby,” Noah spoke from his place in the bed. If I hadn’t been fuming at that very moment, I probably would have stopped to appreciate the way his muscles bulged in his arms as he propped up on his side to look at me. Or the way his abs clenched with each slightest movement. “You wanna tell me what’s going on?”

  “What’s going on?” I asked sarcastically as I snagged my panties off the floor and yanked them up my legs. “What’s going on is that I’m about to murder my brother!”

  I located my bra and shirt, pulling them on in furious, jerky motions as I scanned the floor for my skirt.

  “Justifiable homicide, if you ask me,” I muttered more to myself than to Noah as I finished dressing and went for my shoes. “I mean, a Corvette? What kind of dumb do you have to be to think jacking a guy’s Corvette and going for a joyride is a good idea?!”

  “Oh, damn,” Noah hissed.

  “Yeah!” I shouted back, my hands flying up in disbelief. “Then the little shit crashed it!”

  “Fuuuuuuck.”

  “And now he must die.” I spun around and started out of the room. I only made it about two steps when his arms came around me, holding me in place like steel bands.

  “Hang on there, wildcat. I’m thinking you need to calm down before heading into a police station.”

  I pointlessly fought against his hold for several seconds before finally admitting defeat and turning in his arms. “And I’m thinking you need to let me go so I can get down there before Kyle’s dad puts his foot up Ethan’s ass. Not that he doesn’t deserve it,” I grumbled.

  Surprisingly, Noah’s arms fell from around me. I don’t know what I expected, maybe a quick kiss goodbye or something, but it certainly wasn’t for him to pick his clothes up from the floor and start getting dressed as well, informing me, “Give me a minute, sweetheart. I’ll drive you.”

  I stood frozen in place long enough to watch Noah go from gloriously naked to disappointingly covered in just a few seconds.

  “Let’s go,” he said, snapping me out of my daze as he grabbed my hand and began pulling.

  “Wait. Noah, you don’t have to go with me,” I informed him. “It’s the middle of the night and this is my problem, not yours. You shouldn’t have to drag yourself out of your warm bed to deal with this shit.”

  He came to a dead stop so fast I ran right into him and stumbled back a few steps. When I looked up at his face, his brows were furrowed in what appeared to be frustration.

  “Are we together?” he asked.

  “Uh… what?”

  “Are. We. Together?” he repeated.

  “Um, yeah. Yes, I mean. We’re together.”

  “So, it’s safe to assume, since I’m your man and all, that I might not be okay with you dragging yourself out of my nice warm bed at two-thirty in the fuckin’ morning to pick your brother up from the police station. Now, since that’s been established, you should also know that, as your man, I’ll be by your side whenever situations like this arise.”

  We remained in a silent standoff for a while, me at a loss for words, Noah seemingly waiting to see if I understood. Then he broke that silence by asking in a softer voice, “You getting my point now, baby?”

  “Yep, loud and clear. Let’s go.”

  Without further argument, I led him down the stairs and out into the cold. As I hopped into the passenger seat of his SUV, it was a struggle to keep the smile off my lips. There was no denying, having a strong, intimidating, sexy as hell man at my back whenever I needed him was a definite bonus.

  My good mood at Noah’s show of solidarity turned to shit the moment we walked into the station, and it only got worse from there.

  “This is such bullshit!” Ethan declared from the backseat of Noah’s SUV.

  The moment we’d walked through the doors of the station, the thickness in the air set the tone for the remainder of our little field trip. Kyle was pee-his-pants scared at the knowledge his father was on the way, coupled with the sight of his massive football coach standing before him looking ten different shades of pissed off.

  But Ethan… well Ethan had an entirely different demeanor altogether. One that I certainly hadn’t expected from him—that was for sure. I cleared the doors to find him sitting at Derrick’s desk, wise enough to appear contrite at the sight of me. But the moment Noah stepped up behind me, contrite was out the window, in its place was a punk-ass, back-talking kid I was dangerously close to throat-punching. Every word out of his mouth—and there weren’t many, considering he clammed up and refused to give more than one word responses—was dripping with sarcasm and hostility. Neither of which I understood.

  “It’s not bullshit!” I shot, spinning around in the passenger seat to pin him with a glare. “As far as I’m concerned, you got off easy. You should be thanking God Kyle’s dad didn’t decide to press charges. It’s three months of chores on their ranch until you’ve worked off the cost of the replacement parts he’s going to have to buy. That’s fucking lucky Ethan. And if you don’t see that, then we’ve got some serious problems.”

  Noah, to his credit, managed to stay silent throughout the entire exchange a
t the station and in the car. Even though I could tell, by the white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel and the ticking in his jaw, that he had a very shaky grip on his anger toward my brother.

  “But it was Kyle’s idea!” Ethan cried out.

  “And if Kyle decided to jump off a cliff, would you follow after him?” At that, I gasped. “Oh God. Now you have me talking in bullshit, clichéd analogies!” I turned back in my seat and began rubbing at my temples. “This night just keeps getting worse and worse,” I mumbled to myself as I worked to stave off my impending headache.

  Thankfully, the remainder of the car ride was silent. However, the blessed silence was short lived once the three of us stepped into Grammy’s house.

  Just inside the doorway, I turned to face Ethan. “What the hell’s gotten into you, Ethan? This isn’t you. This isn’t my little brother. I want to know what’s happened to bring this on.”

  He let out a humorless bark of laughter. “Like you have any idea who I am. What, because you’ve always been here, Low-Low? That’s a fucking joke,” he spit, anger and sarcasm masking something else in his eyes.

  “Ethan,” I whispered broken-heartedly at the same time Noah snapped.

  In a low, menacing growl, he warned, “You better watch your mouth, boy. And show your sister some fuckin’ respect.”

  “Wow,” Ethan continued with his sarcasm. “Hypocrite much?

  A deep, furious rumble emanated from Noah’s chest as the two of them stood only inches apart. “Ethan, please,” I started, shoving my way between them both. “Talk to me.”

  “Don’t act like you care now!” He took a step back and skewered me with a look so hard it stabbed into my skin and left me bleeding. “You’ve been gone for years! You don’t get to come back here and tell me what I should do or how I should act, like you actually give a shit!”

  “I do give a shit!” I yelled back.

  “Whatever,” he said with a roll of his eyes. “For how long this time? A week? Maybe I’ll luck out and you’ll be here for a month, yeah? Or maybe you guys will break up again and you’ll take off without saying a damn thing. Just like you did the last time!”

  I said his name as I reached for him, wanting nothing more in that moment than to wrap my baby brother, my shrimp, up in my arms and hold him until all the hurt went away. “I’m sorry,” I whispered as a tears slid down my cheek. “I’m so, so sorry for leaving you like that.”

  Ethan’s top lip curled in a snarl as he moved toward the stairs. “I’m going to bed. I have chores to do tomorrow.”

  And with that, he left, stomping up the stairs and slamming his door so loud it echoed through the entire house.

  “I really screwed up with him,” I spoke to no one in particular.

  I felt Noah’s heat at my back before he squeezed me in a tight hug. “He’ll get past this, Harlow. You both will.”

  My eyes stayed on the stairs as my heart continued to break. “You sure about that?”

  “I’m positive. He’s a good kid and you’re a great sister. He’s just going through a tough time right now. You’ll lead him out.”

  His words were meant to be soothing, but I had trouble believing him.

  What if Noah was wrong?

  What if I’d already hurt Ethan too much to come back from?

  What if I managed to screw up his life without even knowing it?

  But the one thing that swung around in the back of my mind, poking at the fresh wound in my heart was what if Ethan never forgave me?

  Ethan had walked out the door the following morning without so much as speaking a word to me. He didn’t get back until dinnertime, covered in dirt from whatever Kyle’s father made him and Kyle do at the ranch that day, and went straight to his bedroom. I’d gone up to try and talk him into coming down to get something to eat, but my knocking and calling went unanswered.

  I know he ate something after I’d gone to bed, because the sound of his door creaking open and his heavy footfalls on the wood floors reverberated off the walls in the hallway.

  Sunday went very much the same as Saturday. The unfortunate thing about Ethan’s timing was that he’d picked the start of Christmas break to screw up massively, meaning the whole two weeks he was out of school were filled with nothing but chores and grounding. Other than Christmas and New Year’s Day, he was working his fingers to the bone. On those two days, the most I’d gotten was a few minutes of my brother’s company before he finally headed back to the isolation of his bedroom. To say our holidays weren’t all that merry or bright would have been a massive understatement. Each day passed like the one before it. If it hadn’t been for the fact that Chloe and Noah came over for a short while on Christmas day—I made sandwiches that time, not wanting to risk salmonella poisoning—it would have been so easy to forget that it was the holidays.

  And so went every day for the next two weeks.

  By the time the weekend rolled around two weeks after the wreck, I was a jumbled mess of nerves and concerns. I’d voiced my worries to Noah every chance I got—which wasn’t much, seeing as I made a solid effort to be home whenever my brother was—that Ethan wasn’t coming around.

  We called and texted, and there were some days that Noah came over to spend time with me before Ethan got home from the ranch. We would lay in my bed after having sex, wrapped around each other’s naked bodies, and I’d confide in Noah everything that was bothering me until he had to leave before Ethan got home. That was one thing we agreed on after how my brother had acted that night. We weren’t trying to hide our relationship from Ethan, but we were both making a strong effort to take his feelings into consideration, working slowly to ease him into the realization that Noah and I were something more than just friends.

  He tried to be supportive. He tried to be my shoulder to lean on. But he just kept saying the same thing.

  He’s a teenage boy.

  He’ll get over it.

  Just give him time.

  But with each passing day and no spoken words, I grew more and more disheartened.

  Another thing that was plaguing me was my relationship with Noah. It wasn’t that things were going bad. It was quite the opposite, as a matter of fact; things were great. Comfortable, fun, secure. And because of all of that, I was scared to death, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Noah made sure to tell me he loved me, but I never felt pressure from him to say it back. It was the fact that I hadn’t that sat so heavily on my mind. I just couldn’t bring myself to say those three little words.

  Even though I knew, down to my soul, that I felt it as well.

  And to make matters worse, I had seemed to have come down with a nasty bug that didn’t want to let go.

  It was two Saturdays after Ethan’s little stunt, and it was the first time that weekend I’d felt able to get out of the house.

  “Oh, sweetie,” Chloe cooed as I walked into Sinful Sweets. “You look like hell warmed over.”

  “Thanks,” I deadpanned as I plopped down on one of the stools across the counter from her. “You’re an asshole.”

  She gave me a tinkling giggle and leaned against the counter. “Sorry, but it’s the truth, babe. You still battling that stomach bug?”

  “Yes,” I mumbled, resting my elbows on the counter and holding my forehead in my hands. “If I’m not puking I’m sleeping. I swear, it’s like it’s getting worse. I just can’t seem to shake it.”

  “Well, working with a bunch of dirty kids will do that to you.”

  “You’re telling me,” I grunted. “If I could find out which kid gave me this shit, I’d kick their ass.”

  “And you’re a teacher. Shaping the minds of our youth.”

  “Think you can stop being a smart ass long enough to make me a coffee?” I asked.

  Pushing away from the counter, she grabbed one of the paper cups embossed with the Sinful Sweets logo that were stacked together and headed for the espresso machine. “What are you in the mood for today?”

  “Ugh. Just black, please
. I’m afraid to put anything in my stomach, but I need a caffeine boost like crazy.”

  Chloe filled the cup and set it down in front of me. “Wow. Don’t think I’ve ever seen you take your coffee black. Intravenously, sure. But never black. You want something to eat? I just took a whole batch of cranberry and orange coffee cakes out of the oven a few minutes ago.”

  Typically, I would have jumped at the chance for anything out of Chloe’s kitchen. But for some insane reason, that particular food combination had my face scrunching up in distaste. Nowadays, nothing was sounding good.

  “No thanks. I think I’ll stick with saltines for a few more days. Hopefully I’m at the end of this virus.”

  “Okay, hon. But if you’re not better by mid-week, I think you should see a doctor. This has been going on for more than a week now.”

  With a promise to do as I was told, I grabbed my coffee and headed back home, desperately in need of my bed and my comfy flannel pajamas.

  Ethan was at the ranch all day and Noah was at the gym, having been banned from my presence until whatever I had cleared up on the off-chance it was contagious. The house was silent and with the cloudy, gray sky that was calling for more snow, it was the perfect setting for a nap.

  I’d managed to get changed and was snuggling down into my covers when someone started banging on the front door.

  “Son of a bitch,” I muttered. I pulled the covers over my head in the hopes that whoever it was would just go away. The knocking continued, growing louder and louder, leaving me no choice but to acknowledge the asshole that was cutting into my sleepy time.

  “I’m coming!” I shouted as I tromped down the stairs. “Swear to God, someone better be dead in a ditch somewhere or I’m kicking your—”

  “Surprise!” Navie squealed just as I yanked the door open, ready to lay into someone’s ass.

  “Ohmigod!” I squealed back, momentarily forgetting the illness that seemed to be slowly draining the life from my body. “What are you doing here?” We pulled each other into a tight embrace right there on the front porch, swaying side to side as we hopped up and down.