Dahlia Aldridge
“I promise, Mom.”
I wasn’t lying to her.I was fine.Fine being relative to how I could be doing, considering the chaos taking place around me. Although that chaos seemed fairly absent now that I was sitting out by our pool, my back curled against Stratton’s hard chest.
The other boys had all run home to get changed or grab stuff for the day, my house becoming the designated spot to be. You wouldn’t see me complaining. Due to their absence, though, and my parents not being around, the entire property felt almost eerily quiet, and I was glad Stratton was here. I worried that if I was left alone right now, I would think myself back into a hole of anxiety and panic.
Honestly, this day was already going far better than I expected, and I had managed to keep control over the conversation with my mom, not wanting to send her into a momma bear panic mode. Whether I could stop that or not was up for debate, but I was hoping she would trust my word on this.
My fingers were drawing slow patterns against Stratton’s jeans, and his tattooed fingers were gently combing through my hair that he had tugged loose from its braid. I would have been worried about him being bored, but I could tell he was enjoying this moment of solitude together. Something I wasn’t going to complain about since I was very much enjoying being surrounded by his tobacco and leather scent and the warmth that emitted from his hot, hard frame. How did the man manage to make me feel both grounded and like I was having a heat flash? Impressive.
Slowly, I drank my second cup of coffee while examining the morning sun that was glinting off the pool’s surface as I listened to her response. I could have put her on speaker, but I could tell Stratton was already listening because he would make certain noises in agreement with what she was saying. The soft rumble that flowed through his chest was so soothing that I was starting to wonder why I had been anxious in the first place.
Except then I remembered very clearly why and what had happened.
“Your father and Mr. Carter are working on handling the legal aspect,” Mom promised softly. “We are going to make this disappear and figure out who did this to you.”
I believed her. I could hear the determination in her voice, and I wouldn’t lie, it did something to settle me. I had no doubt my boys were capable of handling this, but to have my parents not only immediately side with me but also believe me about everything that had been happening was reassuring and comforting. Not that I ever thought they wouldn’t, but it was still nice.
“I know, I believe you. But being here or there won’t make a huge difference, Mom. I’m going to feel way better knowing you guys didn’t cancel your trip with everyone because of me. You know that if you come back, all of them will too, and that would just make me feel even worse—”
“Dahlia, honey, that’s ridiculous,” she chided.
“But true,” I insisted. “Plus, I plan on just doing what I normally do every day. I just want to forget about all of it for a bit, and you know the guys are going to keep me company.”Hopefully in a lot of fun, sexy ways that I never needed to detail to my mom.“The Labor Day celebration is this weekend, and then I’ll be starting school, so I will be crazy busy as it is.”
Was that enough reasoning to convince her? I had no idea.
My mom let out a noncommittal sound. “I don’t know, Dahlia.”
“You know how the guys are.” I tried to keep it lighthearted, but Stratton chuckled silently behind me, his hand wrapping around my waist. “They are going to keep me so busy that even if you were home, I wouldn’t see you.”
The way Stratton’s lips were pressed to the shell of my other ear, I had a feeling that he had a few thoughts on how to fill the time. It helped, of course, that I could feel how turned on he was, his hard length pressed against my back. I tried to not wiggle around too much, especially because if Stratton decided to pull something while I was on the phone with my mom, I wasn’t confident I would hide my reaction in my tone of voice.
After a moment, she seemed to come to the same decision I did, which was that it wasn’t worth it for them to come back. “Okay. Fine. But if you need me there, I will immediately be on the jet.”
“I know,” I whispered. “I love you, Mom. Tell Dad I love him too.”
“We love you. Stay strong. We are going to handle whoever it was that did this.”
Was it just me, or did that sound like a legitimate threat for whoever was responsible?
After saying goodbye, I hung up the phone and let out a small exhale. At least they were staying there until we could sort all of this out. Two weeks would be enough, right? I hoped so. Especially because my emotions were all over the place right now, and I knew without a doubt that if they were here, they would see right through my attempt to keep calm. They would see how much the incident affected me.
Realize that it was part of a much larger problem.
Heck, my mom may have even put together the weight loss from this past year with all the images based around how I looked on that account. That wasn’t even including whether or not they would notice the change between the guys and me. I mean, how could they not? Unless they planned to not act like we were together around our parents… crap, what would they think of me? Would they think it was odd that their sons all wanted to be with the same girl? Would my parents be embarrassed that I wanted to be with all six of them?
Holy moly, this was complicated.
“Angel.” Stratton’s voice was a low, relaxing rumble as I tilted my head back, slouching against him as I let out another slow exhale. “You know you don’t have to handle any of this, right? We can handle it—”
“I need to be part of this. I need to handle it. I can’t turn away from it, especially because it may be part of something bigger,” I pointed out as he examined my expression.
He nodded slowly, seeming to decide to not push right now. I appreciated it, because he had no idea how tempting it was to do exactly that. To let them handle it and to hide away in my metaphorical bubble.
“I have quite a few questions myself,” he admitted and then shook his head. “See what happens when I ditch out for a bit? Those idiots get involved with the FBI.”
A giggle slipped out as he smiled further, smoothing his fingers over my hair. I let out a small groan of frustration. “I don’t even know where to start, Stratton. I feel so overwhelmed.”