“No. You don’t.” He tried moving around me but I met his step, blocking him with my arms over my chest. “You think my dad is gonna appreciate you interrupting him when my kid brother is in his office?”
“That’s not…”
“Especially when he doesn’t get a hell of a lot of time with him as it is?” My lips went down in some bullshit exaggeration of a frown and I tsked, the sound low like Trent was a kid who wanted to leap frog to the moon. “Not gonna happen, brah.”
When I didn’t move and ignored the way Trent kept looking at the window in the office door, I tilted my head in front of his face. He opened his mouth, like he might offer one more bullshit excuse but my slow head shake shut him up.
That felt good, shooing off Marshall because the guy was an entitled dick. And I enjoyed the few seconds I took watching that jackwagon return to his locker to finish dressing for practice.
Two small knocks on the office door and I slipped inside, stopping right over the threshold to see my father grumbling something about Instant Messaging to his computer and Koa standing on the desk with his chubby legs, running his small fingers through Aly’s hair as she held his waist. The difference between all that long, thick hair waving down her back and the tight bun she usually sported was remarkable.
“Brah!” Koa called when he spotted me.
“Hey brah,” I said, catching him when he leaped into my arms from my dad’s desk. “What are you doing here?”
“He wanted to show your dad his new do,” Aly offered, ruffling my brother’s shorter hair.
“Mother fu…” Dad’s curse cut off with one glare from Aly. He rubbed his eyes before he exhaled and pushed away from the desk. “Sorry.” Then he took Koa from me. “Sorry, keiki kane, but makua kane has to go see his boss.” I caught his frown and the tight clench in his jaw, but dad shook his head, telling me silently it was nothing to worry about. “Give makua kane a kiss, buddy and I’ll see you tonight.”
“It’s okay, Kona. Koa kept asking for you when we left the barber. I knew you’d probably be too busy for a long visit.”
“Never too busy for my boys, Aly Cat, but I do have to run.” Dad kissed Koa on the forehead and handed him back to me, lowering his voice so Aly couldn’t hear him. “Walk them out alright? I don’t like her being the center of attention in the locker room.”
“No problem,” I agreed, nodding at my father when he walked out of the office. It wasn’t until I caught the feeling of being stared at that I turned back to Aly, looking down when I noticed her gaze moving over my chest. Right there on my bare chest was the tattoo of Emily’s beautiful face, mesmerizing eyes and wings shooting out of her back. My angel, always, but seeing Aly’s long stare, the small hint of her pink tongue, left me feeling a little exposed. “Uh, I’ll go put on a shirt and then walk you out. Stay put,” I told her, putting Koa back in her arms.
“You don’t have to.” But I grabbed my t-shirt from my locker and stuffed it over my head before Aly could tell me to stop.
“Ransom, that your woman?” I heard, not bothering to look back to see who’d asked that question as I ushered Aly down the hallway and away from those loud jackasses cat calling after her.
“Sorry,” I told her when we made it outside of the gym locker room and walked toward my mom’s Armada parked in the Visitor’s section. “You’d swear they’ve never seen a pretty woman before.”
Aly snapped her gaze toward me, then looked away, readjusting Koa to her other hip. I noticed she deflected when anyone complimented her, and I made a mental note to compliment her more often. The next second, I wondered where the hell that feeling came from.
“Here, let me take him,” I told her, in need of a distraction from my thoughts and I laughed when my brother squealed at the small flip I gave his body as I placed him on my shoulders.
Aly’s half grin was small, not a smile at all, but there was a light in her eyes when she watched Koa that I appreciated. Mom had told me my little brother had really taken to Aly. Partners in crime, she called them.
“Your dad looked annoyed,” she said, stopping to unlock the Armada for me to put Koa in his car seat. “I hope everything’s okay.”
“Just team crap that will likely blow over after practice.” Koa wrapped his arms around my neck when I buckled him in and I ran my fingers through his hair. “I like it, brah. It’s all short like makua kane’s now.” With that closely trim cut he looked more like a mini-Kona than I ever had. “Think I should cut mine like that?” I asked him getting only a head bob in response. “I’ll see you this weekend, okay?”
Another nod and Koa offered me his small hand to fist bump before I shut the door.
Aly played with her phone and opened the driver’s side door, her lips tensed into a hard line.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, standing next to her.
“This is so big.” She nodded toward the Armada. “I’m petrified to drive it. It’s a tank. I feel like I have to climb up a wall just to get in.”
“Yeah,” I said through a laugh. She looked a little suspicious when I offered her my hand, but took it anyway, I guessed because her need for a push up into the SUV was a little greater than her suspicion. “Why do you think my dad bought it? He’s ridiculously paranoid about Mom driving anywhere without him.” I shut the door and leaned my elbows against the open window. “I think he likes to play caveman or something with her knowing damn well that she can handle much rougher shit than New Orleans traffic.”
Aly’s laugh was quick, but pleased. “Well, I can’t imagine what’s rougher than that.”
“You’ve never been to Nashville, have you?”
Lips pressed together, Aly still wouldn’t give me a smile, but she did smirk a little. “No. Never been outside of Louisiana.”
“Really?” I asked, ignoring that niggling voice in my head that reminded me I was going to be late for practice. “Man, I can show you pictures of some of the crazy places my mom’s dragged me to.”
“You ever been to France?” Her eyes got a little wider then and she adjusted in her seat to lean closer to me.
“Twice.”
“Shut up. You have not.”
When I nodded, Aly’s mouth dropped opened and I was surprised how much I liked her when she wasn’t introverted and closed off. “Germany too, and we went three times to the UK. London is very cool, real old, ya know, but nothing beats Scotland. Supposed to be the most haunted place in the world.”
“Did you see a ghost?”
“Nah. I don’t wanna be around that shit.”
“Shit!” Koa shouted from the backseat.
“No, sir, little man,” Aly said, glaring at him in the rearview.
Koa kicked the back of the seat, refusing to look away from Aly’s frown, but when she cleared her throat, the annoying thumping stopped
That was amazing. My little brother was a hellion most of the time and in under a month Aly had him behaving. Somewhat. I shook my head, smiling at her. “How the he…um…how do you do that?”
She adjusted the rearview mirror and shook her head. “Koa gets away with things from you guys because he’s so cute.” She looked back at me. “Cute doesn’t really go very far with me.”
“No? What about impossibly good looking?”
I wasn’t sure what to make of the look she gave me and I had no idea why I wanted to know her answer so badly. But for some reason I didn’t understand, I leaned closer, like I wanted to touch her, see if I could get that elusive smile. Aly stared back. There was a little buzz moving around us, some weird sting of electricity that I felt when she pressed her tempting lips together.
“Shit!” Koa said again, and I pushed back from the door.
“Koa! Non!” Aly fussed and I hid my laugh, giving my little brother a wink.
“We should go,” she said, disappointing me more than I thought was possible. I had no idea why I wanted her to stick around, but I didn’t think it was because I missed seeing my baby brother. That idea scared me, just a little.