Page 10 of Pushing Styxx
“Y’all mind Promise hanging out and watching the game?” I ask, though I know my brothers. They’re all taking one look at this kid and seeing her as a new addition to the family, and they want to see her protected.
“Nah, she’s good. Long as she doesn’t try to change the game.” Scythe grunts and moves to Eabha, picking her up. “We’re Rangers fans around here, aren’t we, sweetheart?”
“Rangers are awesome,” Promise agrees and looks to me. “I play softball for my school.”
“Thought your sister picked you up after school.”
“Yeah, she picks me up and drops me off right before four every day. We get out at two-fifteen, practice until three-thirty, then head out. Our first game was last week, in the middle of all the fun of finding a place to move to. Hope was able to come to my game, which was awesome. She doesn’t usually get to go.”
“What time do you have to go to school if you get out so early?” I ask.
“School starts at seven-twenty,” she answers with a shrug.
So, Hope gets off work, naps, gets up, carries her sister to school, comes back home, does what she does, cooks, goes back to pick up her sister, then goes back to work. Woman has to be running herself to the ground. I glance over at my brothers, wondering if they’re having the same thoughts as me.
It shouldn’t be my problem, but it’s like I can’t help myself. This kid has to realize just how special she is to have a sister as dedicated to her as Hope is. She might have lost her parents, I get that feeling all too well, but having a sister like she does, that’s something no one can take from her. A devotion unlike any other and that needs to be protected at all costs.
CHAPTER 5
HOPE
I’m going to strangle my little sister. Absolutely strangle her. It’s nearly two-thirty in the morning, and my sister isn’t in her bed sleeping. Nope, she’d fallen asleep at my neighbor’s house.
My very, very, HOT neighbor. One who I’d seen opening night at Keeper’s Temptation, sitting at the same table as my boss. He’s also the same man I can’t stop thinking about.
I don’t get why.
He’s obviously a taken man, considering he’s got a daughter. From what I’d seen of her, she’s adorable as well.
He’s also the one who texted me, having gotten my number from my sister, but he’s the one who messaged me all the same, that my sister was asleep on his couch.
This was not good.
Not good at all.
What was Promise thinking?
This is why I was walking across the yard, hoping not to wake his daughter, but to get my sister up and get her home.
The door opens before I reach it to a sexy Styxx standing in the entryway. He looks good even in the dark of night, andthe low lights from inside shine behind him. Styxx was standing there in a pair of low-hanging sweats and a fitted black tank that made him look that much hotter.
“I’m so sorry about this,” I blurt out before I can help myself.
“It’s all good.” Styxx steps back as I get closer and lets me into his house. “She passed out after pizza and wings while watching the game with us.”
Pizza and wings.
Watching the game.
God knows I’m going to have to talk to my sister. She just invited herself over to Styxx’s place.
“Again, I’m sorry. I’ll get her up so she can get in her bed,” I whisper.
“She’s good. Nothing to apologize for. She ate, played with Eabha, and made us all laugh as she fussed at the umpires for stupid calls they made.”I open my mouth to say something about the whole situation, but clamp it shut when Styxx moves in closer to me and continues, “I know it doesn’t look good, but that’s all that happened here. I’m not some asshat who pervs on little girls.”
“I didn’t think that,” I mutter.
“Good, but what I’m getting at is, your sister is welcome here anytime you’re working and needs somewhere to go so she’s not bored or home alone for hours at a time.”
