The Brayden I’ve known for the past three years has always been so full of confidence. It’s strange to catch a glimpse of the uncertainty lurking within his dark eyes. “What do you say, Sydney? Are you going to give this a chance?”
His hesitant question has the breath catching at the back of my throat. How can I possibly say no when he’s staring at me with such a hopeful expression?
My lips lift into a smile before I jerk my head into a nod.
A relieved grin flashes across his face before his mouth crashes onto mine. And then I’m lost. Swept away on a rising tide of sensation.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Sydney
“I’ll tell you what, girl. I can’t remember the last time you were this happy,” Demi says, bumping her shoulder into mine in an attempt to reclaim my attention.
My gaze slides from the Wildcats stadium field where my brother is tossing around a football with Brayden to the girl who has been my best friend since freshman year of college.
Pent-up air rushes from my lungs in a burst as I turn her comment over in my head. I’m almost afraid to admit the truth out loud, because she’s right. I am happy. Happier than I’ve been in a long time.
I never expected to feel this way about Brayden.
I mean, come on...Brayden Kendricks?
That just seems plain crazy.
But there’s no denying the truth.
I’d been so sure that I had Brayden pegged as a handsome, football playing jock who enjoyed all the perks of being an athlete on this campus. Now that we’ve scratched beneath the surface, I’ve discovered that there is so much more to him. He’s smart, caring, and protective of his younger sister, Elle. He talks to his mother on the phone every couple of days. Family means everything to him. It’s just another thing we have in common.
I’ve come to enjoy the quiet times that we work together. Sketching him for my art project has been an absolute dream. I could stare at the thick length of his cock for hours. Actually, I have stared for hours.
And the way he touches my body...
A shiver of awareness slides through me before pooling like warmed honey in my core. I shift uncomfortably on the bench and attempt to tamp down my arousal.
Know what I find even more attractive than all of that?
The way he is with my brother. It makes my heart swell with thick emotion. Brayden doesn’t talk down to Lucus or treat him like he’s slow on the uptake.
There have been a few guys that I’ve brought home and introduced to my family. Right from the moment they meet Lucus, it’s obvious that some aren’t comfortable around an individual who also happens to have a disability. They’re unsure how to treat or talk to him so they end up ignoring him and that pisses me off. It doesn’t take a genius to realize that you treat everyone the same way you want to be treated. Or the way you’d want people to treat your loved one.
Is that really such a difficult concept to grasp?
Apparently so.
There’s no reason to talk to him like he’s in pre-school and can’t understand basic concepts. He understands them just fine, thank you very much. If those people can’t act like normal human beings around Lucus, then I cut them loose and move on. I refuse to waste my time with someone who isn’t capable of common courtesy.
Last week, Brayden tagged along with us to get ice cream. True to his word, he secured tickets to a Saturday afternoon home game. I let him share the good news with my brother while we were enjoying our frozen treats. I thought Lucus was going to burst out of his skin with excitement. The sheer happiness Brayden was able to give Lucus actually brought a sting of tears to my eyes. I had to blink them away before either of them noticed.
When Demi nudges my arm for a second time, I say without hesitation, “I am happy.”
Her gaze slices to where the team is warming up before the game. The three of us arrived at the stadium two hours early. We have the best seats in the house. They’re two rows up from the field on the fifty-yard line. We’re so close to the bright green turf that it feels like I could reach out and touch it. Most fans are only now filtering in. There were a ton of students outfitted in black and red tailgating in the parking lot earlier.
As soon as we found our seats, I texted Brayden and he jogged out of the tunnel to retrieve my brother before taking Lucus back to the locker room. They were gone for about thirty minutes before returning to the field with the team for warm-ups.
My attention settles on Lucus. He has a black Wildcats ballcap pulled over his head and is now wearing a red and white Kendricks jersey with Brayden’s number stamped across the back.