The Endgame Is You (Rixon Raiders #4) - L A Cotton Page 0,58
words spilled out before I could stop them. “I’m sorry, that’s not fair.”
It was his brother. His kid brother who had almost lost his mom. I couldn’t resent that.
I wouldn’t.
Not when I’d pulled him away from them.
“I wish I could wave a magic wand and make all this better for you and Xander.”
“I know you do, and I love you for it.” Cameron reached for me, fisting the oversized Wolverines t-shirt and pulling me into his arms.
“We get through senior year and then I go home, at least until this stuff with Xander gets better. He needs me, Hailee. I can’t just turn my back on him. I can’t...” His eyes shuttered, torment etched into the lines of his handsome face. “But if you don’t want to follow me, I’ll understand. I know you have a better shot at following your dreams here or in Philly.”
“Stop.” I leaned in touching my head to his. “Where you go, I go.”
“Yeah?” Relief washed over him.
“Cameron, as if you need to ask.”
“It won’t be forever, I promise,” he breathed the words as if they were hard to say. “Just until he’s in a better place.”
“It’s okay. He needs you.”
“And I need you. I will always need you, Hailee. I hope you know that.” He stared at me with such intensity, I sucked in a sharp breath.
“I do.”
Cameron
“Can’t I stay another night?”
“We need to get home, sweetheart,” Mom reached for Xander, but he dodged her advance. The flash of hurt in her eyes gutted me.
“Xander, please, don’t make a scene. Cameron and Hailee need to—”
“Hey,” I said, finally making myself known. “Are you all set?”
“Yes,” my parents said at the same time as Xander grumbled, “No.”
“I think Hailee wanted some help, if you two want to—”
“Sure thing.” Dad squeezed my shoulder, guiding Mom away.
“Hey, squirt. What’s going on?” I sat down beside my brother.
“I don’t want to go back to Rixon.”
“No? But what about school? Your friends?”
“I know Mom and Dad call you and tell you everything, Cam.” He flicked his knowing eyes to mine.
“They’re worried. We all are.”
“It’s not like I try to make people hate me.” He shrugged.
“Nobody hates you, Xan.” God. He was seven. It was too young to harbor such negativity but here we were.
“Well, they don’t like me. Harry Jones and his friends all say I’m weird.”
“You are not weird.” A sense of protectiveness flooded me, and I wanted nothing more than to call Jase and Asher and ride down to Rixon and hunt down Harry Jones and teach the little punk a lesson or two.
“It’s okay, Cam. I know I’m not like most other kids.”
Fuck.
His words were so innocent, but there was so much conviction behind them that he might as well have punched his little fist into my chest and ripped out my heart.
“You’ve gotta tell me how I can fix this, Xander.”
He looked at me with big, sad eyes and said, “When are you coming home?”
“As soon as senior year is done, I’ll be back. It’s not long really, not when you take out the holidays and spring break.”
“And then I can come stay with you and Hailee?”
Jesus. This was really happening. My kid brother was choosing me over our parents.
“You can come and stay, yeah. Hailee told me the two of you talked about it?”
“She didn’t really give me an answer.”
“You’ll always be welcome to stay over, Xan, you know that. But Mom and Dad would be really upset if you didn’t want to live with them anymore.”
“But I want to live with you.” He twisted his hands in his lap.
I wanted to ask him why, to make him tell me why he felt this way, but I knew he didn’t have the answers. If he did, we wouldn’t be sitting here right now.
“Xan, look at me.” I slid my fingers under his chin and tilted his face to mine. “Do you have any idea how much we all love you?” His lip quivered. “Mom and Dad would do anything to make you happy, but you need to talk to them, buddy. They can’t help if they don’t know what’s wrong.”
Silent tears began rolling down his cheeks and he wrapped his arms around me, burying his face into my chest. “I don’t want anyone to leave me, not again,” he murmured against my sweater.
“Seven months, Xan,” I said, rubbing his back. “Seven months and I’ll be home.” But as I said the words, I already knew I’d be looking at my schedule to see where