EVIL VILLAIN (The Royal Court #3) - Rebel Hart Page 0,84
He stood up. “Come on. I’ll show you to your room.”
Nathan and I went back inside the main house and grabbed my bags. We carried them up stairs and down a few doors to one on the left side. He opened it and I was smacked in the face by Cherri’s delightful, inviting smell. Her things were scattered all around the room and I immediately felt like I truly was home.
“My old room?” I said.
“Yeah,” Nathan said. “I remodeled it, made it special for you guys. Cherri’s been staying in here already, as I’m sure you can tell. I’ll give you the rest of the tour later. For now, go and see your mom.”
I set my bags down, then turned around and pulled Nathan into a big hug. He wrapped his arms around me, and with all prying eyes gone for the moment, we shared an extended hug. Brothers reunited after all of Connor’s best attempts to put space between us. I really did love my brother. Hopefully the future held plenty of opportunities for us to get to an even better place.
“Alright,” Nathan said, pulling away and flicking a tear away. “Get out.”
I laughed. “You got it.”
Walking around him, I made my way downstairs to the cars parked in the lot in front of the house. I clicked the button on my keys, and a white Tesla flashed a couple of times. A whistle came out of me as I climbed in and started up the car. I honestly never thought I’d have a car like that of my own. That was what awaited me if I did take my position at the company. I could get my mom into a nicer house, get her a nice car, and make sure she’d only have to work if she wanted to.
Yeah, that was the life I wanted.
The drive from South to North Postings was plenty of time for me to come to the realization that business school and working with my brother seemed like a damn good future. I’d pretty much written off getting to have one, but if fate was suddenly offering, I wasn’t going to say no.
The lights were on, shining against the early evening sky as I pulled up and parked in front of my mom’s house. My heart was beating wildly for some reason as I walked up the walkway and pulled my hand up to knock on the door.
It opened before I even made contact.
“Deon,” my mom said breathlessly, tears gathering in her eyes and sliding down her cheeks. “My baby.”
My throat tightened and tears were in my eyes a moment later. I held my arms out and she ran into my embrace. “Mama,” I said with a smile. “I’m home.”
26
Cherri
“Ugh, Cherri, I love these two new friends,” my mom said. She squeezed Brayden close. “You’re such a pumpkin!”
“They were around before,” my dad said. “But it seemed like you didn’t really like them before.”
“Gee, thanks dad,” I said with a chuckle.
Brayden was excitedly leaning into the snuggle with my mom. “I mean, it isn’t as if we didn’t know that.”
“True,” I said.
Alistair leaned back in his seat and rubbed his belly. “There is nothing like your home-cooked meals, Rebeccah.”
“It’s so true,” Avery said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen Nikki this food-happy.”
Nikita was half-asleep in her chair, with a lazy smile on her face. “I don’t think I’ve ever been this food-happy.”
“Thanks for doing it on such short notice, mama,” I said to my mom, who saw four hungry young adults walk through her front door, and took the challenge head on.
“Are you kidding? I live for this,” my mom replied. “I knew that I had a promise to Alistair and Avery, and a few extra mouths only made it that much better.”
“I cannot wait to rub this in everyone else’s faces,” Brayden said.
“Aw,” I said. “Glad to see you getting back to your roots, Brayden.”
He smiled over at me. “What can I say? There’s a jerk streak in me that I’ve been ignoring for far too long. It’s time for my inner ass to re-emerge.” Then he looked at my mom. “Sorry, inner butt.”
My mom waved her hand at Brayden. “It’s okay. We’re a family that staunchly believes in swearing.”
Avery leaned forward and her eyes started to sparkle. “Wait, really? So that’s where Cherri gets it from.”
“Oh no,” my dad said. “Did we raise a potty mouth?”
“Fuck no,” I said, and everyone at the table started to laugh.