Hold on Tight
Page 36

“I’m not very hungry,” I told him, which was a lie. My mother had decided I had gained weight lately, and she wanted to limit my food. I tried to explain it was my boobs, but she didn’t accept that. She said my fat was going there and I needed to stop eating so much. She wasn’t well endowed, and she believed I would be if I ate less.
So I had an apple and some celery sticks for lunch. My waist had gotten smaller, but it was only making my boobs look even bigger. The bigger they looked, the more panicked my mother got and the less food she gave me.
“You’ve lost weight,” Dewayne said, frowning. “Need to gain some more weight, Little Red.”
“Hey, Sienna,” Dustin said, setting his tray down on the other side of the table. Surprised, I looked up at him.
“Hey,” I replied, happy to see him. I missed him.
“You look really good,” he said, his eyes glancing down at my chest, then back up at my face with an approving grin.
“She always looks good,” Dewayne informed him.
Dustin glanced at his brother and looked guilty. “Yeah, she does,” he replied, then turned back to me. “I’ve been busy with things since school started, and I haven’t been around a lot. I’m sorry about that.”
I nodded. I understood his need to fit in with the team. It was what he loved, and I was just his friend. I had once hoped he would see me as something more, but he was Dustin Falco and I was just the girl next door. Not the head cheerleader or dance team captain. Both those girls had caught Dustin’s attention. I’d seen him off in corners with them often.
“You want to go over and eat with me and the team?” Dustin asked, keeping his gaze on me and not looking at Dewayne.
I had been secretly wishing he would invite me into his new world with him, but I couldn’t get up and leave Dewayne. He had been my friend when I didn’t have one. Dewayne was beautiful and larger than life, and he made me feel special. Dustin had never made me feel special.
“I—”
“It’s about damn time,” Dewayne said, interrupting me. Then he stood up. “Go eat with my brother. I think he’s got his head out of his ass now. But if he sticks it back up his ass, you come tell me. I’ll take care of you.”
Then Dewayne Falco walked off. I sat there and watched him leave the cafeteria without a backward glance.
“Come on, Sienna. Let me introduce you to everyone. Most of them have been asking about you for a while now. Dewayne’s made you pretty damn popular with the guys.”
He had?
I stood up, took my meager lunch, and let Dustin lead me over to the popular table, where basketball players and cheerleaders gathered. The head cheerleader who had been on Dustin’s arm all last week glared at me. I wanted to go back to the safety of Dewayne. Kimmy Bart was not someone I wanted as an enemy. She owned this school. She was also tall, thin, and blond. Guys ogled her legs like they were the Holy Grail. And all that long blond hair made her look like a princess.
“Sienna, this is everyone. Everyone, this is my girl, Sienna Roy.”
And just like that . . . I became Dustin Falco’s girl.
Present day . . .
DEWAYNE
I hung up the phone with Momma after finding out she had Micah with her. Sienna had needed to work overtime and she’d called Momma to see if she would mind getting him from his after-school day care. Momma had been tickled pink that she got to keep him this afternoon.
I had turned my truck to the salon, and I was parked out back beside Sienna’s car, waiting on her to get off work. We needed to talk, and I didn’t want to do it at her house where Micah could come home or my momma could see I was over there alone with Sienna. She’d asked me five times already why I had been over there Saturday morning. Lying to my mother wasn’t easy.
The back door opened and Hillary walked out. Shit. Not who I wanted to see. She looked at me and her eyes narrowed. Then she came my way. I hadn’t seen Hillary since I’d gotten out of her bed after a one-nighter. She’d been drinking. I’d been drinking. And she had a really damn good body.
My window was already rolled down when she reached it.
“Leave her alone, Falco. She’s a good girl. A sweet girl. And you”—she pointed at me—“ain’t something that girl can deal with. She doesn’t understand guys like you. I’ve watched her, and every man who walks into that place hits on her, and she ain’t got a clue. Even Gretchen’s clients can’t keep their eyes off her. She’s sweet. Too sweet. So crank this truck and get the hell out of here.”
Not what I had been expecting. She wasn’t out here to yell at me for running out on her after sex. She was warning me off Sienna. Interesting.
“She’s the mother of my nephew, so I can’t stay away from her. She’s family.”
Hillary’s eyes went wide. Apparently, Sienna hadn’t told them Micah was a Falco. Which was something that bothered me—I didn’t like Dustin’s boy not having his last name.
“Well, shit,” she muttered. “I didn’t know the kid was Dustin’s.”
I just nodded. The back door opened again, catching my attention, and Sienna stepped out. Her eyes immediately found my truck, and they shifted to Hillary at my door. Then she jerked her attention away from us and hurried across the parking lot to her beat-to-shit car.
“Move,” I told Hillary before I swung my door open and headed after Sienna.
“Sienna, wait,” I called out. She paused with her hand on the door handle. “I came here to see you,” I explained, as if I had been doing something wrong. Jesus, I’d only kissed her. If I was here seeing Hillary, it was would be perfectly fine. But for some reason it felt like I had been caught cheating.