Page 111 of From Drummer to Gamer

I think I knew a little too well why he wanted her alone, and I didn’t like it one bit. I didn’t know how Sierra didn’t catch onto that fucker’s blatant interest in her.

“Again?” she asked, narrowing her eyes at him, to which he gave a casual shrug.

I had no idea what he wanted to prove at this point when it was clear that she was with me. Maybe because he feels like a sore loser, who lost gold after years of no hard work.

“She’s tired. We’d like to go back home if you don’t mind,” I pressed the words with veiled caution just so he could get it through his thick fucking skull that he’d lost whatever chance he had with her.

His furious eyes snapped to me, but like a coward, he shifted them back to her. “Please, Si,” he muttered.

I tried not to let my white-knuckled grip hurl across his pearly whites when Sierra reluctantly nodded. “I’ll be back in a few,” she whispered and advanced toward him. His gaze softened as he led her to the same corner where they had spoken privately last week.

Anger wasn’t an emotion I was well acquainted with. I preferred to be calm and rational and logical, yet this situation was making me feel anything but that.

It was a tricky, tricky state to be in because I knew he was going to be in her life for a long time, and I knew from the way they interacted that they deeply respected and admired each other. They knew each other’s moves like the back of their hand.

That wild thought made me pause.

I wasn’t one to give in to doubts, but something about their dynamics made me question whether maybe Sierra would’ve chosen him if he’d made his move and confessed.

Would she have?

They were both around the same age and were well suited and liked the same things. If I hadn’t come into her life, or if he had taken the chance, would they have been together now?

A sudden flare of uncertainty hit me like a dozen concrete slabs slung on top of my head.

Would Sierra have liked me?

Even now, does she like me or is she only interested because she idolized the version of me for many years? Maybe inside her head, she was confusing those feelings for something real.

But even then, I wouldn’t care. I wasn’t letting her go. I would show up as the man she deserved till my last dying breath.

Lines creased my forehead as my eyes dragged to them. I couldn’t hear them through the gusts of spring air, but it looked like they were in a heated argument.

It took everything in me not to storm up there and give him my two cents.

But it didn’t last long. Sierra fired something back to which he flushed, nodding as he ran a hand through his hair, and Sierra offered him a small smile and gave him a quick hug and dashed toward me, dejected.

Her eyes glowed when they met mine, but her upper lip was fixed with a downward tilt.

She only did that when she was truly upset.

And I hated it when anyone made my firecracker upset.

I suddenly had an insistent urge to rearrange that fucker’s face.

“You okay?” I asked, cradling her cheeks with my big hands.

She nodded, mustering a fake smile.

The same way she did when her mother upset her.

I knew Victoria had her reasons, but I hated the way she treated her that day. Sierra was a soft soul, and I hated anyone or anything that upset her. Her mother certainly tried the hardest with or without knowing. I had to sit on the edge of my seat to control myself from talking some sense into her and I wanted Jen to shake her for how she spoke to her daughter.

I only stayed quiet because I knew underneath all that, Sierra terribly loved and respected her mother, and so did Victoria, but the way she was showing it hurt my girl and, in turn, made me a raging man.

Nothing was embarrassing or simple about my beautiful girl.

She was so bright and colorful.