Page 31 of The Sweetest Cruelty: Hudson (A Sawyer Brothers Story #1)

“Hey, I haven’t seen you at school lately. You good?” Harper questioned with her nose scrunched up.

“Yeah. I’m OK. Just felt a little off colour,” I replied. It wasn’t a complete lie, but I didn’t go into any detail.

She nodded, a brief look of concern on her face before she shook that off. “Sorry, how rude am I? Molly, this is Nick. Nick, this is Molly.”

Her introduction broke the ice, and we shook hands. I wondered if this was her boyfriend. He was older than her, but not massively so. Maybe the same age as me?

“Love the accent. British right?” Nick said with a boyish grin.

“Right,” I agreed with a smile.

The car they were lounging against was an Audi Q5 and expensive. Nick didn’t look old enough to drive.

“Nice wheels,” I complimented him.

“Yeah, it’s my brothers.”

I was then fired with questions, and it wasn’t so bad. It felt like someone was interested in me again. No one had talked to me much at school since Hudson had given me that thumbs down in the lunch room .

As we started to chat about the arcade inside Langs, I could tell from how they kept glancing at each other that Nick and Harper had a thing. The adoration in her eyes was clear. Was it rude to ask if they were going out?

Harper was explaining that Nick went to school on the other side of the city and how Harbor Heights and St Andrew’s kids didn’t get along.

She likened her and Nick to Romeo and Juliet, which made me smile, although she did say that in theory, as ‘we’re not together,’ which told me they weren’t a couple. Yet. She wanted to be.

There was a loud click, and then the driver's door of the Audi opened, making me jump. I watched as smoke filtered out of the car and into the air.

And then he appeared, a tall boy with dark hair and silver blue eyes. He had that, I do what the fuck I like , bad boy vibe and my breathing faltered.

Whoever he was, he was good-looking, and my heart fluttered in my chest. He wasn’t a high school boy. I would say maybe early twenties. His hair was short at the sides and longer on the top. It was messy, which suggested he ran his hand through it a lot.

Jumping down from the car, he closed the door behind him. Those steely eyes tangled with mine as he dropped his cigarette onto the floor and stubbed it out with his boot.

And then he looked at me like I was his next meal. It didn’t bother me as I was used to that reaction from men.

“I would have said something about you being a sight for sore eyes, but I’ve never really got what the hell that meant,” he threw out there as casually as anything.

With a head tilt, I answered truthfully. “Me neither.”

“British?” He declared with a knowing smile on his face.

I grinned and pretended to assess him before firing back. “American?”

A huge smile covered his face, highlighting how pretty he was. “Wow, you’re better at this than I am—name’s Xander,” he added, holding out his hand.

I shook it whilst replying. “Molly.”

“Sorry for hiding in the car, I was just messaging my father. Well, and finishing my smoke. I wasn’t sat in there doing any crazy stalker shit.”

“It’s fine, I was just surprised there was anyone in there. With the windows being so dark, I couldn’t see you.”

“I know. It’s so no one can see inside and steal my secrets,” he said with a grin .

And then the banter flowed. At first, we all started to talk about school, touching on the rift between The Heights and St Andrew’s before changing to discuss my old school in the UK.

Eventually, Nick and Harper started talking about parties and a mutual friend of theirs who couldn’t take their drink.

Xander and I ended up leaning against his car and talking about his father’s nightclub in the city.

As I explained how I wasn’t the type to go clubbing, Xander watched me intently. It didn’t give me the butterflies like Hudson’s stare, but something was causing chaos inside me.

We must have been standing talking for at least half an hour, and I started to feel cold. I checked the time on my phone before pushing it back into my shorts.

“Well, Molly. Are you going to give me your number?” Xander suddenly said.

Releasing a low chuckle, I raised my eyebrows and pointed out. “Goodness, that was fast. It’s a bit soon for me to be handing out my phone number.”

Uncurling his arms, Xander stroked his hand across his jaw. “But how will I plan our wedding if I don’t have it?”

“Smooth,” I chuckled.

“Made you smile though. And something tells me, you haven’t done much of that lately.” Wow, I was either very transparent, or he was good at reading people.

“Oh, you’re good.”

His eyes scanned my features. “And you’re incredibly sweet. How old are you?”

I paused, wondering whether to ask him to guess. “Sixteen.”

“Damn,” he responded with a click of his fingers.

“Nearly seventeen,” I added quickly. I didn’t like the fact that I might have put him off.

He paused, his lips twisting before he said. “Now that I can work with.”

“What do you mean?” I suddenly felt like a silly schoolgirl. The creases at the corners of his eyes suggested he was much more street-wise than I. Like he’d lived longer than his years.

Xander shrugged. “You’re south of jail bait, so that’ll do me. My heart couldn’t take it if I had to walk away.

“Well, at least it means you have some moral compass,” I added, casting a glance towards Harper, who had just smacked Nick on the arm for teasing her.

“Oh, I wouldn’t say that.” Before I could question him, he carried out. “So, what brought you here? And I don’t mean the shitty parking lot of Lang’s, I mean to the States. ”

He was clearly a bad boy, and we had just met, but I felt so comfortable that I just blurted the words.

“My mother passed away a few weeks ago, and so I now live here with my dad.” I caught Harper glance towards me, having heard.

She didn’t say anything, though, as she was in the middle of a conversation with Nick.

Sympathy shone through his eyes. A genuine reaction, I would say. “Shit. I’m sorry. That blows. It also answers that sadness I see in your eyes.”

It was odd, I felt like I’d known him ages. “You seemed to have a talent for reading people.”

Xander dragged a hand through his messy hair. “Not really. I just recognise that look, Molly. I lost my mother, too. In a pile-up on the freeway. They had to cut her out of the car, but she didn’t make it. It’s been a few years now but it still stings like a motherfucker.”

A silence followed, and my tongue felt dry. To think that this boy had similarly lost his mother made me feel a slight connection. But were we sharing too much too soon?

Xander took a step towards me and pushed a lock of hair behind my ear with his fingers. “And now I’ve made you uncomfortable.”

Shaking my hair back, I pursed my lips before responding. “No, sorry, it’s just… I haven’t really spoken about it to anyone, and with all due respect, you’re a stranger. And it’s getting late.”

“Then stay a while and hang out with me. Then we won’t be strangers.”

“My dad’s making tea, er, sorry, dinner.”

He gave me the toothiest smile. “That’s fine. You can say tea. I spent some time in the UK, although on the North side. Yorkshire, I think it was, dodgy accent that I couldn’t understand.”

“Yes. We have friends who live in Sheffield. Well, at least, my mum did.” At the mention of my mother, a twinge of sadness gripped my chest.

“Hey, chin up,” he soothed, threading a finger under my chin and raising my face to his.

He was so good-looking. Xander reminded me of the T-birds in the musical Grease.

Talk about an American cliché. His shoulders filled out his leather jacket, and he wore a black T-shirt and black ripped jeans.

Although his shoulders were broad, he was lean, like Nick’s build, and I guessed they might be brothers.

The others chipped in here and there, but the banter flowed well. The conversation switched to the year ahead and what parties were happening .

I found out Xander was twenty and so younger than I had thought, and he was Nick’s older brother (as I suspected). Nick was a senior at St Andrew’s.

I asked Xander if he went to college, and he said that he worked for his father. I didn’t ask too many details so as not to seem nosy, but it must have been a lucrative job if he drove such a fancy car.

It wasn’t until my phone beeped in my pocket that I lifted it and saw the time.

As I explained that I had to go, Xander said. “Well, I enjoyed hanging with you, Molly Miller. We should do it again sometime.”

“I’d like that.”

“Shit!” Harper hissed, staring at her phone. We all turned and looked in her direction.

“What’s up?” Nick asked.

Raising her head, she replied. “Nothing, it’s just my brother. He’s on his way to get me.”

After saying bye to the others and heading back the way I came, I started to pick up the pace, worried about being late for dinner.

A horn sounded, startling me, and I stepped back as a Jeep swung in through the gates into Lang's car park. The window was down, and I could see the hulk that I knew as Phoenix in the driving seat. He was alone.

His eyes locked on mine, and I turned away. His expression suggested he had a lot on his mind. There were deep lines formed across his strong brow.

As his tyres screeched against the concrete, I jogged across the road and turned to watch the car pull up next to where Harper was standing. My eyes flew over the scene across the parking lot.

Anticipation bubbled inside me as I watched Harper stomp around Phoenix’s car and climb into the passenger side.

What. The. Hell?

Harper had said her brother was picking her up? And then I put all the strands together.

Harper was Phoenix’s sister? I couldn’t imagine they were blood related, maybe she, too, had been fostered by the Sawyer lady. And then that next thought hit me like a punch in the face. That meant Harper was also the sister of Reed and Micah and, of course, Hudson.

My thoughts travelled back to that first day in the library.

“I’ll speak to my sister, Harper. ”

BOOM!

At that point, I wasn’t sure whether it was a good thing or a bad thing to befriend Hudson’s sister. Maybe she could put a good word in for me?

And maybe not.

My intention of walking and getting fresh air had become much more than that. I had gotten to know Harper, found out she was related to the Sawyer boys and had met a few new faces.

So why did I suddenly feel so guilty? Like I had been involved in something I shouldn’t have.

That thought remained with me for most of the night.