Kingpin (Court University 2)

“Something smells damn good.” Fucker dipped his pinkie in the mashed potatoes, sampling with a pop in his mouth.

Billie growled at him. “Seriously?”

“Seriously, what?” He winked at her before tipping his chin at Dasha. “Sup, little Jay?”

His nickname for her and never ceased to shoot my sister’s cheeks up like ten degrees in color.

Forgetting about dessert and the cookbook completely, Dasha leaned over the counter at him. “Hey? You eating with us tonight?”

“Nah, I can’t.” Bouncing around, the asshole literally tasted everything in the room. As he reached an actual hand for the potatoes, Billie hit him with an oven mitt and that seemed to keep the garbage disposal at bay. He chuckled. “Got some business to take care of. Otherwise, I would.”

“Business?” Curious, my eyes flashed up from my computer screen. “What kind of business?”

I felt like I hadn’t seen him in forever, which kind of meant something considering finals were around the corner. The only place he should be was either here or at the library.

He definitely wasn’t going there in a nice jacket and a pair of his best Jordans.

Catching me looking, Niko waved a hand. “Nothing much. Just meeting some friends.”

Friends must have been real important. Again, we were coming up toward the end of school, and that’d always been priority. It was the most important—for both of us. Family didn’t get fed off partying, but jobs after school with degrees did. As far as Niko, the stakes were even higher, his mom being sick and all that.

Like I hadn’t said anything at all, Niko fisted a biscuit before pointing at Dasha. “Save me some leftovers, little Jay?”

“Of course.” My sister actually sighed, all doe-eyed and dreamy in her gaze, and my fucker best friend winked at her. I told him about entertaining her fascination with him. She clearly had a crush, and he shouldn’t be giving in to it.

Ultimately, I let him off the hook since he was headed out, but I would have to bring up how I hadn’t seen him around lately. I mean, neither of us were homebodies or anything but when it came to finals and shit, we didn’t play around.

With him gone, the girls ended up making berry cobbler for dessert, and after we ate, I did them both a favor and washed the dishes. This was something they should definitely document considering I didn’t even do my own fucking dishes. I had someone come a couple times a week to do it, a cleaning service.

While I did that, Billie helped Dasha with her homework. I called the school back home about her fleeing town, and they agreed to let her do e-learning until she got back. Since it was her senior year, she hadn’t had much to do anyway, and my sister rocked in school like I did. I was just finishing up the dishes and going back to my own assignments when Billie returned to the kitchen.

She had her arms stretched above her head, her little navel exposed with her stretch, and I couldn’t fight a smile in her direction.

“My sister tire you out?” I asked, passive about it.

Her shoulder lifted as she took a barstool. “Nah, I can handle her. She’s a good kid.”

“When she wants to be.”

“I can hear you, asshole!” came Dasha’s voice from the living room. “Like literally, I’m in the next room here.”

“Yeah,” I tossed. “And you should be doing your homework.”

“Basically done!”

“Well, get it all done.”

A groan and Billie’s chuckle beside me. The laughter made her face red, a huge flush all over her cheeks, and I hated I wanted to kiss it. That I wanted to kiss her. We really shouldn’t be doing this.

And yet here we were.

“You don’t have to stick around, you know?” I stated, my last ditch effort here. Weak, I even heard that in my voice. I wanted her to stay, as long as she liked.

Her lips parted as she wet them, another shrug and that bare shoulder. Christ, if I didn’t want to push that sweater up, make her warm. She looked at me. “I know and before, I didn’t mind helping. You needed the help.”

“I can handle my sister.”

“I didn’t say with her.”