The Lyon's Cub Caitlin (Lyon The Next Generation 1)

I guess from what she said that her dad was still fighting against Caitlin leaving for college a year early. She hadn’t said anything to me about it in our last couple of calls, only that her mom was going to talk to him, so I’m holding out hope that all goes well this time.

She’s been so excited about prom, it’s every high school girl’s dream I guess. And since I’d purposely missed mine I too was looking forward to making that memory with her.

Of course she’d told me I could accept any one of the many invites I’d received from the girls at my new school but I’m no fool. I’d never hurt my girl like that no matter how much she said she understood.

She was just mad at her dad for not letting her go with me and going through one of her spells where she was afraid that I’d cheat on her. So I spent that whole night on Facetime with her so she’d know that I never wanted to share anything that important with anyone else. All my landmarks belong to her.

As the phone went to the home screen my baby’s face flashed into view. I stared down at her image, taking in her features, missing her more than I ever thought possible. Each day, no, each second away from her has been torture and it’s already been more than a year since we last parted.

“Oh baby!” I rubbed my thumb over her face beneath the screen. Thinking that she too was feeling the same made it even harder for me. I can’t stand the thought of her hurting or sad, drives me up the damn wall.

I wanted to call her right this second, but I know the rules only too well. Colton Lyon’s rules are nothing to screw around with. I know very well that one wrong move on my part can do more harm than good. So I put my phone away and got down to reading to wile away the hours until it was time to call her.

The reward if we wait until after she’s done her homework and spent some time with her family, is that we get to stay on the phone as long as we want to, which is what we do every night without fail.

I felt my excitement grow because in a few short months the semester would be over and I’d be seeing her again soon. The past year that had felt so long was finally coming to an end. Now I have to find a way to convince her dad to let me have her.

It was two days later as I was getting back from my last class of the day that my phone rang. There was no number in the readout, no name either, which I found strange. And though I should let such calls go to voicemail, my instincts told me that I needed to answer; so I did. “Hello, this is Todd.”

“Todd, I got your number from Catalina.” I stopped in my tracks and looked down at the phone in surprise. I’d all but forgotten about that conversation in light of everything else I had going on.

“Oh yeah, she said someone was going to call. Who are you again?” I’m pretty sure he’s one of their new uncles, but I’ m not that well acquainted with any of them for all that Caitlin has told me about them from time to time.

“The name is Mancini, I see you’re at my old alma mater, that means you’re smart because I can’t see where your dad paid for you to get in. I also see that you’re a model student who gained the attention of the faculty your first year; good job.”

“How do you…?”

“That’s not important right now, I just wanted to touch base since I made a promise. I’ll be in touch very soon.” He hung up the phone in my ear. “Mancini, Mancini, which one is he now?” I shook my head and stepped into my room.

In the last year or so Caitlin has been filling me in on the people I met at her home over the holidays. All the strange men that I’d given the side eye until I got the lay of the land and realized they were all married or close to it.

From the little snippets I picked up I knew they were more than just friends of the family and it only took one look to know they were all made of the same stuff as her dad, hard, tough as nails bad-asses that you never want to cross.

HANK

Lyon’s probably going to kill me but I’m doing this for him in a roundabout way. I tapped my fingers on the polished wood of the desk in my home office as I looked out at the New York skyline. For the past few months since coming back from the desert with Lyon and the others I’ve had something cooking in my brain.