One Choice (Hogan Brothers 2)

“I’m coming,” she whispered.

Confusion swirled in her mind as they drove to school. Lys talked about prom coming up and how she wondered who would be crowned king and queen. The obvious answer was, of course, her and Brett.

Hayes’ mind was stuck on Levi, though. The look he gave her, the way he watched her. She couldn’t shake it. She was supposed to be kicking him out of her mind, but how was she expected to do that when he continued popping up?

It was official. Levi had become a damn stalker. He’d sat outside Hayes’ house for nearly an hour before she’d emerged. He’d watched her father leave then come back. Her friends pulled up. He knew he had to go, and meant to do so surreptitiously, but his body had other plans as his foot decided to go rogue and hit the gas pedal a little too hard, so his engine revved.

She knew immediately, too. Her entire body tensed up as she saw his car. Her step had faltered as she tried not to limp to her friend’s car. He wanted to swoop in and be her knight. Show her he wasn’t some arrogant dickhead. His problem was, he wasn’t a knight, and he was arrogant.

After following her to school, he went straight to the shop, intent on talking to Nox. He might have some advice on how to work through the shit floating around his mind.

It wasn’t too busy when he pulled in, so he went straight for the office knowing that’s where his brother would be.

“Hey, Levi,” Sophia greeted him, her smile big as she looked up from one of her books.

Walking over to her, he leaned over the counter to kiss her cheek. “How you doin’, pretty girl? Classes aren’t too hard, are they?” A quick glance at her book showed they didn’t look too bad.

“I’m good, Levi. Classes are fine.”

“Nox busy?”

“Nope, just doing some paperwork for an old customer.”

“Thanks, Soph.” He kissed her cheek again before walking into his brother’s office and closing the door.

“What’s up?” Nox asked without looking up from what he was doing.

“There’s this girl.” He figured he might as well go for broke.

“Not a shocker.” Nox finally looked at him.

“Shut up. She’s in high school– “

“Christ, Levi,” he interrupted.

“Would you listen to me?” Levi demanded, understanding why he had that reaction. “She’s eighteen, would have graduated, but she was in an accident of some kind that held that up.”

“This about that girl from the other day that exploded on you?”

He couldn’t exactly deny it. “Yeah, that was her friend. I had done something before I knew her age. Then I made her feel like shit, and I seem to keep on doing that. But I can’t shake her from my fucking head. She’s been planted there like a root, and she’s all I think about.” He rushed to explain. Nox had a huge grin on his face that only pissed Levi off. “What the fuck is so funny?” he snapped.

“Oh, nothing.” Levi could see his brother struggling to hold back his amusement.

He knew what Nox was getting at. The way he and Loch had teased their older brother about falling for Soph, and Nox promising he’d laugh when it happened to them and they were left clusterfucked. Well, for Levi, that time had come, and he was well and truly fucked.

“What’s the issue, Levi? You’ve never given a fuck before, why’s now so different?”

“I give a fuck about her. She puts on a good front, but I have the feeling someone talking about us—her being in school and me being older—I think she’ll take issue with that. It would hurt her.”

“How bad did you fuck things up with her?”

“In short?” Nox nodded. “Things got heated, then I pushed her away when I found out from the guy she was with that she was in high school.”

“So, you took some guy’s girl, made out with her…” Levi’s brow raised at the making out part. “Seriously?” Nox was shocked. “Okay, so he said she was in high school?”

/> “Uh, yeah.”

“Didn’t occur to you he was being a dick?”