UNDYING: A Bad Boy MMA Romance (Midwest Alphas) (Book 3) (24 page)

“She looks off.”

“Off how?”

“I don’t know.” He tilts his head to look around the black cap in the row ahead of us. “Sick or something.”

“She’s fine,” I tell him. “Just nervous is all.”

Shawn shrugs and gazes around. “This is going to take forever.”

I nod and glance around the stuffed auditorium. Shawn and I sit lost amid the sea of black caps and gowns of our graduating class. As I look around, I realize that I don’t recognize a single fucking face. Not one. It’s a little culture shocking. At Belle Academy, I knew the face and bio of every single person that walked across that stage (mostly because I had been
inside
of half of them) but now… I don’t know any of them. Except for Mandy Black. She sits on my right with her arms crossed about her chest.

“Hey, Mandy—” Shawn whispers across my lap. “Does Piper look sick to you?”

“No.”

It’s brief and direct. I glance over at her. Her big, brown eyes point straight ahead, focused on the speaker yammering away on the stage. Shawn slinks back into his chair when he realizes that’s all he’s going to get out of her. I’d feel worse for my good friend, but he kind of had this one coming.

Shawn and Mandy have spent more time apart than dating over the last year. Honestly, I expected them to be back together by this point, but Mandy has stubbornly put her foot down this time. She’s ready for something more serious, she told me herself, and Shawn just isn’t the serious type. Even now that we’re college graduates —
adults
more or less — I still can’t see him settling down for any reason.

Then again, I’m not so sure about myself settling down anymore either.

I look at Piper sitting on the stage and a smile catches my lips. Piper
fucking
Lynch. My lover, in every sense of the word. Sure, I’ve tossed the word
girlfriend
around a lot, but I don’t think it quite covers what she is to me.

Or
was
…

Don’t get me wrong. I love Piper with every piece of me, but things between us have changed recently. At first, it was nothing but secret hook-ups, dirty text messages, and fiery bliss. Now, after three years… it’s more or less the same, but as time passes, expectations grow, too. I think Piper’s happy with how things are, but I know our family sure as hell isn’t.

There was some serious judgment in the beginning. Piper and I are step-siblings, after all. It took some getting used to, but after a while, it was like old news. I thought that was what we wanted all along, for everyone to just chill out and let us
be
, but then I was pulled into my stepfather’s study last Christmas and spent an hour getting grilled about
my intentions
. I guess a father gets nervous when his only daughter dates the same man for a few consecutive years.

It’s not just Philip either. My mother began asking questions last summer after my father got remarried. That’s when our relationship jumped from
interesting happenstance
to
cosmic joke
.

My father married Piper’s mother in a small, private ceremony at his house. There were only five people there: My father, Penny, Piper, myself, and a judge. Afterward, my mother obsessed over just how
hilarious
it would be if Piper and I got hitched as well. After the joke caught on, it was on everybody’s lips.

So, where’s the ring?

School is almost over. Settling down yet?

Better find a good job to afford a house and put down some roots.

It makes me cringe every time. Piper isn’t the issue. I plan on her being in my life for a long time, no problems there. But the idea of
settling down
is a death sentence to me now. I can’t imagine myself that way. Husband, wife, kids, dog, and picket fences. It may have been plausible when I was younger, but now… that’s crazy talk. That’s boring. That’s…
ordinary
. Some men can look into the eyes of the women they love and see that life peaking back at them. I look into Piper’s eyes and I see…

I see her head leaning against the window, sleeping lightly as the train car shakes gently down the tracks. I see the sun setting on the horizon of a passing vineyard behind her. I see a one-way ticket to anywhere we want to go.

“I’d like to introduce this year’s Valedictorian, Ms. Piper Lynch!”

My eyes jump back on the stage. Before I can clap for her, I hear the loud whoops and hollers from the seats far behind us. I follow the voices and chuckle when I see my father and stepmother on their feet, waving their hands and whistling for her. Even my mother and Piper’s father are standing next to them in celebration of her. It’s strange to see the four of them being so friendly together after so many years of battles and feuds. But I guess that’s family for you.

“Thank you, Dean Rogers.”

Piper’s voice brings my attention back to the stage. I look up at her and a wave of nostalgia washes over me. Years ago, this was all that Piper was. It was an act, mostly, but no one knew that at the time. Piper seemingly lived for the spotlight and all the attention it brought her. Nowadays, she’s much more private and quiet. I like her better now.

Her lips curl with a quick smile as she gazes out at the students sitting ahead of her. I smile back at her, knowing that she probably has no idea where I am in the sea of black robes, but that’s fine. It’s been a long time since the days when I used to watch her, when I could see her but she couldn’t see me. Somehow, watching her sleep every night doesn’t feel the same as this.

Piper takes a deep breath and pauses as her eyes suddenly spot me. She smiles again, but this time, it strikes her eyes, the way it always does when she smiles just for me. We share a silent moment in time, gazing at each other, ignoring the other thousands of eyes watching her as well.

She finally looks away and flawlessly transitions into her speech.

An oddness takes hold of me. There’s something strange in the way she moves, something I can’t quite pin down.

Maybe Shawn’s right. She does look a little different.

***

“You okay, buddy?”

I turn around as my dad walks into the room. “No,” I mutter. I look out the window again and watch as the movers carry boxes into the moving truck one-by-one. “I am objectively not okay.”

He throws on a sympathetic face. “Oh, come on, Kai. It won’t be that bad.” I feel his hand slap against my shoulder. “You’re gonna get to live in a big mansion with a pool and a maid. It’ll be great.”

I slowly look at him and he quickly loses the fake smile. “Why can’t I just stay here?”

“I wish you could, Kai,” he says, “but judge says no. I have to do a lot of traveling over the next year for work and I can’t leave a minor home alone for weeks at a time.”

“Still…” I glance around the empty room. “I grew up here. I don’t want to leave.”

Dad traces the same pattern around the room with his eyes. “I know, but…” he sighs. “Sometimes, things don’t go exactly as planned. Life is gonna throw some curve balls at you. Right now, you and I… are just going to have to make the best of a few bad pitches.”

“Just doesn’t seem right is all.”

“And it’s not,” he says. “Listen, buddy…” He steps closer and throws his arm around my shoulder. “One of these days, you and I are going to look back and we’re going to laugh at this. I promise.”

“I highly doubt that, Dad.”

“I’m serious. That day is not today, but someday, it
will
be today. Okay?”

I nod, but I don’t believe a word of it. “All right.”

“In the meantime, I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing and you’re going to go live with your mother… and the man that’s fucking her.”

I cringe. “Jesus, Dad…”

“I’m sorry, Kai,” he says. “I’m a bit bitter. But hey — you’ll have Piper to hang out with. She’s… a nice girl.”

I chuckle and shake my head. “Yeah, right.”

“You’ve been friends forever. I’m sure you guys can bond over this.”

I stand up a little taller. Piper Lynch. Belle Academy Female #13.

Maybe there’s a silver lining to this after all.

Chapter 3

Piper

My father holds up his glass. “I’d like to propose a toast,” he says.

I roll my eyes and look around the table at everyone. A few years ago, if someone had told me that Kai and I would someday be sitting around the dinner table at my father’s house surrounded by the smiling faces of all of our happy parents, I would have told them to go fuck themselves. Nothing that’s come to pass so far has felt quite as surreal as this moment.

My mother sits to my right and directly next to her sits her husband, Kai’s father, Hawthorne Casablancas. My father sits next to Hawthorne and let me tell you, I still cringe every time I see the two of them within swinging distance of one another. And then there’s his wife, Ava, Kai’s mother. She and my mother have somehow let bygones be bygones and now, they’re even closer friends than they were before the affair began.

No, come to think of it,
surreal
doesn’t quite cover it.

Kai reaches for me underneath the table. We entwine our fingers together and when I glance at him, I can tell he’s thinking the same thought as I am.

What a fucked up family we have.

“To the happy graduates!” my father announces. “They have both worked so hard to get to where they are now and I can’t imagine there’s anyone in the world more proud of them than the folks at this table.”

“Damn right,” Hawthorne adds, raising his glass a little higher in his toast.

“To the happy graduates!” Everyone takes a sip from their glasses while I squeeze Kai’s fingers a little more.

“Thanks for doing all of this, by the way,” Kai says. “We really appreciate the work you guys put in to this.”

I nod. “Yes, this was great. Thank you.”

Ava gives a sweet smile. “It was our pleasure,” she says. “Although, I have to give credit to Penny. She brought back so many wonderful recipes from Europe. I wasn’t even sure where to begin.”

My mother chuckles. “If there’s one thing I miss the most, it’s
the food
. Right, Piper?”

“I salivate just thinking about it, honestly.” I give a quick scan of their faces. Every last one of them is smiling. It’s amazing how far we’ve come. Just a year ago, a mere mention of my six months in Europe brought the room to a stand-still. Not anymore. It’s just a part of our history. My father even
jokes
about it occasionally.

“I just can’t believe how much time has passed,” Hawthorne says. “Didn’t they
just
graduate from high school?”

“Oh, heaven’s no,” my mother says. “Philip and I
just
brought Piper home from the hospital.”

Ava shivers. “Don’t remind me. Poor little Kai spent five days in the NICU. Scariest days of my life.”

Kai sighs. “And here we go…” he whispers at me.

I chuckle softly, but stay silent to listen in.

Hawthorne waves a hand through the air. “He was
fine
,” he says. “A Casablancas man never gets sick.”

“That’s not true!” Ava laughs. “Kai was
always
sick,
always
crying.”

“Oh, that was all your genes then,” he jokes.

I glance at Kai as everyone laughs. He rolls his eyes.

“Well, at least he
acted
like a real baby,” my mother says. She points a quick finger at me. “This one never made a peep. Ever. Never cried. Never got sick. Didn’t speak a word until she was four years old. It was a constant battle to find out what the hell she wanted.”

My father laughs. “Her first words were,
‘Go away, Dad. I’m reading.’
”

I hear Kai laugh next to me and I dig a nail into his palm. He glares back at me with smiling eyes.

“And now,” Ava says, “look at them.”

All eyes fall on us and my hand instinctively falls from Kai’s grip. “Yeah…” I mutter. “Look at us.”

Ava leans forward in her chair. “What’s next for the two of you, huh?” she asks. “Let us in on your secret plans.”

Kai slinks backward a little bit before letting out an awkward chuckle. “No plans, really…” he says.