Page 69 of Rise Above

Rise Above

“Oh, baby. I want to meet her,” his mom said. She

sounded happy, kind.

Talon’s dark blue eyes met mine. “I’m not ready to

share yet.” Talon sent me a smile. It lit up his blue eyes, crinkling them at the corners.

“Bullshit. What? You think if she sees your family,

she’ll find out you have hotter brothers?” I really wished I could see who was talking.

I snorted at his words though. TJ was clearly the

best looking of the bunch, even if I hadn’t met the others. He had to be. The man was literally the most attractive man I’ve ever seen. Plus, he was covered in muscles and tattoos. He literally made my mouth water. I wanted to bite him. The fear loosened something in my chest as something else seemed to warm me.

“Was that her?” Again, that was clearly his mother. Talon sighed. “Yes. Y’all know I broke my wrist,

right? Can we maybe focus on that?”

“Dude, it’s not your first break or injury. However,

you haven’t been near a woman since Melody pulled her shit.”

His face turned red. “Jesus.” Talon rubbed a hand

down his face. “New topic, please.”

“Ah, does she not know about your ex?” The voices

were hard to distinguish from. His brothers all sounded eerily similar.

“Okay bye!” He clicked off Facetime. Talon’s eyes

met mine. “Sorry about that, Aife.”

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“They’re cute, Talon. You seem really fond of

them. Y’all truly love each other.”

Standing up, he pulled me into a hug. “You sound

surprised. Is your family not like that?” He pressed his face into my hair.

Before I could answer, a knock sounded at my door.

It was probably the food. Untangling myself from the giant man, I brought the burgers in. We fell into silence as I plated the food and prepared his medications. It was a little crazy to me that this professional athlete was in my home, and I was taking care of him. How was this my life? We still had a lot to learn about each other.

Talon took the meds from my hand and quickly

devoured them before diving into his food. He was like a starved child, eating like he hadn’t had food in years. Mustard and ketchup dribbled down his chin. I was pretty sure he didn’t notice or care. Talon was just so focused on his cheeseburger, he couldn’t focus on anything else. Every now and then, he would let out a little moan. That noise was doing weird things to me.

“You gonna eat, darling?”