Sentinel Boys

Chapter 9

Cameron

Ella is silent the rest of the drive. I can see her in the mirror, she's clinging to Oliver's hand like she's afraid he's going to leave her because I'm an asshole. I can feel Oliver and Dallas shooting unhappy looks to me. I seem to mess up with this girl every single day. I really do want to protect her. I've seen her with Oliver lately and she seems as enamored with him and he is with her. What if there was a chance she accepted him into her network? He has a serious chance, but not if he blows it by losing his job.

I've seen her with Dallas too and she reciprocates his feelings, but I don't think he would be a viable option for her network. She's so young and healthy, she would want a male she could reproduce with. It seems he's stopped caring about the rules though. He seems to care for her so much that he would risk his livelihood for stolen moments with her, and that scares me even more then Oliver's position.

She hates me. I can feel it when she looks at me. I've done nothing to gain her favor so I don't know why I'm surprised, but it still fucking stings. Her green eyes haunt me everywhere I go and I find myself asking my brothers to tell me stories about their time with her. They gave me advice after our visit with the fucking paint ball avengers last night and it seems I threw that advice away because she's upset with me again.

We arrive at the restaurant and her family is already seated. We sit down and Ella's big smile comes back for her sisters and Carter. She loves them, I can see that. She hasn't told us why her sister raised her, or where her parents are, and we didn't feel like it was our place to ask. As awful as it is to say I hope they are dead. I hope they didn't abandon their three beautiful daughters for no reason. I'm happy Ella has this family, but I can't hope but think I'd really like to be a part of it too.

"Hey man you look stiff, you okay?" It's Liam who asks me. Pretending to be a caring guy...that's laughable.

"Yeah did a crazy core workout last night, just a little sore." I give him a big smile and his creepy grin only widens.

"How about you? Any good ab work outs lately?" He shakes his head,

"No, but my twin did one last night and he's hella sore too." Ahh so that's who I kicked. I bet that shit hurt. I look to Sebastian and give him a big smile. These fuckers were almost shot last night, but I got the message loud and clear.. don't fuck with Ella.

"You guys share work out videos or something?" It's Cassidy who chimes in.

"Something like that." Carter says quickly and gives us all looks of warning. I bet his wife wouldn't be too happy to hear about his night.

"Any blood?" Mia asks me with an eager look in her eyes. I shake my head no quickly because I'm pretty sure Carter just told us to shut the fuck up. She pouts,

"Dammit!" She pulls a $20 from her purse and hands it to Carter who has a wide eyed look on his face.

"What the hell did you do?" Cassidy looks between Carter and Mia's males.

"Nothing." Comes a chorus of responses from all seven of us.

Breakfast is so.. normal. That's the best word for it. Everyone is smiling and laughing. There are jokes thrown around and they reminisce on memories from Ella and Mia's past. I love it. I'm quiet, but I'm soaking in every moment because this is a feeling I haven't felt before. This must be what it's like to have a family.

I find myself praying Ella takes Oliver. I pray with all of my heart that she gives him this life. He would fit in well with them. He jokes easily with the males and the females coo over him. He deserves this. Dallas and I seem like flies on the wall here. We don't seem to fit in as easily as the other males do. I think we are closer in age to Carter and Cassidy. They engage us often, but Carter has a weary look when it comes to me. I don't blame him.

We return from breakfast and allow Oliver to walk her to her room. I think Dallas and I see the same thing, a chance for our brother to have more then the life we were given. We need to help foster their relationship, while still watching them closely. There's a fine line of boundaries here that Oliver needs to step near closely or his chance could be blown. My head is full of these thoughts when Oliver comes into our room 45 minutes after dropping Ella off. His face is pure joy and I'm instantly terrified. What did he do?

"What did you do?" Dallas echos my thoughts.

"Nothing." Oliver squeaks. He only squeaks when he's nervous. Fuck. He clears his throat.

"We kissed. Well she kissed me. She initiated it I promise!" He's holding his hands up in a placating gesture but Dallas slams him into the closed door behind him and I drop my head into my hands.

"Dallas let him go. Oliver tell me everything."

"I walked her up and was planning to leave as soon as she got in the door. She invited me in and I couldn't say no. I'm serious I tried, but she's too pretty, her pretty powers outweighed my brain powers. We talked for a while and she told me about her parents and how her Dad left when her Mom was sick and then her Mom died so that's why Cassidy raised her. We talked about my childhood and the group home. Everything and nothing."

I gesture for him to continue.

"I was on her couch, like the furthest away from her bed as possible. She sat on my lap and said 'she would regret not doing this at least once' and then kissed me. I didn't initiate it I swear to you. She was on my lap kissing me before I realized what was happening and then I couldn't stop it and I didn't want too. She ended up realizing I wasn't uhh hard and stopped the kiss to ask me about it. I was so fucking embarrassed I jumped up and ran back here."

I groan and Dallas punches the wall.

"I don't understand why you guys are so fucking mad. She likes me. She actually likes me. She likes you too, but both of you are too fucking stupid to see that. What if she chooses me? She could chose me it's not such a far fetched idea, is it?"

"No Oliver, it's not!" I raise my voice at him. "That's why we are trying to fucking protect you!" Dallas picks up while I get myself under control,

"She does like you and she could possibly chose you for a network, which is why you need to slow the fuck down and think this through. What if you lost your job because of this? What if you were caught kissing her or holding her hand and were fired for fraternization? How would you support her then Oliver?"

He looks shocked, and then he looks thoughtful while he realizes what we're saying.

"I could ruin my chances with her. If I rush into this now and get in trouble then I could never have a future with her. I would need to provide for her if she chose me, but I wouldn't be able to do that if I fucked it up now. She wouldn't want a disgraced male who's been fired from his job." He's repeating it more to himself then us, like he finally understands.

I nod my head.

"Yes, Oliver. So be smart. Give her space so you're not tempted and be smart for her and for your possible future together."