Brooke's POV

    I woke up to the sound of a door slamming. "B, I need your help," I heard Mya say.

    "Ugh, why do you hate me so much, Mya," I told her in a groggy voice.

    "Stop being such a drama queen and get up."

    "I told you I was going to take a nap."

    "You told me that before the game started. That was almost four hours ago. Naps are only supposed to be like 30 minutes, an hour the most."

    I put my pillow over my head and hoped that would make her decide to leave me alone. Next thing I knew all my pillows and blankets got pulled away from me, leaving me defenseless to the bright sun streaming through my, now, curtain-less window hitting me directly on the face.

    "Fine, fine, fine." I sat up. "I'm up. What do you need, you sleep hating monster."

    "Theo's throwing a party at his friend's house and he needs our help setting up."

    I thought about turning her down but then I remembered all the times she was such a blessing to have in my life. I could give up a couple more hours of sleep for her. And plus, I like parties as much as the next person. Hell, maybe she'll even let me sleep in tomorrow.

    "Fine. But I better be invited to this party."

    "Girl, you would've been invited even if you weren't helping out."

    "Okay. Let me clean myself up a little then we can go."

• • • • • • • • • •

    We pulled up to a big two story house in the middle of a very nice suburban neighborhood. "Um, does your boyfriend really think this is a good place to throw a college party," I asked her.

    "Well, it's only supposed to be a small thing."

    "It's a party being thrown by a football player. A very popular football player, might I add. Word's bond to get out. And his small thing, will definitely turn into something huge."

    "Apparently, he has this 'big plan'," she said, air quoting the words big plan.  "All of the lucky winners who get to come to this party are supposed to meet at the park that's two blocks away from our dorms. Theo has like ten freshmen from the team working the party. Some of them are in charge of pick ups and drops off, a couple of them will man the bar and the bigger ones are supposed to watch the door and guard the stairs."

    "Guard the stairs?"

    "Cayden doesn't want anyone knowing this is his house or going upstairs."

    "Hold on a fucking minute! This is Cayden fucking Jourdan's house," I gasped, pointing at the house. "As in the quarterback?"

    "Yup," she replied, as if it were no big deal.

    I began to shake my head at her. "You're so fucking lucky I put my eyebrows on or I would've had to fight you."

    We got out of the car and made our way to the house.  Inside, Theo was already taking little girl's toys up the stairs. That's when it finally dawned on me. This was Cayleigh's house, too.

    Where was she? I hope Cayden wasn't dumb enough to have a college party at his house with his daughter being right upstairs. Is that why he doesn't want people going upstairs?

    What am I talking about? Of course he wouldn't. Cayleigh wouldn't be the way she is if she was raised by someone so irresponsible.

    "Hey, Jake," Mya said to a guy walking toward us. She then turned to look at me. "Remember when I said that Theo has a friend from Hawaii. This is him. Jake, Brooke. Brooke, Jake."

    "Hey," he smiled. "Your tats pretty cherreh. Does it have a meaning?" He pointed to the Polynesian tribal tattoo that I had on my thigh.

    "Thanks. It's about my family," I answered. "Where's yours?" Getting a Polynesian tribal tattoo was a very common things for Polynesians to get. Hell, I know people that aren't Polynesian who has one.

    "I don't got one. My mom told me if I ever got a tattoo, she would beat my ass."

    "Seriously?" It's literally in our history and culture to get tattooed.

    "Yeah, she's not Polynesian." It's like he was reading my mind.

    "Oh, that makes sense."

    "Okay, I literally got lost in your guys conversation after you said the word cher-ray," Mya said making Jake and I laugh.

    I try my best to talk proper English here since people normally have to decipher what I'm saying when I speak how I do back home. So, I'm not going to lie, being able to  casually talk to Jake without having to form sentences in my head before speaking them feels so good right now.

    "I basically said that I thought her tattoo was cool," Jake replied, trying to help Mya understand our slang. But by the looks of it, he wasn't really doing a good job.

    She shook her head in confusion. "You just confused me even more," she responded, causing me to laugh at her once again.

    "Hey, baby," Theo shouted as he walked up to our small group. He wrapped his arms around her waist from behind and kissed her on the check.

    "I'm low key, real jealous of your guys relationship," I told them. "You guys are just too cute together." They sort of reminded me of how happy Maddox and I were. Before I found out how much an asshole he is, of course.

    "Don't be," Theo joked. "This is all for show. She's actually a lot to put up with." Everyone started to laugh, including Mya.

    "Let me guess, she disturbs your sleep, too?"

    "Oh, shut it. You guys love me," Mya said still laughing. Yeah, we do!

    Just then, a loud voice boomed from the front door. "Alright, people. Let's go. I've got an hour until I have to leave to go to my parents' house." I looked towards the door to see who was speaking and was faced with the father of the little girl who practically owns my heart walking towards us.

    Cayden Jourdan.

    God damn, homeboy is FINE AF! His hazel eyes, which were more green than brown, were both piercing and captivating at the same time. His jawline was so sharp, I bet it would literally cut me if I ever got the pleasure in running my hand against it. And his body — was just yum! It perfectly filled up his shirt, which was doing a wonderful job sculpting his arm muscles and abs. He's literally the hottest guy I've ever seen, and believe me, I've seen some hot guys in my life.

    When his eyes landed on mine, one corner of his lips slowly started to lift up. "Hey, I'm Cayden," he said extending his hand.

    "Brooke," I replied while extending out mine. "Nice to meet you."A tingly feeling shot up my arm when our hands touched, causing me to quickly draw mine back. If he felt it too, he didn't show it at all.

    I watched as his eyes scanned my body from head to toe then back up again, all while licking his bottom lip. I now knew what it felt like to be seen as someone's next meal. His eyes stopped on mine and smirked, not caring that me, along with three other people, watched him body check me.

    Then, as if no longer being interested in me, he turned his attention back to the group and started throwing out commands. "Okay, first, we need to take all my personal items upstairs. Photos, trophies, drawings, toys. Anything. If you think it can lead to someone figuring out I live here, take it upstairs. Then I want to put some tables and chairs out in the garage so everyone's not just squashed in the living room and patio. Move anything breakable, especially glass. That shit a pain in the ass to get out of carpet." He finished by clapping his hands, "Okay. Let's move it!"

    "Dude, we're setting up for a party, not playing in the Super Bowl," Jake teases. "Chill out." For fucking real!

    Mya and I thought it was best to start packing up the pictures since that was a dead giveaway on whose house this was. We walked over to the glass shelf that was implanted into the wall. There were tons of photos of Cayleigh that ranged from when she was born to now.

    The first picture that caught my eye was a picture of Cayden holding a new born Cayleigh in the hospital. He looked exactly the same, except in the picture, he's a little younger with drug store bought blonde hair, and a lot less muscle. The thing that caught my eye, was how he was looking at her with so much love. The gleam in his eye, the soft smile on his face, the gentleness of his hands that were underneath her head and body. If someone ever wondered what true love looked like, I would show them that picture.

    A picture really is worth a thousand words.

    "That's my daughter," a voice came from behind me. I turned to face Cayden as he took the picture out of my hands. "This was the best day of my life," he smiled while staring at little baby Cayleigh.

    "Yeah, I can tell," I said. "The photographer really did a great job capturing all the emotion that was going on in that moment."

    He grabbed a more recent photo of Cayleigh and him. It was from last week on Halloween. I know because she came to school in that exact same cheerleading costume with her hair in two of the cutest pigtails. It was just adorable how they had matching costumes, her as a cheerleader and him wearing his football jersey. They were standing in their driveway with the goofiest smiles on. And by the looks of that full pumpkin bucket, I'm assuming she just finished trick or treating.

    "This is her now. Her name's Cayleigh," he told me. "She's four years old."

    "Yeah, I know," I replied.

    "How," he panicked. "Shit, please, don't tell me you're one of those crazy stalker chicks."

    I laughed at his serious face. "No. Fortunately for you, I'm not one of those crazy stalker chicks. I work at TAP."

    "No shit," Theo said scaring the shit out of me. He was now standing next to us, holding a box that was going to be used to safely store the picture frames. "Small world, huh?"

    "Wait. Are you the only Brooke who works at TAP," Cayden asked.

    "Yeah. I'm about 97 percent sure of that," I answered.

    "That's a very specific number, B," Theo said. "But if it's true, then I'm about 97 percent sure that you're the Miss Brooke that Cayleigh's always talking about."

    "Really," I questioned with the biggest smile that ever graced my face. Oh my goodness. That little girl. I fall more and more in love with her every day.

    "It's true," Cayden told me. "Everyday she'll come home and tell everyone that she had the mostest amazingest time ever with Miss Brooke after school," he said mimicking Cayleigh.

    "She told me this past Sunday that she was sad that you couldn't go with her to Chuck E. Cheese with her and Cayd's mom," Mya chimed in.

    "She's the little girl who you guys go on dates with on Sundays," I asked. Mya nodded at me. Great. Now I'm even more jealous of her. "You know the little girl I always tell you about is her, right?"

    "Yeah," she nodded. "There's a couple of stories you've told me that she's told me, too. So I kind of just made the assumption that Cayleigh was her."

    "Why didn't you say anything?"

    "I thought there was some confidentiality thing. That's why you never used her name. You always called her the little girl." Mya was right. That's exactly why I never used Cayleigh's name.

    "She's such an amazing kid," I told Cayden. "Don't tell anyone I said this, but she's definitely my favorite."

    "See, I told you guys teachers have favorites," Theo shouted.

    "Well, I'm only assistant," I shrugged.

    "That's close enough."

    I rolled my eyes. "So, I'm guessing, since he's the dad," I said pointing to Cayden. "You're Uncle Thee?"

    "You bet your ass it does." I couldn't help it. I started laughing uncontrollably. "What's so funny? What'd the rugrat say about me?"

    I shook my head and pointed at Mya. "So that makes you, Papaya?"

    "Hey, shut up," she subtly shoved me. "I actually love that she calls me that. It's the cutest thing ever."

    "How'd you even get that nickname," I asked her still giggling. "You don't even like papayas."

    "This asshole," she said pointing to Theo. "He called me Mya Papaya the first Sunday I went out with them and she just started calling me that ever since."

    Aww. That Cayleigh. She's just the cutest thing ever.