The Carrero Heart - Beginning (Friends to Lovers)
Chapter 1: 1

Chapter 1: 1

Arrick Carrero

Arrick glanced down at his phone lighting up in the center console of his car and sighed as Sophie'sname flashed on screen. That air of irritation and anxiety mingling together and pushing solidly to thesurface. He was running late as it was, which he hated like crazy, but he knew for a fact that whatevershe wanted he would give in to. Sophie just had a way of getting under his skin, even when she wasbeing as infuriating as in the past months, and try as he might, he had no willpower when it came toher. Hitting his dash, that connected to his phone, her voice rang around the interior of the car as soonas he pressed it.

“Arrick … Arry? Are you there?” She was slurring badly, most likely way too drunk again, and hecouldn’t do anything but sigh and reel in the urge to be mad at her, picturing her in his mind’s eye andgetting stressed. He hated knowing she was out there in that state; calling him meant she was probablyalone and those sad act, so-called friends of hers, had yet again ditched her. His temper rose internally,heart rate rising, and muscles started to tense.

“Yes, Sophs, I’m here. Where are you this time?” He knew why she was calling, she needed picking upagain and as he checked his dash for the time, he cursed quietly.

Natasha would be waiting for him, it was another ten minutes to her apartment, and he could guaranteeSophie would be in the opposite direction, back in the city. Once again, he would have to choosebetween his girlfriend and Sophie, and they all knew he would always go where she needed him,without hesitation.

Lately, Natasha and he had argued way more about how much time he spent running after Sophie, buthe couldn’t help it. He felt responsible for her, after years of being the one person she turned to, hecared about her so damned much that the thought of her being drunk and vulnerable out theresomewhere, was making him sweat. Sophie was a weakness, one that he had never truly understood.

Putting it down to years of seeing her vulnerable and in need of being taken care of, and him being aprotective person who cared a little too much about what happened to her. She was the closest thinghe had to a sister, and he always figured that’s what this was.

“I’m at Randy’s club alone, Arry … I lost everyone and I can’t replace my bag.” She sounded so young andvulnerable, sucker punching him in the gut, winding him around her little finger effortlessly. All it tookwas a tearful tone and he could picture those Bambi eyes, all huge and soft blue like a wounded kitten,and that perfectly pouted mouth trembling, ready to cry. He gritted his teeth as the stab of anxiety hithim hard. Sophie was young and beautiful, a little too beautiful if he was being honest, and a primetarget for assholes and creeps who tended to seek her out. She just attracted trouble without eventrying.

Randy’s club was a twenty-minute drive back, if he picked Natasha up first there would be a catfight inhere for sure. Despite the numerous times he had them together, neither seemed to warm to the other.He also didn’t like the thought of leaving Sophie in that god-awful place longer than he had to andpicking Tash up first would do just that. He had no energy for another ‘Tasha-Sophs’ scene and wasalready U-turning his car in the street, back to her without hesitation. His hands already making thechoice even when he’d still been mulling it over.

Natasha would understand, she would moan at first and get upset, but ultimately, she had to acceptthat Sophie would always be a part of his life, and he would never stop taking care of her. She was hisbest friend; someone he had spent six years being a rock for when she had faced reliving the trauma ofher own childhood at the hands of an abusive parent.

Sophie was a part of him, a bond formed over years of helping her replace her feet in her new life in hernew adoptive family’s home, and in a safe environment. They had clicked, somewhere between lookingat him like she didn’t trust him and wanting him to fall into a crater, and the first time she allowed him tobuy her a milkshake without acting like she wanted to punch him in the balls.

“I’m on my way, Sophs, go back in the club and stay there until I come get you.” He sounded pissed,hell, he was pissed, even if he was trying not to show it. She was getting too damned frequent withthese situations she put herself in, and she no longer even listened to him, or to reason anymore. It justmade him sick to his stomach to think how many close calls or dumb situations she’d gotten herself intothat she didn’t call him for.

Turning nineteen last year had somehow seemed to flick a switch in her head that she should live wildand party like Leila, her sister, used to do. It was simpler when she was just a kid, hanging out andeasy to guide, being happy to just chill and watch a movie, rather than go out getting drunk and laid.And that part was something he just didn’t allow himself to think about at all; Sophie and sex were twotopics he never wanted to link in any way, shape or form, and he sure as hell didn’t want to meet any ofthe assholes she dated.

It was a hell of a lot easier when she was a big-eyed fifteen-year-old who followed him aroundobediently and looked up to him for advice, hanging on his every word. He missed that girl like crazy;he often thought about her and longed for the days when the two of them used to be able to just chill,sofa surf and share junk food, with that easy effortless quality time together.

Natasha wasn’t one for any of that; she hated most of the stuff that Sophie and he loved, and the factshe didn’t see what he did in her made things more strained. There was no common ground betweenthe two women.

He knew he wasn’t around as much for Sophie as he had been in the past because of it, and lately, allhe did was pick her up from bars and clubs and take her home to recover when she was a mess. Theybarely talked about anything at all when he saw her.

He was too old for this shit now. He was turning twenty-six in a few months, and the last thing heneeded anymore was all this drama, every week of his life with her. He missed the Sophie who used to

be happy to go out with him, go away together or just hang out doing normal stuff, like jet skiing,playing Xbox, snowboarding, watching foreign cartoons and vegetating, or any of the other pastimesthey had shared in the past few years. He missed the small things, before she started dating assholes,and living on the edge of wild. He just missed her, endlessly.

What he wouldn’t give for a sober call, and that sweet voice on the other end just asking him how hisday was, instead of crying for another rescue. He had no clue how they had even got here.

“Are you mad at me?” Her crestfallen tone and the start of tears made him instantly guilty, that ache inhis stomach and pang in his chest. Sophie wasn’t much of a crier unless she thought Arrick was pissedat her and he never understood why she fell to pieces when he was mad. She sure as hell didn’t give ashit if any of her adoptive family got pissed at her, especially not her sister or Mom, whom she hadbeen closest to. To his recollection, she didn’t really get upset when her own friends did, but thenSophie had found keeping friends outside of the family hard, especially with her past and all thedemons it held. She didn’t really trust people enough to form real bonds, so he knew how important itwas that he stayed in her life, even when she was behaving like a train wreck on a path to destruction.Not that he had a choice; life had a way of feeling empty when he didn’t hear from her for weeks, andthankfully he had only endured that a couple of times.

“No, Mimmo, I’m not mad, Sophie. Go inside, stay warm and wait for me.” He tried to soften his tone,soothing her drunken ruffled feathers gently, in a bid to coerce her to do as he wanted. When she waslike this, she was an overgrown child he needed to manage carefully; that internal spitfire of hers readyto overreact and bite, even if it only hurt herself.

Sophie was someone who was easily pushed into the defensive, closing up and lashing out at thosewho mattered, when trying to protect herself, and being drunk escalated it tenfold. She had alwaysbeen that way and very few had his skill at knowing how to handle her. Too stubborn to think logically orrealize she was cutting off her nose to spite her face sometimes.

He upped his speed, putting his new car through its paces to get to her a little quicker as the tension inhis body escalated. It was late, almost ten p.m. and the city was aglow with the usual never-endingillumination of New York, as his sleek steel gray Mercedes slid through the night effortlessly. He wasbiting his lip as his eyes roamed the traffic impatiently, checking his mirrors as he shifted in his seat.