Anti-Stepbrother (13 page)

I didn’t have Caden’s phone number so I tried Kevin. No answer, so pulling on my big-girl panties, I marched the eight blocks to their frat house.

Okay, I didn’t march. I
started out
marching. I was dragging myself when I finally got to their block. My calves were tight and burning.

Note to self: I needed to work out more—or
at all
. This was embarrassing for a sports medicine major.

I walked up their front sidewalk and rang the bell.

I wasn’t sure who to ask for, Caden or Kevin. For some reason, the sympathy card wasn’t there for my stepbrother. With the shit he’d been doing, he probably had it coming. I knew Caden wouldn’t kick me out this time, but as I waited for someone to answer, I still felt some nerves in my gut.

…and I kept waiting.

And waiting…

I frowned, knocking again, this time harder.

“It’s a frat.” A girl spoke up behind me, reaching around me to open the door. She held a box in her hand and stepped inside. “Just go in. No one’s going to answer the door unless there’s a cop on the other side.”

That made complete sense.

I followed her in, and sure enough, the living room was full of guys playing a video game. Across the hall two other guys stood around the pool table. The girl yelled out a greeting. The guys gave her distracted hellos before she disappeared down the hallway and up the stairs.

I stood in the foyer.

And no one cared.

The pool game finished, and both guys walked past me, into the kitchen. The video game ended, so the guys rotated. One of the players who’d finished sat down on the couch to watch, and the other started to walk past me.

“Hey!” I stood in front of him.

“Hey.” He looked me up and down. A second, and much warmer, “Hey” came out, and he stepped closer to me. “Who are you here for?”

I scratched my chin.
Kevin or Caden?
“Is Kevin Matthews here?”

“Oh.” He sounded disappointed, and he pointed to the basement. “If he’s not in his room down there, who knows. He got his ass kicked last night. You’re the new chick already?”

“New chick?”

“He and the old one split yesterday, in a nasty way. He got his ass handed to him last night, so if you’re going down for a quick poke, expect to be on top.”

“I’m not here for that.” I frowned. “And not with him.”

“Oh?” Interest bloomed in his eyes.

“Not with you either.” Then, screw it. “Is Caden here?”

His shoulders dropped completely. “Him too?”

“No.” Everyone just assumed sex all the time. Was that normal? “We’re kind of friends, I think.”

“I don’t know if Matthews is here, but I know Caden isn’t.”

“Do you know when he’ll be back?”

He headed down the hallway, shaking his head. “Caden doesn’t really answer to anyone.”

Kevin’s door was slightly ajar, and I pushed it open to see him putting clothes into a box. With his back to me, he was flinging shirts, pants, socks, and shoes across the room. I wasn’t sure what to say. I could tell he was upset, but this wasn’t a situation where he would want my opinion.
Support
. That was my purpose here. I was here in the family capacity, because that’s where our relationship needed to go.

“Hey.”

He whipped around, instantly tense, but when he saw me his shoulders dropped back down, loosening. “Oh. It’s you. Hey.” He turned back and grabbed a pair of shoes, tossing them into the box on the floor. “What are you doing here?”

I circled around him. “Stop.”

He had two massive black eyes, half his face was swollen and bruised, and he had a cracked lip. I checked his knuckles. They were split open as well, dried blood covering them. “When did you clean these last?”

He snorted, tucking them back by his side. “Right. It’d be nice if someone helped me with that.”

“No one did?” I sat on his bed as he went back to his closet, pulling out more clothes. “What are you doing?”

“What do you think? I’m moving out. This fucking fraternity isn’t a brotherhood. Loyalty, my ass. They all chose him.”

“They kicked you out?”

“No.” He whipped a sandal at the box, but it hit the side and fell to the floor. “I’m leaving. I’m not staying here, not when they take his side over mine.”

“Okay.” Pressure built behind my temples. I felt a headache forming. “What happened? Avery told me Caden beat you up last night?”

“Avery?” He shifted back to me, going still.

I gulped. “Yeah.”

“She hates Maggie. You know that, right?”

I was confused. “No, they’re friends. But wait—are you still with Maggie?”

“Why wouldn’t I be? She’s my girlfriend now.”

My mind whirled. “Didn’t you get in a fight because of Maggie?”

“What?”

“Wait. Back up. What happened yesterday? I saw you in the parking lot. Then you took off, and the next time I saw you, you were kissing Maggie behind a palm tree at the country club.”

“You were there?”

I nodded.
No thanks to you.
“Caden and Marcus were talking, and I was on my way to tell you to stop, you were going to get caught, but then—” I caught myself. I’d been about to tell him Avery stopped me. “I got distracted. I had to find the bathroom.”

“What then?”

He remained uncharacteristically still.

Alarms were going off in my head. I had to tread lightly, but I didn’t know why. “I, uh, ended up just getting a ride home.”

“That was it?”

“Uh-huh.” I blinked a few times. “Why? Did something happen at the country club?”

He regarded me for another beat, then he tossed a pair of socks into the box. “You could say that again. Caden ratted us out. My own fraternity brother. Can you believe that? What a piece of shit.”

“Yeah,” I remarked. “Your fraternity brother told his
real
brother…that sucks.”

Kevin collapsed in his desk chair. He bent forward to rest his elbows on his knees and cradled his head. “I know, but whatever. It happened. Yes, Maggie and I were making out, and yes, we should’ve been more discreet, but Caden Banks is a huge asshole.”

I almost couldn’t take it. I had to actually sit on my hands. Kevin was a dipshit. My sarcasm went over his head.
Support, Summer.
Support. You’re here to support him, whether you agree with what he’s doing or not. S-u-p-p-o-r-t.

I had to clamp down on my tongue to keep from saying something snotty. I was not in a supportive mood.

I was trying, though. “Well, I mean, now you don’t have to hide anymore. Right?”

“Yeah.” He looked up, and his face relaxed into a grin. “You’re right. That is one good thing. And after tonight, I won’t have to live with these dickwads anymore.”

I eyed the box. “Where are you going to live?”

“Maggie’s parents. She said I could move in there. She’s been alternating between the house and her dorm room, but since I’ll be there, she’ll move back full time.” He perked up. “It’s a pretty big place, too. I’ve been there a few times. It’ll be nice, you know? A break from school political bullshit.”

“Yeah.” I had no other words. I couldn’t wrap my head around what was going on.

He had been sleeping with someone else’s girlfriend. Her boyfriend was the real brother to one of his fraternity brothers, and Kevin was acting like the victim. My bullshit meter was off the charts, probably along with my blood pressure.

So all I said was, “Yeah.”

He frowned, a line forming in the middle of his forehead. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

He motioned around his room. “For coming here. For checking on me.” His eyes softened, matching his smile and tone. “For caring.”

My heart flip-flopped. There he was. There was the Kevin I’d crushed on for years and fallen in love with, the one I’d slept with three and a half months ago. I instantly scowled. Brother. He was my stepbrother. Enough with the annoying feelings, and whatever was underneath them.

“Oh, no problem.” My voice was raspy. I could feel the big black hole my feelings for him were covering up. Why was I so scared to feel whatever that was? “I wanted to be sure you were okay after I heard about the fight.”

“That was bullshit too. Marcus caught us yesterday, and there was a whole huge scene, but no fighting. Maggie went home with him. I didn’t hear anything about it again until late last night. I was in my room, minding my own business, when Marcus burst into the house. Maggie dumped him, and he couldn’t take it that I got his girl out from underneath him.”

“Did he hit you?”

“No. He just shoved me into the wall and was yelling. That was it. Everything was fine and calming down when Caden showed up. As soon as he stepped inside, I don’t know what happened, but Marcus went crazy. He was yelling things about a horse or something, and those two looked ready to battle it out. I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Those two were duking it out—”

“Hitting each other?”

“—yelling, and then suddenly Caden turned and popped me in the mouth. I didn’t do anything. I was just standing here, watching. That was it.”

Kevin began talking faster, louder. “I fought back. I got him right in the face. I’m sure that dick had to go to the hospital. I mean, I would’ve, if I’d been hit as hard as I got him.”

I was pretty sure his bruises turned another shade while he was talking.

“And these bastards, guys who are supposed to be my brothers, took his side.” He shoved the chair back, surging to his feet and pointing to his chest. “They told me to get out of the room. Me.
Me
! He coldcocked me, and I was supposed to leave the room.”

Feeling some unease, I shifted on the bed, sliding my hands out from under my legs. I rested them next to me, pressing them into the cover.

“What happened after that?” My mouth was dry.

He flung a hand up, his middle finger extended, to point at the door. “I came in here and called Maggie. She picked me up, and I stayed with her last night. This is the first time I’ve been back. I don’t even know if the guys know I’m down here.” He looked me up and down. “Did they tell you I was down here?”

“The guy I asked didn’t know.”

He rolled his eyes, cursing under his breath. “Figures. They’re always going to take Caden’s side. It’s like he walks on water around these parts. I’m sick of it. Hey!” An idea came to him. His eyes suddenly focused right on me. “Are you busy this weekend?”

I glanced away before answering. “Why?”

“The guys are going to the football game. I’m going to grab the rest of my stuff when they’re gone. I could use all the help I can get.”

I was at a loss for words.

“Really?” That was it. That was all I could manage.

No. Wait. I added, “Huh.”

“Maggie said she’d ask some of her friends, and I’ll call our parents. I’m sure your dad would come up and help.” He inspected the box and then opened his second closet door. More boxes were stacked in there. “I don’t have that much. Desk, bed, and dresser all stay here.” He kicked at one of the boxes. “I’ll need more of these. Maybe I won’t need your dad after all, but then again, you’re all girls. You won’t be able to lift these. You think you could call your dad for me?”

My eyebrows arched, and I had to swallow a ball of disbelief. “You want me to call and have him come four hours to carry some boxes?”

“It’d give you two time to bond. I’m sure he’d want to take you out to dinner.”

My mouth fell open. I couldn’t even.

“He could stay over,” Kevin continued. “He’d have to get a hotel room. I wouldn’t feel comfortable asking Maggie if he could stay at her parents’ house. That wouldn’t be right.”

He was—I didn’t know what he was. Considerate, sensitive, rational—those were all things he was
not
. My anger grew more and more as he kept talking. I had to get out of here. If I didn’t, I was going to blow up, and I didn’t want to say something I’d regret later.

I stood and gestured to the door. “I’m going to head out. I just wanted to check on you. I see you’re still alive.”

I meant to leave after that, but he caught me. He touched my arm, pulled me in for a hug. I stiffened, but he didn’t seem to mind. He buried his head in the crook of my neck.

“Thank you. I mean it. Thank you for coming. It means a lot.” He let go, leaning back but still holding me in his arms.

My heart would’ve soared not long ago.

He smiled down at me. “I’ve taken you for granted. I’m sorry, Summer. I really am.”

Standing there, in his arms again, and with those words carrying a note of sincerity—my heart still did another somersault, and I hated myself.

I stepped back until his hands fell to his side. “I’ll see you later, Kevin.”

He waved. “See you. Don’t forget to call your dad. Thanks!”

He shouted the last word at me as I hurried down the hall. Once through the basement door, I leaned back against it.

I closed my eyes and cursed.
Fucking hell.

“So you
do
have feelings for him?”

I recognized Caden’s voice, and my heart froze.

Caden looked delicious.

That was my first thought as I stood there, unsure what to say. Jerking away from the basement door, I tried to speak, but my jaw had ceased working for some reason.