Anti-Stepbrother (27 page)

Avery and her friends weren’t ecstatic to find the enemy in home territory, but once I told Avery there was no new girl and explained the new Kevin, they slowly warmed up to the idea. Avery began coming around after the first night. The rest took a few more days and Claudia joined the next week, a few days before the big road trip. Except Shell. She wasn’t allowed because she began flirting with Kevin within five minutes of being around him. She was banned from any event that involved my stepbrother.

“Kevin, are you going this weekend?” one of the girls asked from the couch.

Kevin and I hadn’t discussed the road trip.

As I looked down at my lap, I could feel his gaze on me as he answered, “Uh, I’m not sure.”

Avery asked, “You’re back in the frat house, right?”

“Yeah.”

I could hear caution in his voice.

“Then you should go. Why wouldn’t you?”

“Is that your personal approval?” He sounded like he was joking. “You guys used to hate me. Now you’d be okay hanging out with me over an entire weekend?”

“Well…” Avery coughed, clearing her throat. “I mean, you’re trying to change. Who are we to judge that? You know?”

“Thank you for that, but I really don’t think it’s up to me whether I go or not.”

I felt all the attention on me then, and I looked up. Yep. Four pairs of eyes were looking right at me. Avery. Claudia. Two of their friends. The only one not looking was Kevin, and I knew he was trying to be nice. A twinge of guilt flared up.

“You should come,” I said.

He shifted, turning to look at me. “You sure?”

The girls didn’t know about my feelings for Caden, but Kevin did. My neck was stiff as I nodded. “Yeah. I think you should come.”

“Well, fuck. This weekend just got a lot more interesting,” Claudia said, shifting back in the desk chair. “Marcus, Caden, and now Matthews. Dude, if you smart off to either of the brothers, I’m not wading in for your defense. I’m clarifying that off the bat.”

Kevin’s dimples formed, but his lips didn’t move as he held back a grin. “Thanks for the warning.”

“The more you know, Kev. The more you know.”

Avery’s eyebrows furrowed together, and she kept glancing at me. Then the girl who’d brought up the weekend plans in the first place said, “He’s not with Maggie anymore, so why would it even be a problem?”

I winced. There was no reason. I had feelings for Caden. Kevin was my stepbrother. Yes, there were lingering issues between Marcus and Kevin, but—oh, hell. I was lying to myself. I’d been avoiding Caden for two weeks, and it was only partly because of my feelings for him. The other part of it was Kevin. I knew Caden wouldn’t have been happy about my spending time with him, even though it was about strengthening my family relationship with Kevin.

“Um…” Kevin’s voice was soft. “You’re right. It wouldn’t matter anymore, unless Maggie’s going too.”

Claudia snorted. “No way. She’s not invited. The only person who still talks to her in here is Avery.”

“Hey,” Avery said. “She’s friends with
all
my high school friends. There’s history there. It’s really hard for me to walk away from—”

“We know.” Claudia cut her off. “I’m not giving you shit. I hope you’ll be as forgiving with me if I ever mess up like that.”

Avery frowned. “Thanks, Claudia. I appreciate that.”

Claudia snapped her fingers and pointed at Avery. “That’s what friends are for.”

Kevin smirked. “Forgiveness.”

Claudia shrugged, sending him a sly smile. “Appreciation.”

“AH! No. Right there.”

Claudia’s head snapped around to the other girl on the couch. She’d been quiet almost the entire time, so I kept forgetting her name, but pointed at Claudia now. “You were flirting with him. Stop flirting.”

“I was not.”

Avery looked at everyone. “What? I missed it.”

“She was totally flirting. I saw that little smile you sent him. All seductive-like.”

“I wasn’t.” Claudia said to Kevin, “I wasn’t flirting. Tell her.”

Kevin didn’t say anything, looking to me instead.

Well, crappers. I knew where this was going. Claudia scared me.

He raised an eyebrow. “Were you watching?”

Claudia turned to me, waiting too.

I groaned, covering my face with my hands. “Don’t put me in the middle of this.”

“I wasn’t flirting!”

Kevin snorted. “Right.”

“I wasn’t.”

The quiet friend threw her hands in the air. “Even the guy is admitting to it. ’Fess up, Claudia. It’s okay if you admit it.”

“That’s all bullshit.” Claudia’s shoulders stiffened. “Kevin, you know I didn’t mean anything by that.”

He leaned back and spread his legs out. “Uh, pretty sure that same smile was why we hooked up in the first place.”

Everyone went still after that, and I heard Avery mutter under her breath, “Oh, no.”

“Wait.” Their first friend snapped to attention as she looked from Kevin to Claudia and back again. “You two hooked up?”

Kevin shot Claudia a look. “That wasn’t known?”

“Nope.” She made a grumbling sound in her throat. “Thanks for that.”

“Oops.” He sent me an apologetic look. “Did you know?”

“I—” was so fucking busted. I felt Avery’s attention at the same time Claudia looked at me. I had one second to cover my ass, and Avery’s. I feigned surprise and shook my head. “I shouldn’t be surprised, but I had no idea.”

Avery muttered next to me, “Seriously?”

Claudia snorted. “Don’t ever do theatre, Summer. You suck at it.” She gave Avery a scorching look before heading to the door. “Thanks for sharing that private information, which I told you not to tell anyone.”

Avery jumped to her feet. “You didn’t like her in the beginning. I thought it would help smooth the way.”

“It did.” Claudia yanked my door open. “It smoothed the way for me to not hang out with you again.” She left, letting the door slam shut behind her.

Kevin smiled, looking relaxed and cheerful. “I just had an epiphany.”

“What?” the second friend asked.

“This is why I like girls so much. You guys are way more entertaining than guys.”

“What do you mean?”

He shrugged. “Guys are all about sports, sex, or beer. Girls are about everything else. That kind of dramatic exit would never happen with guys. If it did, there’d be a beat down involved, but nothing like this. No wonder I date so much. I gravitate more toward girls in general. I’m a straight guy, with this face.” He gestured to himself. “No wonder I have girlfriends all the time.”

He stood, smoothing out his jeans and shirt. “Thank you, Summer. I’d been thinking I was messed up, but I’m not. I just like girls, a lot.”

“So are you coming this weekend?” The question came from Avery.

“Nah.” Kevin glanced at me. “I think it’d just cause problems for this one.” He bent and collected his bag, putting his notebooks and textbooks back into it. “You take off tomorrow, don’t you?”

I nodded.

He threw his bag over his shoulder. “Let’s catch up when you come back. I want to hear how it went.”

Avery groaned, collapsing on the bed. “Claudia is going to be so pissed at me.”

The first friend laughed. “She already is.”

Avery gave her a dark look. “I mean for a long time. She’s going to be pissed for a loooong time. What am I going to do?”

“She’ll get over it. Claudia’s just mad because now we all know she should’ve been honest with us in the first place.”

The second friend chimed in. “Yeah. Shell had no idea about Claudia’s past with Kevin. She should’ve been upfront about it, unless it happened afterward. If that happened…” She fell silent as her eyes widened. “Shit.”

The first friend shared a look with her. “Claudia broke the girl code.”

“Now, we don’t know—” Avery paled. “She didn’t know Shell that well when it happened.”

The first friend frowned in fierce disapproval. “Shit’s going to hit the fan when Shell finds out. You don’t have to worry about Claudia. She’s going to be clamoring for your support in no time. She’s got some damn explaining to do.”

The two left, leaving Avery behind, and a tear fell down her cheek. “They’re wrong. Claudia will just leave the group. What do I do, Summer?”

I shook my head. I could pat her arm, give her a hug, utter some soothing words, but I was supposed to be traveling with Caden tomorrow. I’d been avoiding him for too long. I was in a doghouse of my own.

“I have no idea.”

It was after midnight when someone knocked softly on my door.

I was still up, doing last-minute packing, and I opened the door to find a girl I didn’t know. She wore an oversized North River University sweatshirt over black leggings, her hair in a messy bun with a pencil stuck through the middle of it.

“Hi.” She held up a hand. “You don’t know me, but I work the front desk, and a guy is downstairs asking to talk to you.”

“Oh.” I frowned. “Do you know who it is?”

She shrugged. “No clue. I asked him, but I already forgot. I’m studying. Finals and all. Do you want me to tell him to take a hike?”

“Uh.” It could be Caden. “No. I’ll come down.”

She started back, but said over her shoulder, “Guys can be in the downstairs lobby all the time, but he can’t come up here.”

“I know.”

“I’m just letting you know because I don’t want to have to report you and deal with all that paperwork. I have a final in two days. I’ll be pissed if you take away from my studying.”

“Well, okay then.” After grabbing my room key and phone, I shut the door behind me and headed down after her. “Note to self, the midnight desk clerk is kind of a bitch.”

When I got down there and saw her back behind the desk, she had her head buried in a psychopharmacology book. I changed my mind. Just the name of her class stressed me out.

No guy waited next to the desk, and I checked the other front lobby across from her desk. No one was there either, so I went downstairs.

Someone was studying a world map, but I didn’t see anyone else around the downstairs lobby that could be Caden. “Hello?”

I hadn’t checked the computer room. He could’ve been in there… But then the map guy turned around, and I recognized Diego.

I stopped short. “Hey.” Ice plunged into my veins.

The normally loud, happy, and vivacious Diego was not the guy in front of me. He had bags under his eyes and no spark in them either.

He rubbed his hands together. “Hey. Uh, I wasn’t sure if this was appropriate or not.”

“It’s fine.” I frowned. “What’s up?”

It was Caden. My heart raced. I knew it was Caden.

My voice dropped an octave. “Is he okay?”

“I think so, but I didn’t know who else to call.” He kept glancing away.

“It’s okay. Just tell me what it is.”

Please be okay. Please be okay.

“Caden was at the bar tonight when he got a call—”

“From who?”

He shook his head. “He didn’t say, but I know it’s about his brother.”

Marcus?

“Colton. He’s in the hospital.”

Oh. My frown deepened. Oh! “He’s at the hospital?”

“I know there’s another brother, but I don’t know his phone number. You’re the only person Caden’s brought to the bar, and I remembered that one girl said she was in the same dorm as you. She kept talking about you that night after you guys left, so the name was burned in my memory.” He grimaced, laughing softly. “I had the worst hangover the next morning with that girl’s voice on repeat—”

I’d stopped listening. I grabbed his arm, stopping him in mid-sentence. “Thank you, Diego.”

His hesitation slid away. His eyes warmed, and his hand covered mine. “I knew it was the right thing to come here. I told the girl your name. I didn’t know your last name, but she finally said she’d go see if you were even still awake. It took me ten minutes of arguing with her. I came down here because I didn’t want to risk getting thrown out.”

I nodded. “Yeah.”

My insides clenched. Caden was hurting.

I started for the stairs. “I need to go.”

And when I got outside, I remembered I didn’t have a car.

Diego had followed me out. “I can give you a ride.”

I didn’t feel relief, thankful, or even grateful. I should’ve felt all of those things, said something to indicate how much I appreciated that, but nothing else mattered in that moment. Caden mattered. That was it.

All my usual niceties left me. Even my weird quirks disappeared, and I only uttered, “Yes, please.”

I just had to get to him.