Anti-Stepbrother (37 page)

“What are you doing?”

Oh yeah. Kevin suddenly seemed all too alarmed.

“I’m calling in her friends.”

Once Avery was on her way, I sat back and waited. There was no way I would leave Summer with Kevin, not in this state.

I’d been wrong to question her before. I did trust her. I just didn’t trust him.

It was an hour later when everything came to light. Avery arrived, along with a few other friends, and they took Summer into the bathroom.

Thirty minutes after that, Avery came out. “She’s not making sense, but I think this is all about her mom.”

“Her what?”

“Her mom.”

“That doesn’t make sense. She never talks about her mom.”

“I think that’s the point. Something happened, and she snapped.” She glanced over her shoulder to where Kevin was sitting, two of our fraternity brothers keeping guard. I wasn’t sure if their purpose was to keep him there or to keep me from pummeling him.

Avery called over to him. “She wasn’t holding on to you. She thought you were her mom.”

“What’d you say to her?” I was across the room in a second. Brushing past the guys, I grabbed Kevin by the shirt and hauled him up.

“Nothing!” His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down. He looked toward the door, like he could bolt for it. “I swear. I just told her I had feelings for her. That’s all…” Then he slumped in my hands. “Oh.”

“Oh?!”

“Oh?” Avery was right there with me. Her hand found her hip. “Oh what, Kevin? What did you say?”

“Nothing.” He jerked up a shoulder, or tried to. I was still holding him. “I did mention her mom, but it wasn’t in a bad way.” He held his hands up, pleading. “Really. I didn’t mean to upset her. I just thought she was having a hard time because she didn’t want to hurt your feelings.”

“My feelings?” I growled.

“You know, because I told her how I felt. I didn’t know she was crying about her mom. I thought it was about being with me, like she’d made a mistake or something. I was trying to tell her everything would be all right.”

I wanted to do so much more than bodily harm, but I forced my hands to let go. He dropped to his feet, and I stepped back. I was going to rip this guy if I didn’t get out of here. Turning, I said to Avery, “Take care of her.”

“Where are you going?”

“Anywhere away from that guy.”

I ended up at my parents’ house, and Colton sat next to me. He handed me a beer, keeping a water for himself. Marcus came in and sat down. I hadn’t called him, but I assumed Avery had. Colton got up and came back with a second beer for his other brother.

Marcus leaned forward. “What do you want us to do to him?”

SUMMER

Caden…

A voice whispered his name in the back of my mind. Bits and pieces came back to me. Caden said he loved me, and I remembered going to see Kevin after that. Then the big fucking hole that I’d covered over since my mom’s passing ripped open last night, and there was no closing it again. I broke down. There was no other way to say it.

Summer Stoltz had taken a cruise to Insanity Sea, and now I was docked back on land. And I felt the shit. I was the shit. Shithead Summer—that was my new name. I groaned, catching my head in my hands. “Oh, no.”

“What?”

“He was here, wasn’t he?”

Avery was here with me. Shell. And I think Claudia, but I couldn’t bring myself to look. I still wasn’t a fan of the bitchy pit bull who never apologized for her wrongdoings. I sat on the floor of a bathroom. I guessed it was Kevin’s because of the towels with an embroidered K on them.

I scrambled up from the floor. “I have to go.”

“Wait. Where are you going?”

“He told me he loved me, and then I broke down. I have to make it right.”

I was out the door when I heard Avery ask behind me, “Kevin did?”

“He’s not here.”

The shed was empty, so I went looking for Caden in the house. I followed a guy to the kitchen and out to the backyard.

“What do you mean he’s not here?”

He dumped the bag of ice he’d been carrying into a cooler and shrugged. “I mean he’s not here. He took off for a bit.”

“Where’d he go?”

“Carl,” another guy yelled, sticking his head out the door. “Fill that up and just stay there. We’ve got the drinks coming. I need you to man the bar. Got it?”

“Got it.”

The guy at the door stared at me before he slipped back inside. I frowned. What had that been about? It didn’t matter. I needed to make everything better, explain my feelings. That’s what mattered.

I folded my arms over my chest. “We were talking.”

He frowned, glancing at me. He had to stay put to man the bar, so that meant I had him cornered.

I wasn’t above tapping my foot like a five year old. “Spill it.” Caden was their unofficial leader. They always knew where he was.

“Look, you should go talk to Phillip. He had front row seats for what went down.”

“So something
did
go down.” Victory flared up in me. “What happened?”

He narrowed his eyes. “You been to your stepbrother’s room yet?”

“No. Why would I?”

“So you don’t know he got kicked out?”

“I was in the bathroom for an hour.”

“Shit went down in that hour.”

I gazed around with new perspective. Carl was only manning one cooler. There were four others around the yard, along with a new bonfire pit and two tables getting set up for beer pong. A sick feeling began to develop deep in my gut, and I didn’t like it.

I asked, feeling faint, “Is Kevin here?”

“Nope.”

Caden wasn’t here.

Kevin wasn’t here.

A buzzing started in my head. “You said Phillip was there? When whatever happened?”

“Yep.”

I cleared my throat, my hands becoming sweaty. “Where’s Phillip?”

“He’s the one who just told me to stay here.”

“Lovely,” I murmured to myself. That guy didn’t like me. I had a feeling he wasn’t going to be too forthcoming.

Still, I headed back inside and asked the first guy I saw. “Where’s Phillip?”

“Downstairs.”

Oh, crap.

My knees grew weak, and my hands trembled as I made my way down the same stairs I’d been up not long ago.

I moved forward, the hallway suddenly looming. One room had a closed door, but the other two stood open. I couldn’t look away from my stepbrother’s room.

It was completely bare. Even the sheets had been stripped off the mattress. Two guys were moving around in there, one picking up garbage and the other vacuuming. They finished as I watched, then grabbed all the cleaning supplies and packed them away. They moved past me on their way out, and I gulped. Within moments they came back with new bedding and made Kevin’s old bed.

Avery, Claudia, and Shell came to stand in the bathroom doorway. One of the guys reached behind them and grabbed Kevin’s towels.

“What’s going on?” Avery asked me.

I had no idea. I shook my head.

“We’re done, Phillip,” the cleaning guys called.

“Good. Did you put condoms in there?”

One cursed. “I will now.” And he was off.

I was in shock. My knees knocked against each other as I turned to find myself face to face with the screen door guy.

I saw the hostility and rasped out, “What’d you say to Caden?”

He snorted, motioning behind me. “You can go, D. Thanks for getting that room done so quick.”

“Hey.” Claudia took off after him. I heard her asking as they went up the stairs, “What is going on?”

D nodded and nearly sprinted upstairs. I stepped forward, standing in Phillip’s doorway. He couldn’t shut the door in my face that way, and I reached out, bracing myself so I’d be ready if he tried.

“What happened?”

“Your stepbrother’s a piece of shit.”

“I’m aware,” I repeated. “What happened?”

I needed to know where Caden was. Badly. It was becoming imperative now.

“Caden called a house ultimatum.”

“Ultimatum? What does that mean?”

“Him or your stepbrother.” He snorted. “Take a big guess who we picked. Your stepbro’s out. We sent him packing as soon as the vote went through.”

“What?”

Avery pointed to the bathroom. “We were just in there. How did all this happen so quickly?”

Phillip shrugged. “Your boy decided. Called it in, and the house rallied real quick. That’s all I can say.”

“Where is Caden? I know you know.”

“You haven’t called him?”

I looked at my phone. There was a text from Kevin.
Call me! Got kicked out because of your boyfriend!
A second one from Sheila.
Did you talk to Kevin yet?
Then nothing. It was blank. No calls. The empty screen was like a knife plunged into my chest.

Caden had left me, like my mom did.

No. I pushed that fear away, stomping it down.

“Can I use your phone?” I didn’t know what was going on between Caden and me. He might not answer my call, but he would answer a call from one of his fraternity brothers.

“Why?”

“My phone’s not working.”

He snorted. “Since now?”

“Yes.” I dropped it and stomped a foot on it.
Fine, you fucker.
I held my hand out. “Let me make one call.”

He swore, but handed me his phone. “Fine, but I’m going to cover my own ass if he doesn’t want to hear from you.”

My hand closed around the phone like it was a life raft. “Deal.”

I dialed Caden. His voice came on the line. “What’s up?”

“Caden,” I started.

Phillip yelled over my shoulder, “I’m sorry. She took my phone. I’m trying to get it back now.” He reached for it, but I swatted his hand away. I shot him a dark look, and he held up both of his hands.

For good measure, I left. If I kept moving, the world wouldn’t crash down on me.

I went up the stairs and into the hallway. “Hey. It’s me. I didn’t know if you would answer my call.” I made one more turn, went down the hallway where I’d first met Caden, and out the side door.

“What are you doing on Phillip’s phone?”

“Ah. Fuck.” A large truck blocked my way. More guys were unloading it, taking kegs to the backyard.

“I think your house is having a party tonight.”

“That’s why you’re calling?”

“No.” The guys began taking the kegs past me to the backyard. I cupped my hand around the phone, lowering my voice. “I had to call. I broke down. I don’t know why—well, I think I do, but I know you saw that.”

“I saw you in another guy’s arms. Yes.”

I had to stop. Everything had to stop. This was it.

Closing my eyes, I took a breath. I heard the door open behind me. I didn’t know who was there. I didn’t look. Whether it was Phillip coming for his phone or Avery, or even Claudia, I held up a hand, hoping they’d stop. I needed this time, right now.

“I am in love with you.”

There it was. It was out there. I couldn’t take it back. I kept going, “Kevin said stupid stuff, but that’s Kevin. He’s stupid, and for some reason I broke down.” I paused. He wasn’t saying anything. “I think maybe I should do this in person—”

I considered that. Him standing in front of me, waiting, completely shut down as I poured out my heart. No. Now was good. I was going for now.