Reason and Romance (River Valley Book 1) (2 page)

Pressure swelled up in her throat as hot tears burned behind her eyelids. God, this was a horrible nightmare. She was stuck in the desert with no way out.

“How do you like it here, Adrian?” Alex said.

Her gaze cut to him sideways. The question was a verbal slap, and he had to know it. How dare he ask her such a question? She hated it here, she hated him, and she hated his mother. She would
not
embarrass herself by crying.

Granted, he sounded civil, but when she recalled the way he’d looked at her in the airport, that did it.

“Funny, I thought you’d drive a red one,” she said aloud.

“What? My car?”

She shrugged a shoulder deliberately. Anything was better than talking about home or Arizona. “Well, you’re already compensating, so why not advertise it?”

There was a slight pause, so slight that she almost thought she’d imagined it, but he laughed. It wasn’t quite a nice laugh, but what the hell, they weren’t friends.

“Baby, if you want a demonstration, why didn’t you just say so?”

“Baby?” she mocked, suddenly glad that she could pick a fight with someone. “Is that what you use when you can’t remember the girl’s name?”

Alex took his eyes off the road. “Well, why should I? Not when I have so many of them.”

His arrogance took her breath away. She’d never met a guy like him, so sure that girls would trip over themselves ready to rip off their clothes. Okay, maybe in his case, he probably had more success than most guys. Jason had been her boyfriend for three years now, but even he wasn’t as good-looking.

Stop it, Adrian. No more comparisons.

Isaac’s voice floated from the backseat. “We’ve got a crisis back here. So if you guys could cut it out …”

Adrian didn’t even need to turn around to know that her sister was the problem. Meg and Owen were trying to put each other in a headlock, but Meg had rather gotten the better of him. She’d stuffed her jacket into his mouth.

“I couldn’t stop her!” Nicky said, wringing her hands. “You know how she is!”

“Meg,” Adrian said, resigned. “Let him go.”

Meg rolled her eyes and released Owen.

Isaac pushed his glasses up his nose. “Violence is never the right solution. It’s just an inefficient method that bullies use to intimidate people, but inevitably it propagates another fresh wave of violence.”

Adrian did a double take. Well, hell. The two younger Montgomery boys were lambs, and Adrian could practically sense Meg’s contempt. Meg had no use for a person who wouldn’t fight back.

“How old are you?” Adrian said.

“Fourteen,” Isaac said. “I’m in eighth grade. I just missed the cut-off date.”

“What are you, a freak?” Meg said with her usual tact.

“No, he’s just our resident Socrates,” Alex said. He’d tilted the rearview mirror, so he could check out the situation. “Isaac’s our little philosopher.”

“And Alex is our resident Casanova,” Isaac snapped. “Our little philanderer.”

Nicky looked at him uncertainly. “Well … I think you’re smart? It’s good to be Socrates, right? Didn’t he die, though?”

Adrian had twisted around in her seat, but she very clearly saw Alex’s lips twitch.

No one said anything until they pulled up in front of a house. It was almost a boxy shape, in two shades of brown—that color again—with only a chimney to break up the monotonous roofline. What they wanted with a fireplace here, she didn’t know. It wasn’t the most eye-catching house she’d ever seen, but the palm trees edging the lawn were kind of pretty. They were just a little taller than she was. The fronds were wide and yellowish, the trunks sturdy and rooted. The front lawn was a small circle of grass, dry already from the heat. Pink flowers hung their heads limply along the pathway leading to the door, but there were plenty of stones dotting the ground in a decorative fashion. Small weeds poked up their heads between the stones.

“Home sweet home,” Alex said, killing the engine.

Mouth tight, Adrian yanked on her bags. Once inside the house, she gazed around as if in a dream. There were framed pictures of Karen’s sons everywhere. One of them had Alex in a graduation gown—his junior high graduation? Another one had Isaac and Owen’s class snapshots. Where would
she
fit in?

“Well, we’re home!” Karen said. “What do you guys think?”

Adrian couldn’t answer. She just couldn’t. The packing and the goodbyes had been bad enough, but now that she stood in this house, it had finally dawned upon her that she wasn’t going to wake up in her own bedroom anymore, one that had become so familiar that she could draw every detail.

“It’s big,” Nicky said. Oddly, she’d rallied the best, but probably because she’d cried so much already. “So where are we sleeping?”

“Well … there are five bedrooms,” Karen said. “Before you girls came, we decided that Isaac and Owen would share a bedroom.”

Adrian saw the glance between the younger Montgomery boys. Oh yes, that was further fuel there. They’d given up their individual rooms, and they didn’t look too pleased about it. Good. At least the Blake girls weren’t the only ones suffering here.

Karen was still speaking. “So we’ve decided Alex will take the bedroom this floor, and Adrian will have the office as her room. Is that okay, Adrian?”

Adrian stepped backwards, glancing down the hallway. The office Karen had pointed out was right next to Alex’s bedroom. She opened her mouth to complain, but her father’s pleading expression stopped her.

She swallowed. “That’s very thoughtful of you, Karen. Nicky and I can always share a room, or maybe Meg and Nicky can …”

Karen shook her head. “Girls need more privacy.” She clapped her hands. “All right, the moving van came yesterday, so you can just unpack whenever you like. Dinner’s in an hour, so you can rest or even swim. We have a swimming pool in the backyard.”

Another time, another place, Adrian might have welcomed hearing that piece of information. Back in Chicago, you went only to the public pool. Only the rich had private ones, and even then, they were useless during winter time unless they were heated.

She managed to hold it together until she got to her new room. The closet took up an entire wall, but there was a built-in L-shaped desk bolted to the wall and a few office cabinets that she couldn’t move. No space for her furniture other than her bed. What was she going to do with her things? The movers had thrown them around in a haphazard heap.

When she yanked open the blinds, she saw a dusty and brown section of the backyard. That was the garbage and recycling bins, wasn’t it? That was her grand view?

A fist closed around her heart. If she stood here any longer, she’d absolutely lose it, so she backed out of the room with haste, only to bump into Alex standing in the hallway. His room was right next to hers, she remembered with a fresh annoyance. How was she supposed to have some privacy?

Alex leaned his shoulder against the wall. “Looks like we’re neighbors. If that bothers you, I can always ask my brothers to move down here, so you can move upstairs.”

“No thanks,” she said coolly. “I’m fine.”

“Suit yourself. You might want to invest in a pair of earplugs, though.”

“Why?”

Alex rapped on his door. “I have a busy social life.”

Her face burned. Or at least it would have, but she had never blushed easily. She hadn’t even considered that aspect of living next to him.

“Feel free to listen in, anytime.”

“Listen to what? Some pathetic drunken groping in the dark? Please.” But she mentally resolved to buy some earplugs anyway.

Dinner was indeed served in an hour. Her father and Alex grilled the steaks, both of them making small talk, while Karen concentrated on her and her sisters. The cynical part of Adrian wondered if the adults had planned it that way.

“I know you girls will have to face a period of adjustment, but I will do everything to make it easier on you,” Karen was saying.

By then, Adrian was so numb that she just nodded.

“Alex will show you around, Adrian. He has a lot of friends, and they’ll all make you feel welcome. Everything’s going to be all right, you’ll see.”

Yeah right, Adrian thought. She’d vaguely hoped for new friends, when she’d first heard of her would-be stepbrothers, but two minutes with Alex had trashed that hope. So that was yet another loss. She’d lived in Chicago for seventeen years, always growing up with the same group of kids, and of course she’d had Jason.

Her thoughts turned to school. Karen had enrolled her and Nicky at Alex’s high school and even picked up their schedules. Adrian would have to check out the list of school activities—find some promising clubs. She’d been a cheerleader back home, but the tryouts here had probably concluded. It didn’t matter, really. She only had to last one year until graduation.

The only highlight of the long night was when Karen asked Meg if she liked Arizona.

“This is a fascist podunkville,” Meg said. “And I reject your propaganda.”

Karen blinked. “Oh.”

That night, when Adrian slept in her awkwardly positioned bed, she expected the tears to come, but they never did. Her chest was tight and her throat swollen, but even when her eyes landed on Jason’s picture she’d put up on the L-shaped desk, still nothing. She curled up into a tight little ball and willed herself to sleep.

It had to get better; it had to.

CHAPTER TWO

It was getting harder to smile. For the last few days, she’d prayed for a miracle: her father and Karen calling off the engagement, Karen getting kidnapped by the Mafia, or something. But no, the days marched on, and she was still stuck in Arizona.

The party was the last straw. Karen had insisted on throwing a little gathering to welcome them to Arizona, but she’d neglected to mention she’d invited over one hundred people. Strangers mingled in the house and the backyard.

Adrian watched as her father smiled and nodded at the strangers. She was nursing a cold drink because it gave her something to do with her hands. Otherwise she’d have bolted from this nightmare. Even as she thought of it, she knew she would never run. She was Adrian Blake, and Adrian Blake did not run.

So she did the only thing she could do: stand there in her summer dress and smile until her cheeks hurt.

Against her will, her gaze found Alex sprawled in the backyard. He filled out every inch of that T-shirt. She really didn’t think she was misinterpreting the glimmer of interest she saw in the eyes of many females. Some of them were older than her grandmother!

“This is nice, isn’t it?” Nicky said. Her woebegone expression said it was anything but, and Adrian put an arm around her sister’s thin shoulders. Nicky had alternated between smiles and tears for the most part.

“This is boring,” Meg groused. She tugged at her dress, so she could kick off her sandals. “Why do we have to be here anyway? Ten bucks say they won’t get married.”

It was just their bad luck that Isaac happened to be standing by. “They will. It’s true love.”

“I wasn’t talking to you, Four Eyes.”

Adrian physically stepped between them before Isaac could lecture Meg about manners and philosophical matters again. The last time he’d tried, Meg had threatened to set his books on fire. Suffice to say, Meg and the two younger Montgomery boys weren’t friendly.

“Have you seen Jason?” Adrian asked her sisters.

Her boyfriend had flown out from Chicago for a short visit, but he’d gotten in so late last night that they’d barely had time to talk and eat a hurried dinner before he passed out on the couch in the family room.

Her attention diverted, Meg shrugged. “Don’t know, don’t care. I don’t know why you like that pansy anyway. He has a weak chin.”

Half-amused, Adrian shook her head. Well, at least Meg was constant in her dislike. She’d despised Jason from the first day she’d met him.

Nicky provided the answer. “I saw him out in the front yard talking on his cell.”

Adrian’s brow furrowed before she could smooth it out. She’d hoped to have more time with Jason, but maybe that had been unrealistic. Despite the fact she really didn’t know anyone in Arizona, she’d been busy, unpacking her things and getting ready for school.

She would just have to catch up with Jason later tonight. Oh, there he was.

“Hey,” she said, smiling. She slipped her hand through the crook of his arm and led him away from her sisters. “I didn’t see you earlier.”

He tucked his cell into his pocket. “I saw you, though. Every time I tried to get to you, you were always surrounded by people. Your stepmother invited a lot of people.”

“She’s not my stepmother.”

“Well, yeah, but soon, she will be.”

Lips tight, Adrian nodded. “I want this to be over.”

She pushed her limp hair away from her neck. Her feet were crying because she’d stupidly put on four-inch heels.

He drew her close. “Listen to me,” he whispered, his breath brushing her cheekbone. “I’ll come visit you for Thanksgiving. We have Christmas break too. Then we just have to hang on until spring break and summer. Baby, it’s just a few months. We can do it.”

His words buoyed her sagging confidence. This was exactly what she needed to hear. She wrapped her arms around his waist and looked up at him. Physical affection had never quite come easy for her—a personality quirk, an innate reserve, whatever it was—but Jason was her boyfriend.

“Sure you can handle the pressure?” she teased.

“Baby, you know it. We’re not gonna break up just because you’re in the desert.”

“If you say so. I know Stephanie Frost has a crush on you.”

She didn’t even know why she’d said that. Maybe it was because he’d delayed his flight a couple times. He would leave almost immediately after the party, and she would drive him to the airport. Or maybe it boiled down to the hungry and triumphant expression on Stephanie Frost’s face whenever she’d looked at Jason back in Chicago.

“Adrian!”

“What? You didn’t know Stephanie likes you?”

“Uh …” He stepped back, and in that moment her heart sank. “Adrian, listen to me. I don’t know what you’re thinking, but Stephanie has nothing to do with us. Okay?”