Anti-Stepbrother - Tijan Page 0,50
The other was b-string on the junior varsity baseball team. The last was a summer fling when I joined 4-H. I did a lot of baking that summer.” None of them had told me I was pretty. “One said I was cute, but that was it.”
“Then they’re all idiots.”
Tingles spread through me, warming me all the way to my toes. An excited buzz started low in my stomach. “Thank you.”
His eyebrows pinched together. “For what?”
“For making me feel good.”
An emotion I didn’t know, one I hadn’t seen in someone other than maybe my father, passed in his eyes. “Well, it’s the truth. I’m not blowing smoke up your ass.”
“I’m hot stuff, remember?”
He sighed, standing. “You’re going to make me call you that all the time now, aren’t you?”
“I’d settle for Hot Tits.” I glanced down at mine. “Maybe the positive reinforcement will help them grow.”
“Okay, Hot Tits.” He held his hand out to me. “Come on.”
“Where are we going?” I put my hand in his, and he pulled me to my feet.
“I got roped into saying I’d help put those flamingos in people’s yards. You can keep me company.”
I glanced out the window, my hand still in his. “It’s getting dark out.”
“That’s the point.” He looked me up and down. “You’re going to have to change.”
“What’s wrong with what I’m wearing?” I had on jeans and a grey sweater. I thought I was fashion forward today. Then I noticed him. He wore black, all black. “I have to dress like you?”
“That’s the idea.”
I had no idea what was going on, but Caden gave me a ride back to my dorm, holding my hand the entire time. I tried not to think about it, but friends didn’t hold hands. I was pretty sure that was a rule…or was it? I couldn’t imagine holding Avery’s hand, but then again, I couldn’t imagine Caden holding anyone except a girlfriend’s hand.
He let go when I started to get out of the Land Rover. “Hold on.” He put it in park and turned the engine off.
“What are you doing?”
He gestured up to my room. “I’m going up with you.”
“Why?” All the girls would want him. He was mine.
“I have to go to the bathroom. We have to pick up the flamingos at Jill’s house, and I’ve been there before. She has seven roommates, and they always have friends over. I’ll take my chances in a girl’s dorm.” He followed me out, shutting his door. “You must have a guy’s bathroom in there, right?”
“I guess.” I had no idea. My life was spent between my room, Avery’s room, classes, the lunch area, and Caden’s. The possibility of sneaking a guy into my room had eluded me, but it was still technically day hours, so Caden was allowed on my floor. As he followed me, I ignored how the clerk’s eyes got big, and how she watched us go past with hawk-like precision. I also ignored all the girls in the stairwell who got quiet, and how the reception was the same when we got to my floor. Some of the girls had their doors open, and when we walked past, the conversations stopped.
I went to Avery’s room and knocked.
She opened her door. “How’d it go with—Caden!” Her eyes got big too, just like the clerk’s. “What are you doing here?”
“I know you sneak my brother up here. Where’s the bathroom for him?”
“Shut up!” She looked up and down the hallway, then seemed to relax when she didn’t see anyone. I didn’t have the heart to tell her they were all listening, probably standing as close as they could to their open doors without being seen. She gestured all the way down the hallway to the back door by my room. “Take the stairs all the way to the basement. There’s a bathroom to your immediate left. Guys can be down there all the time, just not up here.”
He started off, shooting her a look. “I know the rules. I dated someone in here my freshman year.”
“You’re old. I didn’t know if the dementia would have kicked in yet.”
He flipped her off, and then disappeared past my room and through the exit door to the back stairs.
Once he was gone, Avery clamped onto my arm. “Holy shit. What’s Caden doing here?”
She yanked me into her room, slamming the door.
I held up my hands before she could pounce any further. “It’s nothing. We’re fine.”
“Fine?” An eager grin started to show. “Like fine fine? Like we just screwed fine?