Brody - Ellie Masters Page 0,10

application.

And I was good. I’d been enrolled in some form of dance or gymnastics since I was three. I had all the moves, could do all the tricks. Making the varsity team as a freshman had me walking on cloud nine. Little did I know it would be the worst decision of my life.

All because of Brody La Rouge.

Like all the girls at school, the La Rouge triplets fascinated me. They were on the football team. I watched them during practice, swooning over them with the rest of the girls. For some reason, my eye gravitated toward Brody, the middle triplet. There was just something about him I couldn’t resist. An irresistible pull. An undeniable attraction. A crazy need to be with him.

Where others often confused the three triplets, I could always distinguish Brody from Asher and Cage. There was just something about him that entranced me. I swooned and smiled like all the other girls, but he was a senior, and I was a lowly freshman. In his world, I didn’t exist, except when it came to football. The cheer squad practiced on the sidelines while the players hit the field. I got to watch him every day after school, and my fascination grew.

Then he destroyed me.

With that thought, I walk away. Some memories are best left in the past and I certainly don’t need him in my life. As soon as I get home, I’m going to pull my application for equity investment from his company.

Five

Brody

After I get Mark to stop talking, I return to my run. Seeing Grace does something to me. My guts twist in knots as my last year in high school runs on a nonstop loop inside my head.

So different from all the other girls, I liked spending time with Grace. She made me feel normal, relaxed, like I could let all the pretense fall away. I was myself around her in a way I couldn’t be around any of the other girls. With them, there was this pressure to live up to my reputation, which I did admirably, but Grace never cared about any of that. I took her sweetness, her kindness, and consideration, and I turned it inside out. I destroyed her in the process.

And why?

I’m not proud of who I was. Hell, I’m still that same guy. I stumble and come to a halt as the realization kicks in. I’m still the same rotten bastard I was at seventeen.

Well, shit, if that doesn’t sting.

If I hadn’t been such a self-centered prick, who could I be now?

It’s an unsettling question.

Instead of going the full thirty miles, I take a shortcut and head back to La Rouge Vineyards. The need to talk to my brother overcomes me.

Half an hour later, I jog up our drive.

The new barn seems to be going up without a hitch. It burned down not too long ago, victim of arson and an attempt on Asher’s life; his and Evelyn’s. The arsonist is still in the wind, running for his life. If any of us get a hold of him before the cops do, there won’t be anything left to prosecute, let alone lock up in jail.

I pull to a stop between the barn and the family home. A large covered porch wraps all the way around it. I grew up on that porch; first as a kid sleeping outside with my brothers telling ghost stories and chasing fireflies, later as a preteen shooting the shit about stupid stuff. High school turned that porch into make-out central. The barn, the one that burned, is where we each became a man, although not at the same time.

It was a race to see which of us would lose our virginity first. Asher looked to be the one to close the deal first, but when he came to us bragging about his first time, Cage let it slip that he’d been first. That left me as the only virgin of the three of us. I took care of that immediately. The sad thing is I don’t remember who it was.

The door to the new barn stands open, much like its predecessor. The weather’s far too perfect out here to keep it shut. The new barn is a good size larger than the previous one. Curious, I head over to investigate.

Looks like Asher’s increased the number of stalls and upgraded the dirt floor to stone. The tack room is easily twice as big as before, and he’s got something that looks like a