On The Rebound (Steinbeck U #1) - L.A. Cotton Page 0,33

a tough few years for them.” My dad had lost his job at the investment bank during the recession. He’d found something else, but with Callum’s training camps and personal trainers, it didn’t stretch far.

“That summer, after they left, was hard. I cried... a lot. But Zach was right there to wipe away my tears.”

If I closed my eyes, I could still feel the weight of his growing body curled around mine. I was only fourteen, Zach a year older, but I could remember being fascinated with his changing body. He’d shot up that summer, his arms became bulkier thanks to his father’s home gym, and his voice turned deeper.

He was a boy on the edge of becoming a man, and there was something magical about witnessing that. Something powerful knowing he chose to let me be the one to witness it.

By the time we started school again—me in ninth grade, and Zach in tenth—he had shed his lanky frame and grown into his body. I wasn’t the only girl to notice either. I spent my days watching as other girls, older girls, all tried to catch his attention. But he never once strayed from my side.

We were best friends.

Until one day, we became more.

“You were childhood sweethearts,” Josie stated as if she’d gotten it all figured out.

“I wish it were that simple,” I said around a sad smile. “We danced around each other for most of the year. I think Zach was worried because I was younger than him.”

Josie let out a disapproving groan. “By a grade.”

“Yeah but there’s almost two years age difference.”

My birthday was June tenth, and Zach’s was late August. When you were barely fifteen, and the guy you were crushing on was almost seventeen, it seemed like a big deal.

It was a big deal.

“Everything changed the following summer.”

“You had sex.”

“Almost... we almost had sex.”

We’d been fooling around all summer, learning each other’s bodies under the cover of darkness in the treehouse.

“I wasn’t ready, and I knew Zach wanted to wait until I was a hundred-percent sure. It just didn’t feel right. We weren’t even an official couple.” Even though we spent all our time together. “Declan left for college that summer and Zach finally asked me to be his. I was so relieved.”

I didn’t realize it then, but looking back, I think he’d been worried about what his brother would think. Even though Callum was gone, he and Declan were still friends. They were still our older and wiser brothers.

“This is like a soap opera.” Josie had stretched onto her stomach, her chin propped up on her fists.

“I’m glad you find my life so entertaining.”

“One of us needs some drama, because lord knows I have none.”

I wasn’t so sure about that given the way I constantly saw her watching Brad whenever he was around.

“So you went public. You’re in tenth grade and Zach’s in junior year... then what?”

“Everything was fine. I was blissfully happy.” One of those super annoying girls in love with her best friend.

“So what happened?”

“I wish I knew.” Dejection pulsed through me. “One minute everything was fine, and the next, I’m sitting in a school pep rally watching my boyfriend be announced as the new captain for the Bay View Vipers.”

“Okay... back up, I thought he didn’t play basketball.”

“He didn’t.”

“And you knew nothing about it? Not even a hint that something was wrong?”

“Nothing.” Tears pricked my eyes as I swallowed the ball of emotion lodged in my throat. “He’d asked me to Homecoming, and we’d gone as a couple. Afterward, we’d gone back to his place and...” My eyes widened.

“Oh... oh, got it.” She grinned but it quickly died when I didn’t return it.

I thought back to that week. After an amazing weekend, I’d been floating on cloud nine. Zach had taken a couple of days off school with a stomach flu, but he’d been okay. We’d still talked and texted the whole time. Then the pep rally rolled around, and my entire world went up in flames.

“I can’t believe these things are still mandatory,” I grumbled to my best friend, Madison, as we filed into the gym.

“It’s a pep rally, of course it’s mandatory. Besides, just because you hate all school spirit doesn’t mean the rest of us do.”

Rolling my eyes, I flopped down on the bench beside her. We were packed into the gym like sardines, waiting for the team’s big arrival. I scanned the crowd for Zach. He was back in school today after a nasty stomach flu, but