rushed, garbled mess.
“What?” I asked.
He took a deep breath and raised his head so his eyes met mine. “I pose for the artists.”
I staggered back like I’d been struck.
“Pose, like, in cute costumes?” Sophia asked, her voice hopeful.
Cody shook his head and looked down again.
“What do you pose in?” I asked, my voice harsh.
“Nothing,” he said, his voice quiet and small. “I pose nude.”
“Hell yeah!” Carter shouted like Cody had just scored a winning touchdown.
I turned to glare at him and noticed Sophia and Taylor were doing the same.
Carter simply shrugged. “What? That means he’s hot if they let him do that. It’s a total compliment.”
“Why am I friends with you?” I asked.
Carter shrugged again.
I rounded on Cody, but before I could get any words out, Brody barreled in, his arms filled with bags of food. He clumsily set them on the coffee table before straightening and looking around at all of us.
“Hey. What’d I miss?”
Chapter Eight
S O P H I A
I flopped down on the couch next to Drew and moaned. “God, sitting has never felt so good.”
He chuckled as he wrapped his arm around my shoulder and pulled me to him.
I closed my eyes and rested my head against his chest. “Moving sucks. I don’t ever wanna do it again.”
“Well, that’s unfortunate since you’ll be doing it again in three months.”
I smacked him lightly. “Mood murderer.” I felt his chest rumble with a laugh before we both stilled and let ourselves relax after the long day. The silence between us was peaceful, so of course I had to ruin it. “So…your brother.”
Drew groaned. “Come on. I’d just gotten to a place where I was tired enough to forget about it.”
“Okay, forget away.”
“Well, I can’t now that you reminded me.” His leg started to jump, causing his whole body to shake.
“You’re ruining my pillow,” I complained as he inadvertently jostled me.
“My brother is selling his body.”
A startled laugh tumbled out of me. “You make him sound like a prostitute.”
“He may as well be,” Drew grumbled.
I sat up so I could turn to look at my boyfriend. Drew was always handsome, with his dark-brown eyes and smooth skin that covered a strong jaw. But his normal lopsided grin was missing, and I didn’t like the frown that caused his brow to crease and corners of his lips to turn down.
“That’s a little extreme.”
“How would you feel if you heard Brody was posing naked in front of strangers?”
I thought for a second. “Honestly, I feel like that would be one of the least weird things Brody’s ever done.”
Drew evidently didn’t like my answer because he stood up from the couch.
“Where are you going?” I asked.
“It’s getting late. I’m gonna head home.”
I stood then, concern filling me. I approached him and set a hand on his chest. “Hey, don’t be mad at me. I’m not trying to diminish how you feel.”
“I know. I just…” His words trailed off as he speared his fingers into his hair and gave the ends a tug before letting go. “I feel like I let him down. We shut the business down without any real warning. Did I push him into this?”
“Drew, he’s had plenty of normal jobs. He could easily have gotten another one if he’d wanted to. This had to be something he chose to do. You didn’t push him into anything.”
I honestly didn’t understand why Drew was reacting so strongly. Not because I thought he was wrong for caring about his brother but because Drew was far from a prude. Was posing naked in front of a room full of artists really something to be this distraught over? It wasn’t like Drew had gotten his brother hooked on meth and sent him out onto the streets to turn tricks.
Drew looked down at me, and the sadness in his eyes made my breath catch.
“I just wanted to do better by him, ya know? He’s got a lot of potential, but he’s making all the same mistakes I did. Cody doesn’t push himself hard enough. He’s content to go with the flow and fly under the radar. He could be so much more than me, but I’m worried he’s never going to get there. That I wasn’t a good enough role model to show him he can be something more than our parents ever expected us to be.”
I’m sure the look on my face showed my confusion as well as abject rage. Because seriously, what the fuck?
“First of all, you’re one of the best people I