He's Not My Brother

Chapter 6

Aria didn't sleep.

She lay in the dark replaying ten minutes from eight months ago — a conversation she'd half-convinced herself she'd imagined, suddenly real, suddenly attached to a face that lived across the hall.

She'd looked for him.

She'd never told anyone that. How she'd gone back into that crowd after the lights came up, searching for a voice without a face. How she'd thought about him for weeks after. How she'd eventually filed it away as one of those things that happens once and never again.

And now he was her stepbrother.

The universe had a sick sense of humor.

In the morning, everything was different and nothing was.

They still had to sit across from each other at breakfast. Still had to be brother and sister in front of two people who had no idea. Still had to pretend the air between them wasn't doing something neither of them could name.

Cayden was already at the table when she came down.

He looked up. Held her gaze for one second too long.

Then Victoria walked in and the moment closed and they both became the careful, polite versions of themselves.

"Big day," Daniel said, pouring coffee. "First full week for both of you. Try to keep an eye on her, Cayden."

Aria nearly choked on her cereal.

"I'll do my best," Cayden said, not looking at her.

Under the table, completely hidden, his foot pressed lightly against hers.

She didn't move hers away.

That was the moment she knew she was in trouble.

At school it got worse, because at school there were other people. And other people meant Cayden in jealous mode, except now she understood it — every interruption, every guy he scared off, every time he appeared out of nowhere.

It wasn't a protective brother act.

It never had been.

By third period a guy from her English class stopped at her locker. Friendly. Easy. He'd made a decent joke about the reading on day one.

"Hey, I was gonna ask if you wanted to—"

"Aria."

Cayden. Right on cue.

"Mr. Daniels wants the worksheet from yesterday," he said smoothly. "Said it's urgent."

The guy glanced between them. "Oh — I'll catch you later, Aria."

He walked off.

Aria turned to Cayden, but this time she didn't feel the usual flash of anger.

This time she just looked at him.

"There's no worksheet," she said quietly.

"No," he admitted.

"You did it again."

"Yeah."

"Because of the party."

He held her gaze.

"Because of the party," he said. "Because of all of it. Because I spent eight months looking for you and now you're here and I have to watch other guys walk up to you like they have a chance and I—"

He stopped.

"You what?"

He glanced around the hallway. Lowered his voice.

"Not here," he said. "I keep saying that and I mean it. Not in a hallway."

"Then when?"

He looked at her.

"Tonight," he said. "Parents are out for their thing. The engagement dinner with her work people. We'll have the house."

Her heart skipped.

"Okay," she said.

"Okay," he said.

Neither of them moved for a second.

Then the bell rang and they went in opposite directions, and Aria spent the rest of the day completely unable to focus on anything that wasn't tonight.

Across the hall, Jordan watched the whole exchange.

He nudged Eli.

"You see that?"

"I saw it."

"That's not a stepbrother thing."

"No," Eli said. "It's really not."

Jordan watched Cayden disappear down the hall, a slow grin spreading across his face.

"Twenty bucks says there's a story there."

"I'm not taking that bet," Eli said. "Because you'd win."

Hours away, the day crawled.

And both of them — at separate desks, in separate classes, surrounded by people who had no idea — kept watching the clock, counting down to a house that would finally, dangerously, be empty.