Winters Best - Book 1 of Winter Holdings

~Katie~ I’m a cliche. I’m in love with my brothers best friend. Since the moment he walked into our house, with my brother, after soccer practice and annoyed the hell out of me. I was 13 at the time, naive, braided pigtails, freckles and glasses. The adorkable nerd, as my brothers love to call me. I was leaning against the island in the kitchen eating an apple slice dipped in hazelnut butter, and 16 year old William Cavenaugh walked into our kitchen with my brother, Damien, and his other two teammates, Steven and Daniel. William took three mini pizza pockets from the plate that mom had set out for the boys to snack on after practice, shoved them in his mouth, smiled and said with a mouthful “Whats up shorty?!” He was gorgeous. Sunkissed skin from playing soccer, shaggy, dark chocolate hair wet from the sprinkler outside that they ran through before traipsing inside. I just stood there, frozen with the apple two inches from my open mouth, waiting to be bitten again. He leaned over the island and pushed my chin up closing my mouth and chuckled saying “yeah, that’s how all the girls feel about me.” My face heated up as I lowered the apple and swiped his hand away. “I don’t feel anything but annoyed by you.”I grumbled and stormed out of the kitchen. Before leaving completely I turned around and said “Also, my name is Cathrine, not shorty. My friends call me Katie, so YOU, can call me Cathrine.” I did the whole flip my hair and stormed out as I heard him chuckle and start talking Damien and the other boys about how well practice went. Yes. He was gorgeous. And cocky. And I fought every instinct, and failed miserably, not to crush on him. I hated that he knew he was fabulous. And he knew I knew. So I tried not to know. Ugh. It was a whole mess. For 5 years I had to deal with this crush. This unrequited love. I watched him have girlfriend after girlfriend, constantly teasing me, smiling at me, winking at me, walking away from me with his arm around another girls shoulder. Whether he knew what he was doing, or not. No, he had to know what he was doing. Everything changed when I was 18, and snuck into his 21st birthday bash at a bar in the city. I had overheard Damien talking about which one they were going to for Billy’s birthday. My girlfriends and I happened to show up to the party “accidentally”. Everyone was drinking and dancing. I wore a red, spaghetti strap mini dress. The tight dress ended mid thigh, and I wore my favorite red heels that laced up my calves, curled my straight brunette hair, wore dark eye makeup and bright red lipstick. I looked like a knock out if I do say so myself. I still adored my freckles and never hid them, so wearing any kind of concealer or foundation was always out of the question. I was at the bar ordering a drink when a man stepped up and started talking to me. I was laughing at something he said when I felt a hand wrap around my waist. The fingers dig into my hip bone and I heard his deep voice behind me “Sorry man, she’s actually with us and you don’t want to piss off her brother.” I tilted my head up and looked right into the face of William Cavenaugh. I tried to wriggle free and clenched my teeth, saying “I’m actually here with my friends. Billy here, and my big brother, just happen to be at the same place, that’s all.” But he held on to my waist, digging in and refused to budge. He leaned down to my ear and whisper growled “Get your underaged ass moving before I throw you over my shoulder and carry you. If I do that then I’ll probably have to spank you to teach you a lesson.” I’m not ashamed to admit that I stomped my foot when I had to say bye to my new friend at the bar and turned to walk away with Billy. His hand remained at my waist half way through the crowd and I elbowed him away and raised my voice over the music “You are so annoying! Why can’t you just leave me alone?!” He simply gave me a sexy smirk and continued to the party table. I sat on the very edge of the booth grumbling, he sat next to me with his arm stretched above the seat behind me, his hand tapping to the music, while drinking his beer with the other and wandering his eyes all around the club. At one point he leaned over to me and said “what kind of outfit is this anyways?! Your dress is short enough that if you bed over, you’ll probably show everyone your panties” I rolled my eyes and propped my chin on my hand while tapping the red fingernails of my other hand on the table, refusing to answer him. Thankfully my brother wasn’t around. He must have gone into the bathroom because I haven’t seen him since I arrived. My girlfriends showed up to the booth and, thankfully, “dragged” me away to the dance floor. But before I got down from the booth I turned and bent over to whisper in Billy’s ear “I’m not wearing any panties, so that point is moot” before straightening up and heading to the dance floor. As soon as I got to the dance floor I put my hands up and spun around in a circle and noticed that Billy was frozen in place, his eyes still focused on the same spot he was staring at when I bent down to whisper, his beer halfway to his face. After a couple more spins I noticed he had his eyes on me and looked pissed. I turned my back to him and started dancing provocatively with my girlfriends, having a great time, we were laughing and enjoying ourselves. I kept glancing toward the Booth and noticed Billy leaned over, a hand on Damien’s shoulder, who finally made an appearance, speaking into his ear. Then I noticed Damien scanning the dance crowd for looking angry and once his eyes found mine, he got up and stormed over to me, with clenched fists, Billy walking at a slower pace behind him, nonchalantly. He didn’t. There is no way he told my brother what I told him. Damien grabbed me by the arm and pulled me away from the dance floor saying “we are leaving” and continued against my will to pull me outside. I tried to pull out of his grasp while also turning and glaring at Billy who wouldn’t even look at me. He just had his head up nodding to people. When a couple guys stopped them and asked me “Are you okay?!” Billy simply said “Just a couple Winter siblings having a disagreement” to which the men replied by lifting their hands up in surrender and backing off. Ugh. I hated being the little sister of the well known Winter family.