Her Wicked Stepbrother: A Nolan Bastards Novella Page 3

  Except she had no idea how to hold the attention of a boy like Aiden, a fact that bore out a moment later when he turned and disappeared inside the house.

  After that day, she didn’t see him by the pool anymore.

  Chapter 3

  Brynn’s dad married Siobhan in a small ceremony at a nearby Catholic church one Friday afternoon. Brynn stood at her dad’s side, a sheen of moisture glistening on her skin as the tea-length, robin’s-egg blue satin dress Siobhan had chosen for her provided little relief from the warm stifling air inside the church.

  Across the aisle, the boys had taken their positions at their mother’s side. Appearing cool and not at all sweaty, they wore matching scowls on their handsome faces as they looked on.

  Though she fell into Aiden’s direct line of sight, he didn’t spare so much as a glance for her throughout the short ceremony.

  Since that day at the pool, she’d failed to recapture his notice even once. It’d become an obsession. What could she do, or wear—or not wear—to make him look at her the way he had that day? But her efforts had proven futile.

  Whenever she donned her emerald-green bikini, he disappeared, like a shadow vanishing in the sunlight.

  When she’d borrowed a pair of shorts from Molly, shorts so short the material barely covered the swells of her bottom, and paired them with a dark purple tank top that brought out the green in her light eyes, he’d looked right past her as she paraded through the kitchen. As though she were invisible to him. Nothing but a ghost in skimpy clothing. Then he’d dumped his half-eaten sandwich in the kitchen trash and strolled toward the basement door.

  A pang had lashed at her. What had she been thinking? Boys like Aiden weren’t interested in girls like her. Mortification had stung her cheeks.

  By the time Siobhan and her dad shared their first kiss as a married couple, a glum gray cloud colored Brynn’s mood. What a fool she was, chasing after a boy who wouldn’t talk to her, or even look at her.

  Now, they were brother and sister.

  At home after the ceremony, her dad and Siobhan retreated to the back patio with two glasses of wine. Watching from the kitchen window, Brynn wondered if she and her dad would ever experience another one of their quiet nights together hanging out by the pool or watching a movie.

  When her dad laughed at something Siobhan said, then lifted their entwined hands to kiss her knuckles, Brynn turned away from the window.

  In the living room, Aiden and Cian stood in front of the TV clutching black controllers, which they used to navigate the twists and turns of a winding video game racetrack. Behind them, Rory chided Cian when Aiden’s racecar sneaked past his.

  Moments later, a chorus of groans and jeering erupted when the game ended suddenly with Aiden’s car seizing a close victory.

  She stepped forward. “Can I play?”

  Three heads swiveled toward her. The humor melted from Aiden’s expression like an ice cube on the sun-drenched concrete patio outside.

  “Here.” He thrust his controller at her. “Ye can take my place.”

  Dropping the plastic device into her hand, he strode from the room.

  She frowned down at the device, still warm from his touch.

  “You want to be red or green?” Cian hit buttons on his controller, and the screen on the TV changed.

  “Uh… green, I guess.”

  He reached over and pushed a button on her controller to select the green racecar. “Dat’s yer gas pedal and dat one steers. Ready?”

  “Ready.”

  Four seconds into the game, she drove her car into a blue pixelated lake.

  With a low chuckle, Cian restarted the game. “Let’s try dat again.”

  Her second attempt, she managed to complete the race, though she crossed the finish line in last place. Rory took Cian’s controller for a turn, and by the end of their game, she started to get the hang of the touchy controls.

  When the next game ended with her coming in second place, Rory shot her a side-eyed glance as he handed the controller back to Cian.

  Her self-satisfied smile vanished when Cian pressed the button to begin their race. She bit down on her bottom lip and leaned right, then left, as she zigzagged through the difficult course. At the last second, Cian made an unexpected move to glide over the black-and-white checked strip a whisper ahead of Brynn.

  All three of them were laughing when the patio door slid open and her dad stepped inside the house. A distinct chill infused the room while her dad retrieved the wine bottle from the counter and refilled one of the two empty wineglasses.

  Brynn’s stomach knotted.

  Rory pressed the Start button. Their cars raced across the TV screen when she heard the slider door and knew her dad had returned outdoors.

  Soon, she and Rory approached the final turn, but she didn’t bother to try to slide her car through the small opening to pass Rory. “Why don’t you like my dad?”

  In silence, the race ended. Both boys avoided her gaze.

  “Did he say or do something?” she asked

  Rory looked down at the controller in his hand. “It’s not yer da.”

  “It’s our ma.”

  She faced Cian. “What do you mean?”

  His clear hazel eyes clouded with uneasiness. “She has terrible taste in men.”

  “God awful.” Rory switched off the television.

  “Well, you don’t have to worry.” Brynn slid her controller into the case Rory held open. “My dad’s not a bad guy. You’ll see,” she added when no one readily agreed with her.

  “I guess we will.”

  * * *

  A few nights later, Brynn’s dad called her downstairs.

  “We’re going to watch a movie,” he said. “Want to join us?”

  Only minutes before, she’d stepped out of the shower and tossed on a lightweight cotton T-shirt and loose-fitting shorts. She did not want to watch a movie with her stepbrothers dressed in her pajamas, but neither did she want to disappoint her dad. He was trying to make them into a family, and whether he knew it or not, he faced an uphill battle.

  She followed him into the living room, where he joined Siobhan on the couch. Stepping over Cian’s long, stretched-out form on the floor and Rory’s crossed ankles, she darted past Aiden, ducking to avoid blocking his view of the TV, and claimed the last seat in the armchair next to his.

  Goosebumps prickled across her skin when she eased onto the chair’s cool leather. Or maybe it was Aiden’s warm gaze that caused her flesh to tingle.

  His eyes lingered on her bare legs, then clamped on her flimsy pajama top. She wore no bra, having ditched the confining garment before bed, and his heated stare all but singed the flimsy cotton off her body.

  Beneath her breastbone, her heart thrashed wildly.

  From the couch, Siobhan laughed softly at something Brynn’s dad had said but no one else could hear, and Aiden reacted to the quiet reminder of their parents’ presence in the room as though a horn had blared. He jerked his head around and fixed his attention on the television screen.

  Brynn tried to follow what was happening in the movie, but with Aiden sitting between her and the TV, her eyes kept wandering back to him.

  She made a study of his profile. The elegant line of his straight nose. The angular shape of his strong jaw. The dramatic sweep of his heavy eyelashes. In her chest, a light airiness expanded. The act of simply gazing at him puffed happiness into her heart, like air into a balloon.

  A balloon which Siobhan promptly burst.

  “It’s a lovely home,” she said with her sweet smile and appealing accent. “But we might need something a little bigger, don’t ye think?”

  Brynn couldn’t stem her gasp of pain. Siobhan wanted them to move?

  Where would they go? Brynn had lived in this house her whole life. All she had left of the mother who abandoned her were her memories. Memories of her mom in this house. If they moved, would the memories go with her? Or would they stay behind, lost to her forever, just a
s her mom had been?

  A crinkle of concern disturbed her dad’s forehead. “I’m not sure we can afford a bigger home right now.”

  “Maybe not right now,” Siobhan said easily. She slipped her hand inside of his. “But someday soon.”

  Her dad sipped his wine, his nose turning a touch redder with each swig. “If I sell that house on Leavitt Street, and the sale of the house in Ukrainian Village goes through this month, it might be possible.”

  Siobhan’s smile was as warm as the summer sun when she kissed Brynn’s dad on the cheek.

  Brynn’s stomach dropped to the floor. Suddenly averse to her dad’s serene expression, she turned her face away.

  To find herself the focus of a discerning, gilded gaze.

  Aiden watched her closely, his expression inscrutable. Could he see that the thought of moving upset her? Did he know the thought of losing her home made her nauseated? Having just lost his home in much the same way, was he reveling in her misery?

  In case, she lifted her chin and pasted a fake smile on her face. She’d be damned if she’d give him more fuel to loathe her.

  * * *

  The first day of a new school year arrived, bringing with it a break in the dark clouds of Brynn’s mood. Not because she was happy to be starting back to school after summer vacation. She wasn’t. She hated school.

  Not the schoolwork necessarily, but as an awkward kid with massive self-esteem issues, high school was a certain kind of torture for Brynn. And despite the fact it was her last year, and she’d gotten her braces taken off the previous June, she didn’t expect her senior year to be any better than the eleven before it.

  Nonetheless, she was eager for any excuse to escape the house and the maddening torment of living with Aiden.

  For the most part, he avoided and ignored her, but every once in a while, whenever they were forced to be in the same room together, she’d catch him watching her with a dark, intent scowl or feel his hot, searing gaze as it slipped slowly over her body. Every glance, every glimpse was a delicious agony that left her feeling hot and shivery, bold and uncertain, desired and loathed, all at once.

  She lived for those rare, fleeting moments, and when they ended, she experienced the loss of his attention like a tiny, shattering death.

  It was enough to make her crazy.

  Her escape, however, was short-lived.

  Dismay stabbed at her when Aiden slid into the seat one desk away from hers in fourth-period English Lit.

  When Samantha Whitaker dropped into that empty seat between them, Brynn barely stifled a groan.

  Sam flipped her long dark hair over one shoulder and hit Aiden with a wide smile. “You’re new, aren’t you?”

  “That I am.”

  Her high-pitched squeal pierced Brynn’s eardrums.

  “OMG, I love your accent.” She leaned forward, the motion pushing her boobs together and making them look bigger than they actually were. “Are you from Australia?”

  “Crikey, you’re right about that, mate,” Aiden deadpanned.

  The giggle escaped Brynn before she thought to stop it.

  Sam’s head snapped around and she pinned Brynn beneath a cold glare for one painful heartbeat. Then she turned back to Aiden.

  “Some of us are going to the lake this weekend,” she said. “You wanna come?”

  Before Aiden could respond, the final bell rang and Mr. Strickland started class.

  But Saturday morning, Aiden left the house with Cian and Rory well before noon and didn’t return until late, his skin sun-kissed and his hair windblown, as though he’d spent the day on a boat in Lake Michigan.

  It shouldn’t have surprised Brynn that her stepbrothers would be popular at school. She expected that Aiden, a senior like Brynn, would be well-liked among their peers. But that Cian and Rory, a sophomore and a freshman, achieved a higher social status than she could ever imagine, rankled her fragile ego.

  Monday in fourth period, Samantha gifted Aiden with a warm smile. An inviting smile.

  A knowing smile.

  The punch of envy left Brynn gasping for breath. Her jealousy wasn’t green. It was darker, uglier, and it lashed out from someplace deep inside her. Someplace she didn’t want to look. The place that harbored her darkest, most crippling insecurities.

  Worse yet, Sam Whitaker wasn’t the only girl to catch Aiden’s eye. He flirted with them all. Every single day. Whether she was pretty or plain, popular or awkward, none escaped his effusive flirtations.

  Except Brynn.

  Thus, a month into the new school year, Brynn’s tentative hope that this year might not be quite as horrible as all the others had faded and she was seriously considering asking her dad to send her to the all-girls school Molly attended across town.

  The following Saturday morning, she woke up early so that she could talk to her dad before he left for work and ask him to do exactly that.

  But when she got downstairs and caught her first real look at her dad in the last two days, she abandoned her mission.

  Two puffy bags sat under his eyes and he stared off into space through half-closed eyelids. The exhaustion dragged at his shoulders, and she realized the reason she hadn’t laid eyes on him in days was because he’d been putting in long hours at the office, staying late most evenings and working the weekends as well.

  He’d been keeping crazy hours for weeks. Ever since Siobhan mentioned moving to a new house.

  Brynn refilled his coffee cup and dropped a quick kiss on his cheek before heading upstairs to shower. She could talk to him later.

  That evening, she fixed a huge pan of lasagna for dinner. Her dad’s favorite.

  Dinnertime came and went, without her dad. Rather than eat, Brynn kept the lasagna warming in the oven. She kept it warming for nearly two hours before he walked in the back door.

  While Siobhan greeted him, Brynn pulled the pan from the oven and carried it to the table, then she fetched a cold beer from the refrigerator and set it at her dad’s plate.

  The boys, who had been on their way out the door, rushed to the table. Cian and Rory inhaled two huge slices each and then bounded up again.

  In a rare display of parenting, Siobhan caught them before they escaped. “And where do ye think you’re going?”

  “Out.” Cian shoved half a dinner roll into his mouth.

  “There’s a party up the street,” Rory added and reached for the doorknob.

  Aiden pushed up from his chair. “I’ll keep an eye on ’em, Ma.”

  Siobhan waved for him to sit. “Wait for yer sister. She hasn’t finished eating yet.”

  Brynn nearly choked on her water. All eyes landed on her.

  “That’s okay,” she said. “You don’t have to wait for me.”

  “Yes, they do.” Siobhan gestured to the empty chairs, and her stepbrothers trudged toward them. “We cannot have ye going to that party alone.”

  Brynn blanched. “Oh, I’m not going.”

  Siobhan blinked at her. “Why not?”

  Heat flushed Brynn’s cheeks. “I, uh… I… have homework.”

  Siobhan waved a hand. “Ye have all day tomorrow to do that. Go out with your brothers. Have some fun.”

  “You should go,” Brynn’s dad said, his gaze lingering on Siobhan a tad too long and revealing far too much.

  Brynn’s mouth went slack. Was her dad trying to get rid of her?

  With a hard clench, she set her jaw. “I don’t want to.”

  Her dad waved off her protest. “Of course you do.”

  “What teenager doesn’t want to go to a party?” Siobhan appeared truly baffled.

  “Me,” Brynn said.

  Her dad and stepmom laughed, as though she’d made a joke.

  But it wasn’t a joke. Brynn’s stomach turned over.

  “Don’t stay out too late,” Siobhan told the boys.

  “Have her home by eleven,” her dad instructed them.

  “Dad!”

  “What?”

  Brynn clutched
her fork in her fist and stared at him, wishing the ground would open up and swallow her whole. That’d shut them up.

  “I said I don’t want to go.”

  A ripple of unease flitted across his face, and for a brief moment, she thought she’d finally gotten through to him.

  Then, he shrugged. “Why not?”

  “Because I wasn’t invited.”

  Silence dropped like a loaf of unleavened bread. She could practically taste the tang of awkwardness in the room.

  “The kids at school…” she lifted her shoulders and let them drop heavily, “…they don’t like me all that much.”

  “They do not dislike you,” Aiden said, his voice held a softness she’d never heard before. “It’s only that they do not know ya.”

  “Ye should talk,” Rory agreed.

  “They’ll like you just fine once they know ya a bit better,” Cian added.

  Brynn very much doubted that, but she was too relieved not be going to that party, and too shaken by the buttery warmth in Aiden’s golden eyes, to argue.

  Less than a week later, all had returned to normal, with Aiden ignoring her so completely she’d begun to doubt her own existence.

  Friday in fourth period, Samantha’s cackling laughter grated along Brynn’s spine.

  “Omigod, Aiden, you’re so funny.” Sam placed her ugly, red-tipped paw on his arm. “We should totally go out sometime. We’d have a blast.”

  As an easy smile worked its way across Aiden’s lips, Brynn twisted abruptly in her seat, giving them her back.

  In the seat next to her, Kyle Pierson looked up from his notebook at her sudden motion.

  She gaped, unsure what to do.

  You should talk more.

  She smiled weakly. “Hi.”

  “Hi.” He held out the stick of gum he’d just slipped from the pack. “Want one?”

  Despite the fact that Mr. Strickland forbade chewing gum in his classroom, Brynn took the foil-wrapped treat and peeled away the paper.

  “Thank you,” she said, ducking her chin to pop the gum into her mouth without detection.