“Nothing,” she said and squeezed my hand. “Just promise you’ll come back. You won’t ditch me.”
I pulled a face. “I’d never ditch you. You’re the only person here I’m interested in talking to.” I winked at her.
Her shoulders inched down from under her ears.
I felt guilty as I walked away, because ditching her was exactly what I’d planned to do. It was hard to drink as much as I wanted with Winter around. She wasn’t much of a drinker herself, so nursing one cocktail for hours really wasn’t going to work for me to survive a party like this. But I couldn’t go all out. Winter knew my mom. She was absolutely the type to interfere for my own good, and I couldn’t risk that.
I needed her. She was my only friend. The last decent thing I had in my life, after Cici.
I found the drinks in the kitchen and made two cocktails in two red cups. In Winter’s, I put a regular amount of alcohol and mixed it. Mine, I made nine times as strong. It was basically straight vodka with a hint of soda.
“You’re bad at that,” a deep voice said beside me. A guy had joined me at the table.
I glanced up at him. He had on a black T-shirt, a scuffed leather jacket, and an even blacker expression.
Callahan Sinclair. I jolted, nearly knocking over my drink. He reached out and grabbed the cup, steadying it with impressive reflexes before it could fall.
“Careful, wherever that cup goes will be extremely flammable,” he muttered.
I took the drink back from him and sipped, needing it to fortify myself now that I was interacting with the other brother.
“Aren’t you going to tell me not to drink it?”
“Why would I do that?” Callahan murmured. He looked bored as hell. He scanned around the party and then returned his gaze to me. “Do you want me to?”
I shook my head. “Your brother seems to have decided to boss me around and try and tell me what I can and can’t do, as a Sinclair.”
“That’s Brody. He can be a little uptight.”
“Uptight? The guy is wound tighter than a spring. He gave me a whole speech about the family reputation and how I better not cross him. His delusions of grandeur are pretty impressive.”
Callahan just nodded. “Sounds like him.”
“Why doesn’t he get on your case? You don’t seem to care about keeping up the Sinclair reputation. I mean, you’re not trying to come off as normal,” I pointed out.
Callahan stared at me, and then, to my surprise, chuckled. “Wow, you’re as rude as Brody says you are.”
“How was that rude?”
A grin just played around his lips, and he shook his head ruefully. I had the impression he didn’t smile often.
“I’d rather not educate you on that point… it’ll be more fun not to. I look forward to seeing you and my brother collide, Selena. It’s been a while since my father and brother met a force to be reckoned with. Thanks in advance for the entertainment.”
He turned and started away.
“Well, that’s not ominous at all,” I called after him. “Nice to meet you, Callahan.”
He turned and walked backward. People seemed to part around him. Of course, they did. He was huge, tall and broad, with the same good looks as Brody, the type that made all the girls stare. They weren’t identical, but each was male-model material. Whatever entity had created these two was clearly biased, not only making them hot and great at hockey, but also rich.
“It’s Cal,” my new stepbrother called to me. “Call me Cal.”
Then the crowd swallowed him.
I took another long drink. Did that mean if he was here, Brody was, too? Mr. Buzzkill could pop up at any second and try to send me home. Start talking about his rules, take my drink away from me. I half downed it at the thought. The vodka burned a path through my nerves, numbing me from the inside, and I inhaled the first easy breath I’d taken all day.
There it was. The feeling of relaxation I’d been hunting for.
I finished that drink right there, and then mixed another. I’d tell Winter it was my first. Then I glanced around the house, searching for my friend.
