Even if he noticed the change in Addie, too, he wouldn’t comment on it. Not to her. It wasn’t his style to dive into people’s behaviors in general, but his twin sister’s sexual awakening—again, a detail I hadn’t asked to overhear—was on the expansive list of things Adam refused to think or speak about unless threatened with death.
I hadn’t stopped thinking about it.
And I wanted to talk about it.
For her sake, of course.
Addie was perfect. Of course, some prick with a Vespa and record player had been interested in her from day one. But how he’d managed to sink his tobacco-stained claws into her, I had no idea.
She was smarter than that. And I didn’t understand why she wasn’t acting like it.
“Listen, brother.” I eyed Adam carefully as I stretched. “I know you don’t want to talk about this, but don’t you think we should?”
“Talk about what?”
Oblivious. I swear to fucking God.
“Addie! She’s going to end up hurt. Or worse. And who’s going to be there, picking up the pieces?”
His eyebrows knit together.
“Us! That's who, Adam!”
Adam’s eyes widened. He swiveled his head between me and staring after Addie. After three passes, he settled back on me, cocking his head to the side and squinting. The corner of his mouth twisted with uncertainty.
I bent my knee, reaching back to grab my ankle and stretching my quad as Adam worked through whatever he was trying to process. When he opened his mouth to say something, I dropped my right leg and switched to the left.
He shut his mouth a moment later.
“What?” I said through a groan, my muscles tight after a season of pushing my body on the field. “Spit it out, Adam.”
He’d yet to start stretching, which didn’t help my growing impatience as beats of silence passed.
Finally, he slung an arm across his chest. Not the muscle group we were working today, but it was something. “So…you want to tell Addie that her boyfriend sucks?”
It wasn’t exactly what I’d said, but it also wasn’t far from the truth. I almost took it and ran with it, but Adam didn’t wait for me to respond.
“You want to tell Addie…Addison Barrow, my twin sister, who’s the same age as us but with ten times the emotion and attitude that her boyfriend, the one she’s super happy about—the one who has her running around all empowered and shit—you want to tell her he sucks?”
I frowned. “Well, I did.”
“You think that would go over well?”
“No.” I kicked the toe of my shoe into the ground. “Doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do it, though. The guy’s a creep. What is he, like twenty-two, and he can’t find a girl his own age to date? I’m eighteen, and you know what I’m like about girls. Do you really think it gets easier to think without using your dick as we get older? Especially here, where he’s surrounded by willing college chicks.”
Adam blinked a few times after my tirade before nodding slowly. Then, without stretching and without another word, he took off running.
Eyes shooting toward the heavens, I prayed for patience and ran after him. As we went through our first lap, his mouth stayed pinched in thought.
I didn’t know what was so revelatory about what I’d said, but I gave him space to sort through it. He didn’t speak again until Addie came into view ahead of us, her pace slightly slower than ours.
“Are you into my sister?”
I stopped in my tracks. “What?”
Adam turned around, jogging in place only a few paces in front of me. I glanced past him at Addie. For a second, I thought she might stop, but she continued on ahead of us.
Adam tilted his head again as he observed me, looking at me like he was seeing me for the first time. “You heard me.”
