Page 143 of I Choose You

He surfaced, spitting out water and shaking his head to fling a spray from his hair. “You asshole.”

I pointed down at him. “You are the asshole. Maybe this will cool your ego down.”

I stormed up the dock and hurried for the house, ignoring each of my dad’s yells. He didn’t deserve to have his party ruined, but I would let the guilt creep up on me later.

“Help him up,” someone called from behind me. “He’s probably too mad to even see that damn ladder.”

“Damn, that water’s gotta be cold now.”

“Hey, what happened out there?”

I tuned them all out. I ignored the way Kody snarled at those who’d watched him reach the dock’s rope ladder.

The hell with him.

“Kaden!” Dad yelled. “What’s going on?”

The screen door to the house thwacked as I hurried through to the kitchen. Pausing only long enough to open the fridge, I grabbed a water bottle on the way to my room. Then I slammed and locked the door. If anyone came to bother me, they could fuck off. I was in no mood to talk to any of them, least of all my brother. I planned to sober up and leave as soon as I could.

Self-righteous prick? I scowled, setting my phone on the nightstand.

It wasn’t the first time he’d called me that. Many names had been slung my way all my life. It wasn’t fair that I had to get used to the abuse. And that particular jab burned.

Because I was trying to do the right thing. Because I did want to make sure amends were made, even if I hadn’t done anything wrong in the first place.

I couldn’t stay there. There was no fucking way I was facing him until he learned some damn respect.

Kody and I swore to never let a girl come between us.

I flopped on the bed and glared at the ceiling.

So much for that.

48

BROOKE

Going to hot yoga by myself wasn’t the same without Rena. I hadn’t been counting down the time until she returned, but I knew it was soon. Not soon enough, though. I saw each of her posts because I set my notifications to alert me, and it looked like she was having a great time.

I went to class because Kaden wasn’t home. It would have been easy to feel like the one who was left out. All alone and stuck at home while my best friend and boyfriend were out somewhere fun.

Boyfriend. I grinned as I switched poses, enjoying the secret thrill I had at that very word. Sure, I’d had a couple before, but they were fleeting and short term, so limited in duration that they felt like flings, not previous significant others.

Kaden Wagner was my boyfriend. And I didn’t care who saw me smiling like a damn fool here. I glanced up to look at my grin in the mirror.

“No, no. Concentrate. You need to elongate your back, like so,” the instructor said, correcting me.

I rolled my eyes as I dutifully dropped my head and lowered my gaze to the mat. This wasn’t my first class here. I knew how this went. Go figure the time I felt confident in my skin—my sweaty, red-faced, oh-my-God-it’s-hot-in-here skin—someone would tell me not to smile and look away. It didn’t matter. I knew what I saw. A woman falling in love.

I tilted, hurrying to correct my stance before I fell.

Fell to the mat, that was.

Not falling in love.

Nope. This thing with Kaden was just fake.

It’s not fake. Which implied it was the opposite. It was real, but it was also really complicated. My feelings were aiming in that direction, but I couldn’t shake the suspicion something was wrong or might go wrong. I supposed that could happen to anyone at any time. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but I picked up on little things when I was with Kaden. When he might go still or hesitate to say something. I wasn’t usually prone to paranoia, and the funky feeling held me back from diving all the way in to that risky L-word.