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Puberty hadn’t been kind to Dream. She’d gone from cute kid to gawky teenager, complete with braces and gangly limbs and glasses as thick as a pane of glass. She’d still been pretty in her own way, of course, but she wasn’t exactly the belle of the ball in high school.
That all changed, however, around the time that Dream hit seventeen. She had her braces removed, switched to contacts, and her long, gawky body filled out in all the right places. In short, she’d become a knockout. My brothers and I did our best to not notice what was happening in our own home, but it was damn near impossible. Dream had always been like a kid sister to us, but it took us all by surprise when our dad married her mom. They just eloped one day, didn’t invite us since we were all away in the military. It made things weird with Dream for a bit, so in a way, I was relieved that the marriage failed - even if I had been hopeful for both her mom and my dad finally finding love. anyway.
Long before our parents got married, we were fiercely protective of Dream. Not a guy in school dared go near Dream for fear of getting on our bad sides. And sure, it hadn’t hurt that we’d all made sure word got out that we’d take care of any guy who did her wrong. Hell, it didn’t even matter that I’d already graduated when she was a freshman. Our intentions might’ve been good, but it didn’t work out so well for Dream – not a single guy had wanted to risk asking her out.
No surprise that Adam Myles, shifty little shit that he was, would wait until the three of us had been deployed on the other side of the globe before he made his move. Even less of a surprise that he’d fucked it all up.
“Yeah,” Evan said. “Dude better stay in Chicago if he knows what’s good for him.”
I raised my palms, trying to bring some calm to the situation. Between Jay’s angry nature and Evan’s wild side, I often found myself playing the cool head.
“Easy, now,” I said. “We don’t know what happened between those two. Let’s see Dream and find out if she even wants to talk about it before putting a bounty on Adam’s head.”
Jay’s jaw worked as he kept his mouth shut. I could sense that, while he planned to listen to me, he was already thinking about what he’d do once he got his hands on Adam.
“Fine, fine,” Evan agreed. His worried expression vanished, replaced by his usual happy-go-lucky smile. Great thing about Evan was that he never stayed preoccupied for long. “We definitely need to make plans to see her, you know? It’s been how long? Years?”
“Yeah, way too long,” I said, leaning back and putting my feet up on the table. “Be nice to catch up with her.”
“Heard that her friend, Clarissa, is doing a big Christmas thing,” Jay said. “Hopefully she sticks around in town long enough to go.”
I nodded, sipping my beer.
“Might be weird,” I muttered. “After all these years and what happened between our folks.”
They both nodded – I didn’t need to say another word.
“The perils of living in a small town,” Jay proclaimed. “Everyone knows everyone or has dated each other or some other kind of thing.”
Evan regarded me with expectant eyes, slight concern on his face.
“Yo, Dunc…you gonna eat that steak?”
I let out a snort of a laugh as I realized I hadn’t taken a bite since we’d sat down.
“Hands off, bud – this one’s all mine.”
I sliced into the steak, my mind going right back to Dream as a red pool formed on my plate. I stabbed the meat, bringing it to my mouth and chewing.
Dream. How many times had I thought of her over the years, thought of what it’d be like to get her into bed with me? It’d been so wrong to think about – she was like a sister to me.
But we were adults now, and our parents weren’t together anymore. Maybe it wasn’t so taboo after all.
