AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I work. I come back here, hang out, work out. Same old shit, different day,” he spoke with a frown. “I’m not that interesting, Taylor.”
“I don’t believe that for a second.” The look he gave me was a little confusing. It kind of felt like he wanted me to stop talking, but also that he was flattered to hear I didn’t think he wasn’t interesting. “You know what I think? I think you just don’t want to talk about yourself to me. Maybe you’re worried that I might not understand your life, being as glamorous as it is—” That got him to smirk and roll his eyes at me, which only made me grin harder. “—or maybe you’re worried that I’ll get upset hearing about everything you’ve done while I was stuck with my dad.”
Creed’s smirk lessened, and he sighed. He leaned forward, resting his arms on his knees, still staring right at me. That stare pinned me down and made me warm in certain places, so intense.
Calm down, Taylor, I told myself,he’s your stepbrother, not some hot guy you’re going to hook up with. Your brother. He’s your brother.
As much as I told myself that, it always seemed to ring hollow, because he wasn’t really my brother. We didn’t grow up together. I mean, the first half of my life, yes, but he’d been missing these last ten years.
My voice got quiet as I looked away, mostly to calm my thoughts, “I don’t hate you for leaving me, Creed. I just wish you would’ve been a part of my life these last ten years. But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to hear about your life and what you’ve been up to. If anything, it makes me want to hear about it more, because I missed it.” When I looked back at him, my breath caught in my throat.
God, he really had that intense stare down pat.
“I missedyourlife,” he said. “So why don’t you tell me everything about you these last ten years? Tell me how high school went, why you picked the major you did, all that stuff. I wasn’t there for you, so I want to hear all about it.”
I chuckled, and took a page out of Creed’s book by saying, “I’m really not half as interesting as you’re making me out to be.”
“I doubt that.”
There he was with his short, super intense replies. The power and vehemence behind those words made me do the one thing I never liked doing: talk about myself. “I wanted to learn more about how the mind works. I’m hoping to get into HR or something when I graduate in a few years. And as for high school… it was basically a shit show.”
“A shit show? Why?”
I shrugged. “It was just… temporary. Even college is. I can’t shake that feeling. I never really made close friends, so it wasn’t like I had a group of girls to hang out with in school. I was the girl who was always picked last in gym class—partially because I’m no good at sports, but also because I didn’t have friends.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. There’s always someone who’s picked last. That’s just how it is.”
“Yes, but it should never be you,” Creed whispered. Even though there were two feet between us on the couch, it felt like he was right beside me, those dark eyes of his boring into me, pinning me in place. “You should always be picked first.”
That got me to laugh. The sentiment was sweet, but I was more of a realist than that—and besides, it wasn’t like I hated anyone for picking me last. I understood it at the time. High school was all about cliques and friend groups, finding where you belonged. I just never found that out for myself.
What Creed said next caught me a little off-guard, but since I’d asked him last night about any girlfriends, I supposed it was only natural for him to ask it of me: “I take it that means no boyfriends?”
I wanted to laugh at that, but the look on his face was too serious. All I could do was shake my head once and say, “No boyfriends.” It wasn’t for a lack of trying; boys just didn’t seem to like me too much. “The closest I’ve ever been to a boyfriend was Johnny Vargas, and he pretty much ditched me right after prom.”
Or, right after we’d left prom to do some, let’s just say, adult things. Yeah, the experience was awful, but at least I knew what to expect now when it came to guys. Wham, bam, done, thank you ma’am, next. No romance novel stamina here. Not in the real world.
“I don’t know why anyone would ditch you,” Creed spoke quietly, eyes on me.
“Yeah, well, you’re my stepbrother, so you have to say that.”
“I mean it.”
I didn’t know what to say to that, so I bit the inside of my cheek and turned my face away from him to hide the blush that was surely creeping up my cheeks.
Because I wanted the attention off me and my lack of love life, I muttered, “Why don’t you have a girlfriend? For someone like you, it has to be easy to attract all kinds of attention.” I still couldn’t look at him while I said it, but I could imagine his reaction well enough.
“Someone like me?” Creed echoed, sounding faintly amused. “What’s that supposed to mean, Taylor?”
Closing my eyes, I turned my head toward him, hoping my blush had faded at least a little. When I opened my eyes, I found him watching me with a smirk on his face. “You know what it means. You’re well off and you obviously have a good job. You dress nice. You’re not bad to look at—”
Ah, maybe that was something I should’ve kept to myself? Oh, well. Too late now.
I decided to quickly say, “All I’m saying is, you have a lot of qualities that many women find attractive.” Oh, God. Somehow, I ended up embarrassing myself more. Go me.
“Do I, now?” That serious expression of his flickered with even more amusement. Creed had to know I’d dug myself into a hole here, and he must’ve found it funny, because he wouldn’t let it go. “Do I have a lot of qualities women find attractive?”
