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CHAPTER TWELVE
SHANE
Iended the call to Winter and shoved my phone into my pocket. Irritation trailed my every move. I didn’t have time to take her out for ice cream. Too many things had been in the air lately. I combed a hand through my hair, resolve settling over me like a heavy blanket. I was going to do it for a reason. It’d been eight years since she’d shaken my confidence to dangerous levels, and it was time to exact my revenge.Getting back at her is one of the things I want to handle.The rest of my long list of tasks could wait.
“What the hell was that about?”
I craned my neck around the corner of the football house’s family room as Damon approached from the kitchen. He looked at me like I was crazy, and I frowned.
“Why are you pretending to be someone named Landon?”
It was a rare night when the room wasn’t packed with housemates playing video games or making food. A few guys filled the kitchen, and I knew it would only be a matter of time before they invaded my current space. What I would share with my cousin wasn’t a story I wanted someone to overhear, so I got to the meat of it quickly.
“Do you remember Winter Patten from fifth grade?”
Damon sat on the opposite end of the couch and ate his sandwich, his brows scrunched. “Not offhand. Why?”
I thought back to that time and remembered a few more things. “You hung around with Joey Leary back then and played a lot of basketball.”
“Oh, right.” Damon grinned. “I thought I should do something other than what my brother was into. It was a competitive year between us.”
I laughed. “Shit. I forgot about that. You got angry in that pickup football game we were playing at recess. You shouted at Cole that he sucked and couldn’t run a route if he was the only one on the field.”
“Yeah. I was kind of a dick back then.” The laughter vanished from Damon. “Our parents were always fighting, and Cole told me off a few times about Mom when I sided with Dad. We didn’t have the same perspective.”
“Only then?” I grinned. They had always been tight. But I remembered how much their parents’ fights wore on them. It had been terrible that year. Not that it got better, but it was the beginning of the end. Their home life, football, and girls had consumed them. Anyone else’s problems, other than mine or my brother’s, didn’t even hit their radar.
He smirked. “You were acting weird most of the time, super shy, and Cole and I were fighting about our parents. But what made me tackle him and give him a bloody nose that day was because he kissed Sarah McQueen, and he knew I wanted to go for her.”
“You did anyway.”
Damon snorted. “Good times.”
The guys grew louder in the kitchen, and the microwave dinged. “Winter was the girl with long strawberry-blond hair. She moved away during fifth grade, but she made my life hell before she did.”
“What? I don’t remember any of that.”
“You don’t remember when she told our entire class that I had a tiny dick and that I broke my arm jerking off?”
“Oh, shit!” Damon’s blue eyes danced with mirth. “I do remember that. You didn’t break it, though.”
“Nope. I fell out of the palm tree and sprained it.”
Damon kicked his feet onto the coffee table. “It’s weird that I don’t remember her. So, that’s who you were talking to?”
“She transferred here this semester and didn’t remember me.” Darkness swirled, and I clenched my hands, fighting the urge to hit something. Maybe Damon.
It was such a fucked-up time for me. But to be fair, my brother was the only one who knew. I’d sworn him to secrecy about how much I was struggling. Even against his wishes to bring our cousins in on it. “And since she doesn’t, I thought it would be a good time for payback.”
Damon studied me for a couple of seconds then seemed to come to a decision. “Whatever’s going on, if you need me for anything, I’ve got your back.”
“I know you do.” So did both our brothers. Nothing could come between us. I grabbed my keys from where I’d tossed them on the table and stood. “I’m heading out. I’ll catch you later.”
Fifth grade through eighth was a weird time for most people, but out of our group, it’d been especially so for me. It wasn’t until high school that things had changed. I’d gotten stronger, and nothing could pull me back down to that low time in my life. I’d finally conquered it and was better. Tracey had played a large part in that, until she hadn’t. How we parted ways, it’d torn me up, but it hadn’t broken me. Nothing would again, not ever. I was better than that.
I’d loosely formed my plan with a tangible end goal. I just needed to get to know her to find her weak, most vulnerable spots. I wanted to deliver a strike that would cripple her.
I got into my Range Rover, drove to her dorm, parked in front of the building, and waited for her to come out. I didn’t wait long. She jogged out in jeans and a tight blue T-shirt, her long hair rippling behind her.
