you’re living in a fantasy world. There are other girls out there, Nash. Maybe even a few who’ve never seen the inside of the police station.”
He glared at me, waiting for me to cave, but that wasn’t gonna happen. Not this time. Mom was right—he’d lost it. Over a girl. “Fine. I’ll do it myself. Gimme the keys.”
“No way. I’m meeting Genna in an hour.”
“I thought you were supposed to stay here and babysit.”
“I thought you were supposed to be the smart one. So why are you acting like such an idiot?”
“Just give me the keys!” Nash glanced around the living room, then lunged for the end table when he spotted the keys to the car I’d been forced to share with him since his birthday. I rammed his shoulder, knocking him to the carpet halfway across the room.
“Sorry.” I grabbed the keys and shoved them into my front pocket. “But Mom says you’re grounded.” I stuck my hand out to help him up, but he smacked it away, glaring up at me with his jaw clenched.
Nash shoved himself to his feet and stepped forward like he’d take a swing. But he wouldn’t. I could see hints of our father’s build in the width of his shoulders, but I still had two inches and twenty pounds on him, and he knew better than to start a fight he couldn’t win.
“I’d do this for you,” he spat instead. “Because you’re my brother. But obviously that concept is wasted on you.” Then he stomped off to his room and slammed the door.
“You’ll thank me for this later!” I shouted, trying to deny the fact that his parting shot stung almost like a physical blow.
A couple of hours later, the credits scrolled down the darkened TV screen, and Genna sighed. She sat up, and I missed the warmth of her back against my chest. I wrapped one arm around her waist and leaned forward. “Hey, I liked you there.”
She twisted in my grip to straddle me, delicious pressure in exactly the right place. Her brows arched and she gave me a slow smile as she bent toward my ear. “I thought you might like me here better,” she whispered, her breath an intimate warmth against my ear.
She was right.
She laid her hands flat against my chest, warm, thin fingers splayed over my shirt. My pulse spiked and I pulled her down for a kiss. My mouth left hers to trail over her chin and down her neck, tasting her bit by bit. She sat taller and threw her head back to give me better reach, shifting closer on my lap, and—
My cell phone buzzed on the end table.
I groaned, and Genna leaned back to brush hair from her face. “Aren’t you going to get that?”
“Nothing on earth could make me take that call right now.” I tried to pull her closer, but she leaned over the arm of the couch instead, peering at the display on my phone.
“It’s your brother.”
Damn it. I shifted her to one side and looked around her shoulder at the dark hallway.
“Nash, come out and get it yourself!” Then I re-centered Genna on my lap. “Sometimes he texts mom with snack requests, but I’m not gonna wait on the lazy little punk.”
Genna laughed, staring down at me. “He’s been in his room this whole time?”
“Yeah. Sulking.”
“He’s probably afraid of what he’ll see if he comes out.”
“Oh yeah?” I slid my hands slowly up her sides. “What’s he gonna see?”
“A little more of this…” She kissed me again, and Nash’s call was delivered to voice mail.
Two minutes later, the phone rang again, and I wanted to throw it through the front window. Genna handed me the phone. “He’s not gonna quit until you answer.”
I groaned and flipped the phone open, one hand on her hip, and loud, bass-heavy music blasted from Nash’s end of the line.
Oh shit. There was no music coming from the hall. When had he snuck out?
“Where the hell are you?” I snapped into the receiver.
“I need a ride,” Nash slurred into my ear, and I rolled my eyes. He’d found a party.
“Where are you?” I repeated. “And how did you get there?”
“Arlington,” Nash said, his words slushy but coherent. “I walked to Brent’s and he drove us out here, but now he’s shitfaced.”
The tip of Genna’s tongue trailed up my neck, hot and damp, and full of promise. “We leave for Florida tomorrow morning,” she whispered into one ear, while Nash barked threats into the other. “I won’t see you again until school starts. But I don’t have to be home for another hour…”
“You’ve already failed as a brother once today,” Nash snapped. “Put your ass in the car and come get me.”
“I’ll be there in an hour,” I said, only half focused on him while Genna leaned back and started unbuttoning her shirt. My pulse raced, anticipation sparking in my veins. “Just hang out until then…” I finished, vaguely aware that my voice was little more than a suggestion of sound by that point.
“Come get me, or I’m calling Mom,” Nash threatened. “And you can tell her I’m at some stoner party in Arlington because you were too busy making out with your girlfriend to notice me leaving.”
Shit.
“You’re a complete pain in the ass, Nash.”
“If you’re not here in twenty minutes, I’m calling the hospital.” Where our mom was pulling a twelve-hour shift. Nash spat out the address, then hung up before I could argue.
“Damn it.” I flipped my phone closed, then lifted Genna from my lap and set her on the middle couch cushion.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, frowning as I shoved my phone into my pocket and grabbed my keys.
“I have to go get Nash. But then we can take this to my room and pick up right where we left off.” After a moment’s hesitation—and one more long look—I pulled her up from the couch.
“You’ll never even know he’s here.” Because I’d bind and gag him if I had to, to keep him quiet.
“Where is he?” Genna buttoned her shirt, then ran her fingers through pale brown hair.
“Arlington. Let’s go.”
“Wait, Tod, I can’t go to Arlington.” Her frown deepened, and I could feel my plans for the evening being downgraded from X to PG13. “We’ll barely make it back here before my curfew, and I’ll be late by the time I get home.”
“You want me to take you back now?” I asked, while on the inside I chanted, please say no, please say no, pleasesayno over and over.
“No,” she said, pressing herself against me. “I want you to let your brother wait a few minutes.” She tugged on the button at the waist of my jeans.
I put one hand over hers to stop her, cursing myself silently. “I can’t. When left to his own devices, Nash finds trouble.” And sometimes tries to break it out of jail. “You sure you can’t miss curfew? I’ll make it worth your while….”
“I’m sure you would.” Her smile practically sizzled, and the flashes of memory that surfaced scalded me from the inside out. “But if I’m late, my mom will jump to all the right conclusions, and then my dad will kill you. Seriously. And what am I gonna do with a dead boyfriend?”
“Nothing that doesn’t defy the norms of polite society…” I mumbled, disappointed when she stepped back and turned toward the door.
If Nash isn’t dead of alcohol poisoning by the time I get there, I’ll kill him myself…