Page 10 of All Roads Lead to You

Her fingers walked along my chest, and she bit her red-stained bottom lip. “We don’t have to date, silly willy.”

Any other guy would love to bang her, so my turning her down looked bad, but I wasn’t about to fuck her. “Not tonight, April. You’ve been drinking too much.”

“I can handle myself.”

“You heard him, April. He said no.”

April suddenly noticed Hunter and scowled at him. “No one asked you, freak.”

“Fuck off, April,” I snapped. “Leave Hunter alone.” No one fucking messed with my best friend, and everyone knew it, but she was too drunk to shut her mouth. “Walk away now. We’re not going to fuck.”

She mumbled a slur that gut-punched me as she walked away. I wasn’t sure if she figured out if I was gay or if she said that after being hurt by my rejection. Either way, it stung.

“Sorry, Hunt. She shouldn’t have said that.”

“It’s not your fault. And she shouldn’t have said that shit to you, either.” Hunter chugged the rest of his beer. “I’m outta here. This party blows.”

“Yeah, I’m gonna bounce, too. Call you later.”

We shook hands, and he left to drive himself home.

Before I headed out to my truck, I stopped in my tracks.

Dammit.

Nick had just lost his girlfriend, or they had a massive blowout, and then he headed out back with an entire bottle of hard liquor. He was probably trashed by now, so I couldn’t have him drive home drunk. Since I barely drank anything tonight, Dad would fucking kill me if I left him behind.

I put out my cigarette in a plastic cup, a third full of backwashed beer on a table, and walked away in search of my beloved stepbrother.

The party was in full swing, with people in the pool in various states of undress, some fully clothed while others were completely naked. The air was heavy with clouds of smoke from cigarettes and weed, and the house was trashed. Will’s parents had a lot of money, so they probably had an entire crew to clean up the disaster.

After some searching, I found Nick with his back turned to the party, sitting on a lawn chair, staring out at the woods behind the house and ignoring the chaos behind him.

Before I could reach him, Will, the man of the hour, stopped me. He was fucking gorgeous, with black hair and cold blue eyes. While hot, I’d only ever been attracted to Nick.

“Hey, Logan. You’re entirely too sober,” he said, slurring his words as badly as April had.

“What’s up, Will? Awesome party, man.”

We shook hands, and I tried to walk away before he stopped me again. I had to force my eyes off Nick to focus on Will.

“Dude, you look entirely too sober,” he said again.

I rolled my eyes and shrugged. “Yeah, I need to get my… brother home.” I winced, hating calling Nick that. “He’s trashed, and I think he and Lauren broke up. Gotta bring him home.”

Will turned to glance at Nick. “Bummer. Yeah, I tried talking to him, but he shoved me away.”

“Sorry, gotta go.”

I walked away, solely focused on Nick, and came to stand in front of him. He hunched forward with the half-finished bottle that he’d snagged earlier in his hand. Fuck, he was going to be trashed. I took the bottle out of his hand and read the label. Southern Comfort. That shit was lighter fuel and would get you drunker than hell.

“Come on. Let’s get you home,” I said and reached for his arm to lift him to stand.

He yanked himself out of my grasp. “Fuck off, Logan.” His words were slurred, so the liquor was already hitting him, which was only going to get worse as time went on.

“You’re drunk, and we need to get you home. We’ll get your car tomorrow.”

He looked up at me with so much hurt in those dark eyes of his—eyes that started to leak. I’d never so much as seen Nick shed a tear as long as I’d known him. Boys were taught not to cry at an early age. I swallowed my empathy for him.

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