Page 5 of All Roads Lead to You

Mom rolled her brown eyes and smiled. I looked a lot like her, sharing our dark brown eyes and dark brown hair, though I had my dad’s Greek blood and olive skin while Mom’s skin was fair.

I kissed the wispy, dark blond hair on my baby sister’s head and sat down at the dinner table.

Hannah had been a complete surprise. My stepdad and mom never planned to have more kids, but a year ago, out came the cutest fucking thing I’d ever seen. I’d always wanted siblings, and I finally got two of them. Well, Logan hadn’t been much of a brother, but at least I had Hannah.

Wyatt, my stepdad, tossed a wrapped burger my way, and I caught it. “Eat up. If you’re going to be drinking, I don’t want you doing it on an empty stomach. If you get even slightly buzzed and no one is sober to drive, you call us. Understand? I don’t care what time it is.”

“Yessir,” I said, shoving half the burger into my mouth and washing it down with a Coke before eating a handful of fries.

I adored Wyatt. He took care of my mom and was more of a father to me than my own dad, who’d abandoned Mom and me when I was seven, forcing her to find work after being a stay-at-home mom the entire time. Eventually, she went to real estate school and now manages the branch office in Vienna. She does amazingly well, proving she never needed that piece of shit.

“Is Logan going with you?” he asked.

I shrugged, though I knew he wouldn’t. “I doubt it.”

Logan had hated me ever since his dad married Mom, resenting our new family. I didn’t really blame him after losing his mom, but it’s been five years now. I mean, come on. I’d never done shit to him, and he still fucking hated me. And fuck did we have some brawls over the years. Hell if I was going to let him push me around. I’d wanted so much for him to like me, and I really tried in the beginning, but eventually, I gave up. You just couldn’t make someone like you.

Mom sighed. “It makes sense to go together. Summer will be over before you know it, and you boys will be off to different colleges. You two are the same age. I’d hoped you both would’ve learned to get along and grow close by now.”

“I’m sorry, Nick. I really wish Logan would’ve come around.”

I shrugged again. What was there to say? Wyatt and Mom tried hard to make us get along, but Logan was stubborn as fuck. Whatever. It was no skin off my back. Soon, we wouldn’t see each other again except on holidays. Eventually, I suppose we’d be nothing more than two people who barely knew each other despite sharing the same family. It was kind of weird, honestly.

Wyatt stepped into the foyer and yelled up the stairs. “Logan! Come down to eat before the food gets cold.”

He returned and sat at the kitchen table next to Mom, taking Hannah from her to feed her applesauce. “Eat, Mia.”

My mother smiled gratefully and unwrapped a burger.

Soon, Logan came walking in and sat his surly self down at the kitchen table, not saying a damn word as he unwrapped a burger and shoved about ten fries into his mouth, chasing them down with his root beer.

My stepfather and stepbrother looked very little alike. Wyatt had dark blond hair and blue eyes, while Logan’s hair was more brown than blond with hazel-green eyes. He must have looked like his mother, although Wyatt and Logan had the same build with lean muscle, broad shoulders, and stood at six-foot-three. I only just reached six feet when I wore shoes.

“I’m going to tell you what I told your brother—”

“He’s not my brother.”

I swore it didn’t even hurt anymore. I’d always wanted a brother, and once I got one, he hated me. It had stung each time he’d said that about me. Eventually, I gave up caring.

That was a lie. It still stung, but I didn’t let it get to me as much anymore. Soon, it would be just my girl and me, living it up in sunny Cali. College was going to be fucking righteous.

“Logan, can you not for five minutes?” his father sighed. “You’re an adult now. Act like one.”

Logan stood, scraping the chair across the linoleum floor, and grabbed a second burger. “Whatever. I’m gonna split.”

Before he walked out, his father stopped him. “I’m going to tell you the same thing I told Nick. If you get drunk, call Mia or me, no matter what time. Understood?”

“Yeah.”

“And both of you wear your seatbelts.”

When the front door slammed, Wyatt looked at me with a sheepish smile. “I really wish you two would get along. I’m sorry he’s so damn moody all the time.”

“Whatever. It’s fine,” I said, standing and grabbing one more burger for the road.

“While Logan takes that road trip with Hunter, Wyatt and I have talked about going to Nags Head Beach in North Carolina for a week during the last week of July. That will give us time to get you packed and shipped off to Stanford. Why don’t you ask Lauren to talk to her parents and see if she can go with us?”

“That sounds stellar. I’ll ask.”

---