Page 1 of Something Borrowed

Prologue

Adrianna couldn’t helpbut stare at Jaxon as he stood with his back to her in the kitchen. Which isn’t what you are here to do. Focus, Adrianna. She tried to shift her attention to the assignment on the table, but it was impossible. All she could do was look at what must have been the world’s most perfect backside.

“Earth to Adrianna, anyone in there?” Kailey snapped, waving her hands in front of Adrianna’sface.

Sheepishly, she shrugged and forced her attention to the pencil-scrawled numbers on the paper. If Kailey was annoyed she wasn’t listening, she would be a whole hell of a lot more annoyed if she found out it was because Adrianna couldn’t stop staring at her older brother.

“Sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry, just pay attention.” Kailey glowered as she leaned over to look at the other paper. “Not like you even did the problem I was going to ask about.”

Sighing, Adrianna closed her eyes and forced herself to think about something other than the boy she’d had a crush on since she was old enough to crush on boys. There had always been something about him that had drawn her to him – even if she’d never dared to tell Kailey that. He’d spent the summer in Marine boot camp – at least she thought the Marines called it that, maybe it was basic training – and had only grown more perfect.

The short spiky cut of his black hair made his chiseled jaw all the more pronounced. She’d give anything to run her fingertips over that jawline as they kissed. He’d been muscular before leaving, but the time away had developed his arms in such a way that she longed for them to wrap around her while they kissed on the grass.

“I’m just distracted. Who gives homework the first week of school?”

“AP classes, and if you don’t figure out how to un-distract yourself you’ll fail the first semester of Calculus AB and God knows how many other classes. Which means no spring season.” Kailey pushed backward on the table, sliding the rolling chair away from it, and stood up. “Whatever. I’ll be rightback.”

“Jeesh. My sister can be a real drama queen,” Jaxon said from behindher.

She turned and found herself eye-to-eye with the most beautiful blue eyes she’d ever seen. They seemed to sparkle in the light, or at least to her theydid.

“Some of us are choosing college over a life of servitude to the country. Not to mention many of us need scholarships and good grades to get us there.”

He clutched his heart and staggered backward. “Ouch. That was a harsher burn than most of the things my drill instructors shouted at me.” He smirked as he stood back upright and flipped Kailey’s chair, so the back rested against the table before dropping down ontoit.

Unable to help the smile on her lips she shook her head laughing. “She’s going to kill you if you don’t get out of her chair.”

“There are a lot of things my sister would like to do. Being able to wallop me enough for me to even feel it will never be one ofthem.”

Repressing a laugh, she forced herself to look back at the homework on the table. “You know, becoming a Marine seems to have inflated your ego more than when you were just the local high school footballstar.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see him smirk proudly at the comment as she picked up her pencil and pretended to focus on the numbers in her textbook.

“I’m going to take that as a compliment. I’m in better physical shape, ready to defend my country, friends and family at a moment’s notice and I look pretty damn sexy in my dress uniform.”

Good heavens, she thought as an image of him in uniform promptly popped into her head. It took everything she had not to look up at him. Jaxon had always liked attention, and she had a feeling he was expecting her to give it tohim.

“Oh come on, you know you want to admit that I’d look pretty fucking awesome in a uniform,” he said, prompting her for that attention oncemore.

Blowing out a deep breath she dropped her pencil onto the table and looked over at him. As she’d expected he was grinning at her, his eyes smiling with amusement and his arms casually draped over the chair like he wasn’t having a conversation about how attractive hewas.

“I think . . .” she started before getting up from the seat. “That it’s a little stuffy in here, and we could use some air.” Walking over to the switch on the wall she flicked it up, turning on the ceiling fan and feeling pretty content with her remark.

“Jaxon!” Kailey shrieked from the bottom of the stairs. “Get out of my chair! We’re working!” Huffing, she stamped over and smacked her brother on the shoulder. “When do you deploy? I mean honestly, I thought the only benefit to you joining the stupid Marines was that you’d go somewhere else and stop annoyingme.”

Rising from the chair he held his hands up in mock surrender. “Calm down, little sis. Give me three more weeks to harass you like a big brother should and then I’ll be out of your hair.” He pushed up from the chair and gestured dramatically for Kailey to sit backdown.

That got her attention. “Where are they sending you?” She cringed at the slight sound of desperation in her question.

“Australia, Darwin to be exact.”

The news of him being so far away irrationally made her sick to her stomach. She and Jaxon had known one another for nearly her whole life. While she was grateful he wasn’t deploying to a combat zone, she didn’t enjoy knowing she’d likely never see him again. Not that there’s any reason for you to see himnow.

“Well, that ought to be . . . fun.”

“You bet. Food, beautiful sites, beautiful women,” he winked at her. “Well, I’ve done my brotherly duty for the day. Catch you both later.” He saluted them and pivot turned before marching out of the kitchen.

Kailey snorted. “I know I’ll miss him when he’s gone, but my God I wish he’d leave already.”

“Yea,” she said, without any of the excitement that was probably expected of her. Soon he’ll be just another high school crush.

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