Page 106 of Bad for Me

Fifteen minutes ago

When I gotmy acceptance letter from Graveston University, I made a promise to myself that I’d somehow convince my stepbrother to reconcile with his dad. If I can do that, then I’llfinallyhave the family I’ve always wanted. While I sit in the lecture hall right before my first class ever at Graveston U, I try to pretend these are normal freshman jitters. That I’m not anxious as I wait for my stepbrother to emerge from his office. That I’m not a bundle of nerves fantasizing about winning him over before fall break.

Despite all of the men my mom has married, I’ve never had a sibling. I love my mom to death, but her flighty search for romance bounced us from state to state while she moved us in with the latest love of her life. In the beginning, I thought it was great. New friends, new school, new fun. But over the course of fourteen years, new friends never stuck around, new schools were all the same, and new fun got old really quick. So while my mother grew more obsessed with finding her soulmate, I grew more obsessed with finding a family.

It wasn’t until she went on a Caribbean cruise to “Eat, Pray, Love” herself out of her latest “single-woman depression” that our lives changed for the better. She met Thaddeus Woodrow Rutherford the Third, a gentle widower with a heart of gold. They were married by the captain then and there.

When my mom returned, she was no longer just Veralyn Gable, thrice divorced. She was Mrs. Veralyn Gable Rutherford, and she immediately moved us across the country to our new home. On that trip, I learned all about my new stepfather and the stepbrother that even she had yet to meet. After all of my mother’s searching, she found happiness, and I was getting a sibling. I couldn’t help imagining that thiswas finally our chance at being a family.

As boring as it sounds, I’ve always dreamed about having a full table at Thanksgiving. Hopefully I can win Woods over by then. Maybe we’ll fight like real siblings over something dumb like… I don’t know, whether we watch the parade or the football game or something. I’ll win, of course. My stepbrother may have been born with a silver spoon in his mouth and has always gotten his way, but that was before having me as a sister. He’ll soon find out that I’m too stubborn to lose to a guy like him.

Granted, I really have no idea what a guy like himis. The first time I met him was over and done with so quickly that I’ve almost convinced myself it was just one hell of an awkward, bewildering fever dream.

He was the one to open the ornate front door, and I was instantly confused. In my naïve, boy-crazy teenage mind, he was much too old to be a “stepbrother,” and all I could focus on was how he was taller and more handsome than anyone on my favorite vampire show.

But when he gruffly confirmed for my mother who he was and that we were at the right house, excitement burst out of me. I hectically waved hello and smiled so widely that my lip got caught on my braces. The cut burned as I introduced myself as his new stepsister.

He stared at me, my mother, then our bags for several long, agonizing seconds. With each tick of the antique grandfather clock behind him, Woods’ scowl deepened, etching the hard lines of his face and morphing it just like one of the very characters I obsessed over back then.

His father broke the spell. Thad introduced himself to me as my new stepfather, and I half-expected Woods to rip his father’s head clean off his shoulders and zoom off at supernatural speed.

Okay, I’ll admit, I wasveryinto this vampire show.

Instead of tossing his father’s head over a graveyard, Woods turned on his heel and pushed his way between my mother and me. He practically sprinted to his BMW and peeled out of the mansion’s looping driveway like he couldn’t get away from us fast enough.

Before I could blame myself, Thad reassured me that he and Woods had a falling out that had nothing to do with us. I wasn’t sure if I could believe him, but his explanation was the only one I had. All of my letters and calls to Woods went unanswered, and I never saw or heard from him again.

But he can’t escape me if I’m in his class. I’ll use up every office hour he has if that’s what it takes to force my stepbrother to mend his relationship with his father. Then I’ll get the family I’ve always wanted.

Or at least, that’s what I thought right up untilthismoment.

Now all my hope for a normal sibling relationship goes out the auditorium doors.

His unrelenting gaze snatches me from my thoughts, but the hard lines of his face soften, and his lips part. I breathe through the heat building in my chest and try to give myself a respite by letting my eyes drift over the rest of him. But the “rest of him” only worsens my instant attraction.

He’s handsome on social media and in the staff directory, but dearJesus, he’s hotter in person. His imposing height will no doubt tower over my five-foot-six inches, and not even his classic tweed blazer can hide that he works out. My fingers tingle to tease the buttons on his dress shirt, maybe rip one or two off to make him look more human and less perfect. Only his disheveled, raven hair is out of place in his sexy college professor persona.

Well, that, and the fact that his words trail off the longer he stares at me.

Iam having this effect on him. This perfectly put-together man is stunned byme.That knowledge tingles through every nerve in my body all the way to my core. I’d think this reaction is out of control, but the way he looks at me is like…

Like he’s basking in sunshine?—

A throat clears, shaking us both out of our trance.

He fumbles over his list and the pressure in my lungs releases enough for me to relax against my wooden chairback. With the spell broken, I cross my legs to appease the ache there and mentally curse myself.

My body has no business warming underneath his cinnamon-brown gaze. This is mystepbrotherfor Christ’s sake. And yet, I haveneverbeen looked at like that. Like I’m a ray of sunlight amid this campus’ ever-present mountain fog.

God, I’m totally going to ace my poetry seminar next semester.

Something pokes my arm, and I shift in my seat to see the girl who just used her pencil to get my attention. I frown as she tucks a strand of her long, golden-brunette hair behind her ear and leans closer.

She lives on my hall in Agatha House, one of the women’s dorms on campus, along with her copper-haired friend who’s sitting on my other side. Marleigh is the girl with the copper hair, I think, and if I remember correctly from our orientation hall meeting, this one is Cadence.

“Um, what just happened?” she whispers, her amber-hazel eyes are wide with innocent curiosity as they dart meaningfully to Woods and back to me. “That wasintense.”

Girl, I have no idea.

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