Page 6 of Off Limits

Shrugging off those thoughts, I focused on the kids who were still vying for my attention and followed them upstairs.

Asa wasn’t my problem, and his mother being pissed at him had nothing to do with me. He was a big boy and could take care of himself.

Besides, it wasn’t like he hadn’t been delighted every time our parents lit into me while I still lived at home. He didn’t give a shit about me, and I didn’t give two fucks about him.

That was the way it had always been and how it would always be. I just needed to get used to him being around again and everything would go back to normal.

The party was finally winding down, and I was beyond ready for it to be over. I’d spent the last few hours surrounded by people I barely knew and didn’t really care about, answering their questions and telling the same stories over and over again.

I was proud of my time at Notre Dame and damn proud that I’d managed to get a double major while on a football scholarship, but that didn’t mean I wanted to spend my sister’s birthday party talking about my time in college and rehashing my plans for the future over and over again.

I’d much rather hang out with my siblings and the other kids, but every time I’d tried to slip away to get a break from the constant attention, someone would sideline me, and I’d get roped into another conversation with people I barely knew.

“Dex,” Miranda said, coming up to the small group I was currently in the center of, a suspiciously bright smile on her face and a petite blonde girl on her heels.

She’d always treated me way better than she treated Asa, but I hated how fake she was. How every smile or kind word felt likea manipulation, and how she had no problem throwing fits in order to get what she wanted.

Her “my way or the highway” attitude was one of the reasons I’d been so eager to go to school out of state, and I really hated how my dad just sat back and let her say or do whatever she wanted.

He hadn’t always been like this, and his jokes of “happy wife, happy life” and “what’s mine is hers and what’s hers is hers” covered up that he enabled her behavior and even seemed to find it attractive.

That was only one of the many differences in him since my dad decided to have an affair with Miranda that broke up both Asa’s and my families.

My parents hadn’t exactly been happy before the affair, but that didn’t give my dad a pass to stick his dick in his new paralegal. Or for him to knock her up and leave my mom for his sidepiece.

I tolerated Miranda to keep the peace with my dad, and because I didn’t want to risk her keeping my siblings from me or convincing my dad to cut me off more than she already had.

“Do you remember Cecily?” Miranda asked, nudging the girl closer to me. “Jefferson’s daughter,” she added when I didn’t say anything.

“Oh, right. Of course.” I gave Cecily a tight smile. “How have you been?”

Jefferson was one of the lawyers at my dad’s firm and one of his golf buddies. I hadn’t seen him in years and hadn’t seen his wife or daughters since I was in high school.

“I’m good, thanks.” She smiled at me, her expression a strange mix of shy and seductive that didn’t have the effect she was probably going for. “How are you doing?”

“Good.” I forced a smile. “Settling in and all that.”

“Cecily goes to Rutherford,” Miranda cut in. “And she was kind enough to volunteer to show you around campus and give you the ins and outs before you start your program in the fall.”

Rutherford College was a small but prestigious university about an hour from town. I’d been accepted into the DPT, or Doctor of Physiotherapy program, for the fall term, which was the other reason I’d moved home after being away for almost five years.

My hackles instantly went up. Miranda knew I’d spent a ton of time on campus since most of my high school friends had gone there. This felt like another one of her manipulations.

“What are you studying?” I asked Cecily, more to be polite than because I actually cared.

“I’m still undecided.” She twirled a lock of hair around her finger and batted her eyelashes at me.

Undecided? How old was she?

It was hard to place her age just by looking at her. Her outfit and makeup made her look like she was older than me, but if she was still undecided in her major, that meant she was probably a freshman.

“Are you an undergrad?” I asked, shooting Miranda a look.

I’d been dealing with this matchmaking crap since I was seventeen. I’d told both her and my father that I wasn’t interested in dating anyone, but that didn’t stop her from constantly trying to set me up with their friends’ daughters.

Cecily nodded, flipping her hair back with a flirty smile. “I’m just finishing up my first year.”

First year? That would make her eighteen, which was way too fucking young for me. I might only be twenty-three, but I had a hard time relating to anyone more than a few years younger than me and wasn’t interested in barely legal hookups.

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