Page 11 of Her Stepbrother Master
He stood and brushed away the tears on her cheeks. Wrapping his arms around her, he pulled her in for an embrace and dropped a kiss on the top of her head. “Cooking will get easier, I promise. This way you’ll be all ready for a husband when the time comes.” He said it lightly, but the words stuck in his throat like glue. The idea of her marrying made him close his hands into tight balls. No man would be good enough for LuAnn or treat her the way she deserved to be treated.
LuAnn sat wearing her pillbox hat and white gloves between Brian and Brad at church the next day, proud to be with the pair of handsome, broad-shouldered men. They both would be considered fine catches in their own right. Brian was the serious lawyer who hardly ever emerged from his work. He had the same blue eyes and dark wavy hair as Brad, but their personalities were completely different. Brad was carefree and easygoing while Brian played everything straight as a pin.
She hadn’t been to her stepbrothers’ church before, either attending the campus chapel or driving home for the weekend and worshipping there.
She received a number of curious looks, and a few nasty ones from some eligible young women who must have considered her to be a threat. After the service, a few of them came over. Brad rested his hand at her low back, a gesture which surprised her.
“Hello, Brad,” said a young woman with red hair and a ponytail so high it looked like an antenna sticking out of the top of her head. She batted her eyelashes in a simpering fashion that made LuAnn want to shove her into the closest mud puddle.
“Hi, Becky.” Brad played it cool, leaning forward to offer his cheek for a kiss without disengaging his hand from LuAnn’s back.
Becky stared at LuAnn pointedly.
“This is LuAnn,” he said.
She waited for him to add my kid sister, or my little sister, but to her satisfaction, he didn’t. Maybe he wanted Becky to think they were a couple because he didn’t want to court her interest. Well, she would be a willing party to any such deception.
She glanced at Brian, who smiled at a pretty blonde. “That’s Sally,” Brad said in an undertone. He had leaned his head toward hers so they both looked together. It also served to snub Becky, as she clearly wasn’t part of the conversation. “Brian is sweet on her. I expect they’ll be engaged before the end of summer.”
She smiled, both happy to see Brian in love and delighting in the closeness and shared secret with Brad.
Becky sniffed and flounced away.
“Ex-girlfriend of yours?”
“Ugh, no. She’s way too annoying. I dated her sister for about a minute last year and this one has been all over me ever since.”
She hid a smirk. It was uncharitable of her to feel glee at another girl’s misery, but where Brad was concerned, she had few scruples.
“Come on, I’ll introduce you to Sally.” He led her over to Brian and the pretty young woman.
“Hi, Sally,” he drawled, leaning in for a cheek kiss.
Brian scowled and she wondered if he could possibly be threatened by Brad. The younger brother had always been the ladies’ man, while Brian had been too buried in his studies to worry about women.
“This is LuAnn,” he said.
“She’s our stepsister.” It was Brian who filled in that piece of information.
“Oh,” Sally said, her mouth rounding into a pretty circle. “How nice to meet you. At first I thought Brad finally had taken a serious interest in a girl. Too bad.”
She almost choked on her own spit. “Right. Not me.” Too bad, indeed.
Brad took her hand. “Come on, let’s get going. We have a carnival to attend.”
“Carnival? I thought you said she was grounded.”
She winced at the disapproval in Brian’s voice.
Brad shrugged, pulling her away. “She is, but she studied all day yesterday, so this is her reward. See you later,” he said over his shoulder.
“Brad—” Brian called after him, a note of warning in his voice.
“Don’t worry. I have it covered.”
“We’re riding on the motorcycle, right?” she asked as they headed toward her Thunderbird.
“Yes, silly. Although your dad would probably kill me if he knew. That’s one more thing we’ll have to make sure he never finds out.”
