Page 1 of The Older Brother
Chapter 1
They’ve already startedvalet parking cars by the time my best friend Cami and I pull up to the Anderson estate. Technically, the open land behind my ex-boyfriend Caleb’s family home is state trust land. Still, it’s only a matter of time before their family bids on it—owns it—so nobody is going to blink at the fact that they’re lining the open desert with G-wagons and Range Rovers for the night. That desert will be theirs soon enough.
“We don’t have to pay for this, do we?” Cami offered to drive, and I gladly let her, because I plan on drinking every expensive thing that gets offered to me tonight. Nobody checks IDs at an Anderson party. Besides, it’s my graduation party too, damn it. Who cares if I’m sharing it with the guy that dumped me less than a week ago because he wanted to start college “fresh” and to “find himself.” Truth is, the fucker just wants to sleep around without consequences. Just like his dad.
I should have known better than to fall for him our senior year. Caleb and I were better off as friends. We had been thrust together by proximity in fifth grade—my mom works for his father, and we attended the same school. Cami says I neverreally loved him; I simply got used to him being around. She doesn’t think he and I even should have been pals, but Caleb’s the person I’ve been closest to for most of my life. There are things he knows about me that I haven’t even told Cami. He was my person. And then he turned eighteen and became an Anderson through and through.
“We don’t pay for anything at the Anderson house. Besides, they’re hiding your rat-ass Chevy Malibu way in the back. They don’t want people seeing us commoners here.” We both burst into laughter over the harsh truth of my statement, but go silent when the bright beam from one of the parking attendants’ flashlights hits the windshield.
Cami rolls her window down just as the attendant shifts the light toward the ground, and I barely have a second to swallow the instant lump that forms in my throat from seeing Caleb’s older brother for the first time in a year.
“Fuck, he just gets hotter and hotter,” Cami mutters before turning her attention to the tall, tatted man suddenly leaning against her window.
“Hi, ladies. I’ll take it from here if you’d like.”
Rowan Anderson’s voice enters my system like an Old Fashioned, the timber deep yet soft, like he’s constantly telling someone a secret. His lips have the power of hypnosis, his smile slightly sinister—always—and the dimple faint yet accented by his constant stubble. He was my first crush at ten, dreamier than any of the teen heartthrobs I tore out of magazines and taped to my walls. And the older he got, forever older than me, the more that swirl of green and blue in his eyes bewitched me. It was a safe crush. A fantasy. A cute boy to dream about that would never break my heart because I was invisible to him in that way. Nothing like Caleb.
I feel compelled to lean over Cami’s console to make sure our eyes meet. I think I will always get a rush from his attention, even if he thinks of me like a little sister.
“So, are you on the payroll for tonight? Or is this a favor to Caleb?” I tease. Rowan is very much the black sheep of this family. He did a stint in juvie when he was seventeen for setting fire to his father’s home office, and he’s been treated like a problem ever since. Even now, at twenty-four with a successful business of his own, Rowan is the unwanted guest. He’s out here parking cars while his dad’s partners and clients sip cocktails.
Rowan lowers his head to peer through the window, and his eyes flicker a hint when our gazes connect. It feels nice, and the panicked drumming in my chest slows a little thanks to the quick dose of confidence. I had hoped my black bikini top and cut-off shorts would turn some heads tonight—and make Caleb choke on regret.
Rowan’s tongue peeks out between his teeth as his smile slowly spreads. He shifts his body, resting his forearms on the roof of the car as he leans in the window further. I snicker to myself when I catch Cami breathe in his cologne. She doesn’t even bother masking the drunken smile that paints her face as her eyes flutter. Her brother Miguel has been friends with Rowan since they were kids, so Cami’s crush on him is probably the only one that can rival the length of mine.
“I should ask you if you’re crashing this thing to embarrass your ex?” His lip ticks up on one side. I guess Caleb filled him in. I don’t know why the fact that other people know embarrasses me, but knowing that our break-up is now public knowledge, at least to some extent, makes me feel small.
I sink back in the passenger seat, suddenly less sure of myself.
“I had to come. My name’s on the damn cake. But I wouldn’t hate it if you pushed your brother in the pool when he wasn’tlooking.” My eyes shift to the side to meet his just as his lips form around his signature laugh—faint, raspy.
“I’ll see what I can do. Now come on, let me park this thing somewhere safe,” he says, pulling the door open for Cami. He trades places with her as I step out of the passenger side.
“Are you really going to hide my car in the back?” Cami asks as I step in beside her and link our arms together.
Rowan shifts gears, then revs her engine while pressing on the brake before blinking his focus to us.
“Your brother’s my best friend, so I’m gonna park this baby right up front. And to answer you . . .” His gaze shifts to me, his right brow arching higher. “No, I’m not getting paid. And fuck Caleb for breaking up with you.”
The comforting warmth creeps back inside my chest, and I utter a quiet “thanks” as he pulls away and parks Cami’s eleven-year-old sedan with a dented bumper right inside the gates, where every new guest is sure to see it.
Cami and I follow the flagstone pathway that winds from the circle drive around the east side of the house, and I steel myself when we reach the set of sliding glass windows of Caleb’s bedroom. The shade is drawn, the room blacked out, which is probably for the best. I don’t know how I’d feel seeing his rumpled sheets and the giant TV mounted on the wall that’s probably still paused on the show I was binging with him the day before we broke up.
“You okay?” Cami’s hand slides down my arm until our fingers thread, and she gives me a squeeze.
I nod and pull my focus away from the windows to my best friend.
“I’m not even sure why I’m sad about it, to be honest with you,” I admit.
“You’re sad because he did it first, before you got to be the one to end things. Because you know they were going to endeventually.” Cami shrugs and twists her mouth into a guilty smile.
I draw in a slow breath and let her truth sit in my head for a beat before nodding. She’s right in many ways. It’s not that Caleb and I were headed in the same direction. He’s going to Mount Fortus Business School in New York in three months to follow in his father’s footsteps so he can become a finance bro. I’m going to Northern State, three hours away, on a swimming scholarship, and I’ve decided I hate swimming, so we’ll see how long that lasts.
“Let’s go see this stupid cake,” my friend insists, tilting her head toward the open-air kitchen as we step onto the covered patio.
I nod and follow her lead, but sneak a quick glimpse of the massive infinity-edge pool that’s currently filled with everyone Caleb and I graduated with. I don’t even like most of these people. I’m staring at the couple making out on the lounger for a full second before I realize that it’s Caleb and Neveah, our student body president, I’m glaring at. Thankfully, Cami tugs my arm to force me to look away before anyone notices.
“I guess he’s finding himself in her pants,” Cami jokes.
