Brothers of Paradise Series

I snort and look back out over the field. No, but I have a rather good connection with Rhys Marchand, who dumped her before he left for college a few months back. I knew for a fact she was using this guy in the hopes that it would get back to him. I also knew Rhys didn’t care in the slightest.

Parker takes another long drag of his cigarette. The one flaw in his long, decorated career as a high school athlete. “I’m going to ask Tilly Davis.”

“Of course you are.” Turner says. “You Marchands, you’re not giving the rest of us a fair shot.”

“Not about to start now, either.”

I feel my phone buzz in my pocket, but I ignore it. My dad had been trying to get in contact for weeks now. This time around I’m not going to tell Gary about it. There’s no point anymore.

“That’s it,” Turner says. “If I can’t beat you, I’ll just have to join you.”

Parker frowns. “What exactly do you mean by that?”

“I could ask your little sister, right? Lily?”

Oh, fuck no.Upstodatee from Novel(D)ra/m/a.O(r)g

The response wells up inside me immediately, but before I can express myself, Parker shakes his head. “You do that, and I’ll beat you up myself.”

With my help.

“You’re not good enough for her,” I say and tip my head back, letting out a plume of smoke. Turner is a player and a cheat. Damn good at poker, though, and he has a hell of a right hook. But that doesn’t mean he’s good enough for Lily Marchand.

I know that firsthand.

Turner grins at us. “You’re like fucking gatekeepers, you boys. Don’t worry. I know the rules. I bet little Adam Bateman is about to find that out, too.”

“What?”

He grins at me. “What, something I know that you don’t? This rarely happens, Cole.”

“What about Adam?”

“Nah, I think I’ll gloat for a little while longer. I might-”

Parker leans forward. “Stop shitting around.”

Thank God he is here, too. I can’t act more protective of Lily than her own brothers, or it would be suspicious. I couldn’t risk her family finding out about my impossible feelings. It would be even worse than Lily finding out about them herself.

I’d be out on my ass by daybreak.

“Yeah, Bateman asked her out earlier this week,” Turner says, his face smug.

She hadn’t told me that.

Unease and nerves roll around in my stomach. Since Henry and Rhys left Paradise Shores, Lily and I had grown even closer. Parker was often away at practice or gone for a tournament, and there would be no one but me and Lily. Her feet on the wooden staircase leading up to the beach house had become my favorite sound.

Lily told me most things. I was fairly certain she’d never lied to me in in her life. But she hadn’t shared this… which meant something.

Parker snorts. “Bateman? I think just sending a look in his direction would make him bolt.”

I can’t for the life of me remember what Adam Bateman looks like. He’s probably a normal, unassuming kid. Someone with a trust fund and well-known parents.

Turner shakes his head. “You’re too protective, my friends. The girl’s gotta live her life on her own terms sometime.”

“Yeah, but not with the likes of you.”

“What, so I’m good enough to be your friend but not your sister’s date?” He clutches a hand to his heart, a hurt expression on his face. “You wound me.”

I force my clenched teeth to relax. It’s a joke to him, perhaps, but what he described was my reality. “Madison would go with you.”

“I know she would. Guess I’ll have to revisit that.” He throws me a grin. “Aren’t you going to ask someone?”

“To homecoming? No.”

Parker aims a kick at Turner’s shin, which he neatly evades. “Hayden’s too cool for school events.”

I nod. “It’s a reputation thing.”

It’s not.

I don’t fit in and have no desire to spend another night with the shiny Paradise Shore kids. They never let me forget that I wasn’t one of them-that my mother didn’t drink tea with theirs at the country club, that I didn’t return from winter break with a tan from a trip to the Bahamas-so I made it obvious I wasn’t trying to fit in.

If they wouldn’t let me win their game, I made damn sure they knew I wasn’t playing at all.

Seeing the hard expression on my face, Turner backtracks. “It’s kinda lame, in a way. I get you.”

“Yeah.”

Parker jerks beside me. “Shit.”

“What?”

He grabs his backpack and hurriedly snubs out his cigarette. “Shit. I forgot. I have an emergency swim session that started… five minutes ago. I was supposed to drive Lily home today after she was done here, but then Coach texted me… I was going to let Mom know.” He shoots me a look I recognize well. “Hayden?”

“I’ll drive her home.”

“You’re a lifesaver, man. I owe you.” He bumps my knuckles before heading off down the bleachers. Turner and I watch him go in silence. Parker’s just as blond as he always was, but he’s cut like a swimmer now. He doesn’t owe me a damn thing.

If anything, I’m the one in his debt. Every moment I spent alone with Lily Marchand is sorted and filed into my own mental archives, treasured and valued. My memories with her were some of the best of my life.

Once practice is over, I park right by the entrance to the girl’s locker rooms and lean against the car. I fiddle with the packet of smokes in my pocket, but I know better than to pull one out. Lily has never seen me smoke.

My body hums with the familiar mixture of energy and excitement that she produces. Time alone with just her, no brothers or family in sight, isn’t always easy to come by.

The girls start to file out. A few shoot me speculating looks, but it brushes off me like smoke on water. The whole school knows I’m with the Marchands. I’ve heard the descriptions-a cuckoo in the nest, their charity case-whispered behind my back. The thing is, rumors don’t sting when they’re true.

Lily’s hair is a mess when she emerges, a sweaty gym bag in her hand. A soft calm overwhelms me at the sight of her. I would never need another cigarette in my life if she was by my side daily.