My Brother's Best Friend (Crazy in Love Book 1) (4 page)

              Wallace starts stomping towards the pool deck, and I can hear him mutter under his breath, “So much for getting laid tonight.” I chuckle to myself and sit back on the couches by the hot tubs to watch Wallace try to break up his sister and friend.

              While I’m watching Wallace attempt to separate the couple on the dance floor, a pretty redhead approaches the couches and sits close to me. She looks young and sweet, and an hour ago, I would’ve been all about getting to know her. But now, I resent the fact that she’s in front of my view of what’s going on with Reagan.

              I look above her head at where Wallace and Reagan are talking until the redhead says, “Hey, I’ve seen you around school this week, and I wanted to come introduce myself. I’m Beverly.” I nod to her and say, “Colin,” before glancing back to where I last saw Wallace and Reagan.

              I spot Wallace heading back my way, but I don’t see Reagan anywhere now. Frustrated, I look back at Beverly who’s scooted closer and is looking at me expectantly. I’m not sure what she wants me to say, and I don’t have enough experience with girls to draw from right now. I’m about to start asking her what grade she’s in to get the expectant look off her face when I hear a sexy voice say, “Beverly, how are you, girl? Love your hair like that. Are you and Josh still together? You were so cute at the beach this summer.”

              Glancing behind me, Beverly looks startled but finally responds, “Reagan, how good to see you. I’m so glad you’re back. How was L.A.?” Reagan grins at us both unrepentantly, and I can tell that she knew she’d interrupted Beverly trying to get to know me but doesn’t care. She spouts off a few stories about what she did in California over the week to Beverly. Before she turns to me and says, “Colin, do you think I could borrow you for a second. I need to get the rest of my stuff up to my room, and I don’t know where Wallace got off to.”

              As soon as she turns her violet eyes on me, I know that I’ll agree to whatever she asks. She pulled me in with my first glance, and I was becoming more intoxicated the longer I was in her vicinity. I gave a quick wave to Beverly before I followed Reagan into the house to a massive living room. She points bags out to me, and I start grabbing as many as I can. I glance over to ask her where I should take them when I see her holding just as many as me.

              “I’ll carry them, you just need to show me where I need to put them.” She laughs lightly and the sound makes me smile in response. “I might look high maintenance, buddy, but I carry my own weight. I drafted you cause I didn’t want to do it without company. And Wallace is pissed at me already for messing with Blaine’s feelings, and Blaine’s been scared off by Wallace. My girlfriends have all not lifted a bag heavier than a purse in their entire lives, and I don’t trust any other guys here not to try to take advantage of me and them in my bedroom alone.”

              I take in what she said and ask as I follow her up the stairs, “Why do think you can trust me when you only just met me?” She looks me up and down before responding, “I know I can. You’re different than all those guys out there. You might want me, but you’re not going to take what you want. You still see me as a person, and not an object that you must have. Besides the fact that my brother trusts you, and he doesn’t trust anybody.”

              A warm feeling spreads through me, and I look at this girl in front of me in surprise. She really sees me, and I like that feeling. She’s not just talking with me cause she’s got no one else, or I might turn out to be good at football. No, she sees me for who I am. My mom doesn’t even pretend to want to know me, but Reagan, a girl that has everything you could want, thinks I’m worth knowing.

              I can’t help but smile at her and lift an eyebrow. “You got all that from talking to your brother and meeting me, huh?” She shrugs and says, “I’ve got good instincts, with my family you learn to.” I gesture around me with my shoulders while we’re walking since I’m bogged down with bags and say, “The benefits of your family seem pretty good to me.” She starts walking into her room, but I catch her eyes turn harsh as she replies, “It would seem like that, right.”

              She drops all her stuff in a disorganized pile and gestures for me to follow suit. I try to set everything down carefully since her suitcases alone are worth thousands. The room feels small with her in her tiny pink bikini and me in my swim trunks. I don’t know what to say or where to look with her stunning eyes on my face, and embarrassingly, I can feel my face heating up with nervousness.

              I clear my throat, and she giggles before saying, “I make you nervous, huh?” “What, uh,” I stumble over my words before she cuts in, “Don’t worry about it, I think you’re hot too.” Shocked, I look into her eyes, and she must see the disbelief on my face. Because she gives me a slow nod and a wink before she says, “Come on, you know you’re hot right? You got the whole buzzed blond hair and sculpted face thing with those bright green eyes and don’t even get me started on your body. I knew as soon as I saw you that I had to get a closer look.”

              Starting to feel a little lost about this entire interaction with Reagan, I literally don’t know how to reply. With a disinterested mother and nerdy friends, I’d always struggled with even getting noticed by girls. Now, the most beautiful girl that I’ve ever seen is telling me that she picked me out of a crowd. Feeling dazed from her standing in front of me in her bikini and the information she was spouting, I had to look down to concentrate and string together some words that would make sense for her.

              “Reagan, right now I feel like I don’t even know what to say to you. You’re so damn beautiful, and I’m brand new at this school. I don’t know what you want from me, but I’ll admit that you make me more than a little nervous.” She laughs and pulls me over to her couch to sit down with her. I can feel my body react to sitting so close, and I have to force myself to breathe slowly as I sit stiffly beside her.

              Reagan pulls her tiny perfect legs into her body and hugs them to her as she says to me, “Look, you’re already close to my brother, and I know that we’re going to become friends so let’s find out a little more about each other. How about I get to ask you five questions, and then you can ask me five questions.” I nod in agreement, happy that she came up with a way for us to stay in her room alone together for a while longer.

              She’s just about to start when she adds in a request. “We both answer every question honestly, Rocklend, okay? I abhor liars and cheaters so we tell the truth or don’t answer at all. That’s really important.” I nod and say, “Got it, only answer the questions honestly. I can do that.”

              I can’t imagine what she could even ask about me, but when she starts I regret ever agreeing to the game in the first place. “How many girls have you kissed?” Damn, why would she ask me that? I’ve already promised not to lie so I make myself answer the question as casually as I can. “One.” I hope she won’t want details, but the answer must have peaked her interest because she asks next. “Can you describe the girl that you kissed?” I complain to her, “Come on, do you really want to know?” She nods decisively and starts to make her full lip pout, and I give in. “She had square glasses and blondish brown hair. She was really into U.S. History and was always drawing maps of what the United States looked like in the past.”

              I waited for Reagan to make fun of me, but she took my words in with a nod and moved on to the next question quickly. “What’d you do at the last party you attended?” I closed my eyes in embarrassment and mumbled, “Played video games.” She laughed but not in a mean way before looking at me with kind eyes and adding, “Hey, I play video games with Blaine and my brother all the time. No worries there.”

                            Nervous, I wait for the next question, she asks, “What made you change schools?” This one I don’t hate answering and tell her, “My mom got married, and we moved in with my stepdad.” She takes in the information and moves on to her last question, “Do you like playing football?” I think about this one for a minute before answering. “Yeah, I really do. There’s a peace in being out there on the field. While I’m out there calling a play, as soon as it all starts, it feels like time stands still until it’s over, never thought I’d feel so good with a pig skin in my hands.”

              She shakes her head in disappointment, and I ask her, “What? What’s wrong?” “You’re as obsessed as Wallace and Blaine. I can see it on your face, and here I was hoping that I’d have someone around that had a little bit in common with me.” I searched her face to see if she was really disappointed but couldn’t tell. I pat her on the shoulder and say, “Look, I’ll hang out and do whatever you want too, don’t worry.”

              “I just bet you will.” A voice says from the entrance to Reagan’s bedroom. Blaine’s standing in the doorway with a look of disgust on his face directed right at me. Reagan stands up and gives me an apologetic look before walking over to him and saying, “Hey, Blaine, I didn’t see you there. How’s it going outside? Are things getting wild yet?” I thought things were pretty wild before, but obviously, I wasn’t very experienced when it came to the whole party scene.

              Blaine looks Reagan up and down before saying, “Nah, things are pretty tame, why don’t you come out and dance with me. We’ll liven everything up.” Reagan glances back at me and tries to send me some kind of message with her eyes before saying to Blaine, “Okay, Rocklend and I were bringing my bags up, but we’re ready to join the fray now.”

              All three of us head out of Reagan’s room together, but Blaine tries to pull her into him as we walk down the stairs. She dodges his hands and slides down the side of the banister before popping off the end. She’s out the back of the house before either of us get to the first floor. I can hear her yell to the crowd, “Let’s turn this music up!” before I glimpse her pull herself up on the bar area and start dancing.

              I turn to glare at Blaine for interrupting the valuable time I had with Reagan by myself and realize that he’s already staring daggers at me. As my eyes meet his hostile ones, he warns, “You need to stay the fuck away from her, Rocklend. She’s my girl.” I grin, not intimidated by him and high off my time with her. “You’d better tell her that then because she was trying to get to know me up there in her room.” I thought I’d let him interpret my statement himself as I walk away.

              I look up to the bar area and see that ten or so girls had joined Reagan on it, and they all were dancing sexily as a unit. I walked through the crowd of guys staring with their jaws open and girls not even trying to disguise their jealousy. I heard my name being called as I stopped to follow Reagan’s dance moves with my eyes.

              She was a beautiful dancer with perfect rhythm, and I couldn’t seem to turn my eyes away to see who it was. Finally, I saw a hand being waved in front of my face and look to see Wallace standing beside me. Shaking his head in disappointment, he says, “Damn, she works fast. Blaine’s been obsessed with her for years, and now, it looks like you’re close to feeling the same. Don’t tell me when she breaks your heart that I didn’t try to warn you, man. Look, Reagan’s crazy and fun, but she’s still a high school girl. She can be vicious and callous with boys that think they’re in love with her. My advice to you is if you’re really interested, don’t let her know. Try to play it cool.”

              I look back over at the bar where she’s dancing and watch her move her gorgeous body in ways that are so mesmerizing before I glance back at Wallace with doubt in my eyes and tell him, “I don’t know how anybody can play it cool with that face and body in front of them.” He punches me in the arm hard then and says, “Man, that’s my sister, don’t please.” He leads me back to the couches where we’d been earlier, and I ask him, “You all done with the blonde?”

              He grins and nods, “Yeah, she was entertaining, but I don’t like to be gone for too long in the middle of my own party. People can turn destructive if no one’s there to enforce the rules, and you can see how good my sister is at being an authority figure.”

              I see her downing shots with her friends now and worry about her drinking too much tonight and getting sick. “Don’t worry, man, she know her limits. We both don’t like to completely lose control. But I can see your face, and you’re a lost cause already, Rocklend. She’s going to twist you inside out and back again, and you won’t know what the hell to do with her or yourself. Get ready for it.”

              I shake my head at him as he chuckles but watch her as she laughs with her girlfriends. And think to myself that no matter what trouble she brings I want that kind of it in my life.

Chapter 3

             
That night I crash at Wallace and Reagan’s house. The party starts to break up around four, and I ask Reagan about how I can help clean up. She laughs and explains as she leads me to a bedroom that they have a clean up crew that will come in the morning. All I need to worry about is getting a good night’s sleep.