My Brother’s Best Friend
Chapter One
Karla
There he was, Dean Parker. My secret fantasy. And so far out of bounds I couldn’t even see the boundary from here.
He walked across the quad like he owned the campus. Not for the first time, I secretly congratulated myself for choosing the same college. Sometimes I can be halfway smart.
Tall, lean, and mean. Or at least tough looking. He had that whole bad boy thing down pat. Dark hair, a little too long. Piercing blue eyes, a little too sharp. And wide shoulders that looked like they could carry the weight of the world.
The scar over his right eye and the bump from a formerly broken nose were the only blemishes on an overly handsome face. The kind of face that made a girl’s knees go weak.
I’m sure most of the women around here believed he’d gotten those scars in a nasty barroom fight.
Only I knew the truth.
He’d received those badges of honor at the ripe old age of twelve. He and my brother Jack were jumping their bikes over a ramp. I still like to believe he had been showing off to try and impress me. Okay, Okay, we can all have our own fantasy world.
Dean caught his front wheel and went over the handlebars like he was shot out of a cannon.
I still cringe, thinking about it. Face first into the asphalt. There was so much blood that it took half a Seattle winter for it to all wash away. Dean bounced up, blood flowing out of him like a punctured fire hose, and said, “I’m okay,”
Me, being the strong, independent eleven-year-old girl. Fainted dead away.
When I came to, Dean was bent over me with a look of concern that melted my heart. The boy was still bleeding and he was more worried about me.
I fell for him at that exact moment. I mean head over heals full on love. Not a silly school girl crush. Oh, I’d always had a crush on Dean, what girl wouldn’t. The guy was so … so … boy.
The first time I heard that poem, I thought it was written about Dean, you know the - Snips and snails and puppy dog tails. That was Dean as a boy.
And here he was walking right towards me. My heart skipped a beat and what I called the Dean butterflies took flight. They only flew and fluttered when he was around. I bit the inside of my lip and waited.
“Hey, Kid,” he said as he sat down on the bench next to me. He knew full well I hated being called, Kid, but then that was why he did it.
God, how I wished he’d call me Karla. Just once.
I swallowed hard and pushed back at the nervousness rushing through me. My one goal in life was to never let him know how I felt about him. I would have died a thousand deaths if he ever found out. Unless my brother Jack found out first. In which case he would kill me before I had a chance to die.
“Hey,” I answered. As always, my skill at conversation seemed to disappear whenever he was around.
“Jack asked me to check in on you. He said you won’t answer his calls.”
I snorted. “I’m not talking to the idiot.”
He laughed and shook his head. He had learned long ago not to get in the middle of our family squabbles.
“What did he do this time?”
I shook my head, “The traitor told Mom about my grade in Economics.”
He laughed. “Yeah, that will do it.”
“I thought that by going to a different school I could avoid the whole big brother thing. He’s all the way across town and he still found out.”
He laughed again and shook his head. “That won’t ever go away. It doesn’t matter where you are, he’s still going to keep an eye on you.”
How well I knew it. My big brother made it a point to ruin my life on a quarterly basis.
“So, what are you up to.” I began, desperate to change the subject. I hated talking about my brother with Dean. It just emphasized the fact that I could never have what I truly wanted. Even if somehow the scrumptious Dean became interested in me, Jack would make sure nothing happened. Like I said, out of bounds.
He shrugged his wide shoulders, “Nothing much.”
“What? No girls waiting by the phone for you to call. From what I hear if you crook a finger a dozen rather willing and able young females will appear as if by magic.”
He laughed. “You keeping tabs on me?”
“Why not? You tell Jack what I do.”
He shook his head, “No I don’t. I promise. I wouldn’t do that. Of course, that doesn’t mean I’m not here if you need me. But you’re twenty. You’re old enough to make your own mistakes.”
I looked at him, unable to believe what I had just heard. Did he really think of me as a grown up?
“Besides, a pretty girl like you. You’ve probably got a dozen guys chasing you. If I told Jack about them all, he’d have me spending all my time scaring them off.”
My heart stopped. Full halt. Dean Parker thought I was pretty. Never, in a thousand years would I have thought he thought that way. Grown up and pretty.
Suddenly I felt my cheeks grow warm and knew I was blushing. Great, now he was going to go back to thinking of me as a little girl again.
He smiled at me and then leaned back on the bench as he spread his arms across the back and tilted his head up to the sun, catching the last rays of the fall before winter set it.
My eyes couldn’t help themselves as I studied his profile. The man was just too good looking for his own good. A hard chin with a four days growth of beard. High cheekbones and lips that begged to be kissed. My heart skipped a beat just looking at him.
Sighing internally, I let my eyes roam down over his body. The open flannel shirt over a tight T-shirt was his normal look. A good look for him, simple yet male, very male. At least the way he wore them.
As my eyes traveled lower, I couldn’t stop myself from glancing down at his crotch. The three-year-old memory of me walking in on him as he came out of the shower flashed into the forefront of my brain and refused to leave.
Even now, my cheeks grew warm thinking about it. The man was hung. Big enough to make a girl wonder if he was too big.
I swallowed hard and tried to look away. Instead, I licked my lips as I remembered how hot he had looked coming out of that shower. Hard muscles dripping with water.
When he saw me there, staring, he’s simply smiled and shook his head. I, of course, being the idiot I am, screamed and rushed from the room to spend the next three hours frightened to death that he would say something to my parents. Or worse, Jack.
I knew my brother, he’d blame me. Say I’d walked in on Dean intentionally.
But Dean hadn’t said a word. That was him, despite the bad boy looks, deep down he was a gentleman at heart.
“You said earlier that you’d help me if I need it,” I said before I could stop myself. Suddenly a plan had jumped fully formed into my brain. I was twenty, why couldn’t I have what I wanted at least once. To hell with my brother. Besides what he didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him.
Now it was only a matter of pulling my plan off without crumbling into a blithering idiot in front of him.
Dean opened one eye and squinted at me through the bright sun.
“Do I need to beat up someone? If so, who and when?”
I laughed, that was Dean. I think deep down he wanted to be a knight in shining armor. And who could blame him? The man was born for the role.
“No,” I told him as my stomach clenched up into a tight ball. If this went wrong, so many things would be ruined. My secret hopes most of all.
“I need a date,” I said as I held my breath.
Both eyes opened fully as he twisted towards me.
“A pretend date,” I added quickly.
His shoulders relaxed as he studied me closely, giving me a chance to explain.
“My English teacher is having a party.”
His brow furrowed in confusion.
“It’s all the students that have been picked to help with his research project. And their dates. A couple of dozen people at the most.”
“You got selected as a research assistant, that’s pretty cool. I get it.”
I quickly looked down at my hands in my lap. A compliment from Dean always did that to me. He didn’t hand them out easily, but when he did, you knew he meant it.
“Yes … well,” I stammered, “I … Uh … It’s this Friday. At his house. We were told we could bring a date. I sort of thought …”
“Sure,” he said as he shrugged his shoulders. “But why me? Like I said, there have got to be a dozen guys who would jump at the chance. I mean, a girl like you does not have a problem finding guys.”
My stomach turned over. Two compliments. I could grow to love this. What Dean didn’t understand was that guys sort of figured me out real quick. They learned I wasn’t into quick and easy and those that were willing to stick around changed their mind when they realized they would never match up to Dean.
I shrugged my shoulders, pretending it was no big thing. “It was just a thought. And the truth is, I don’t want any complications. This is too important.”
He smiled as he nodded. “Sure, no problem Kid, do you want me to pick you up, or meet you there?”
Sighing internally, I let myself relax just a little. That had gone much easier than I had anticipated. Suddenly the thought of Dean and I together, on a sort of date, sent shivers down my spine. The good kind of shivers. The kind that went straight to my very core.
“Pick me up, if that’s okay? Seven?”
He nodded, “No problem,” he told me as he returned to catching the sun’s warmth.
That was it. Wow, one minute we are talking and the next, we are going to a party.
I smiled to myself as I leaned back, mimicking his pose. The sun felt delicious as it warmed my skin. But then, all of life felt delicious.
This might actually work. It might take longer than I wanted. But it really was very simple. If I was ever to have what I truly wanted in this life, Then I was going to have to seduce Dean Parker. What’s more, I had to make him think I wasn’t doing it on purpose. He had to think it was all his idea.