I never thought I’d fall in love. I’m not sure I quite believed in love outside of romance novels, and those were my addiction. For the most part, when I read those angsty, bordering on erotica love stories, I envisioned myself in the role of the heroine and Rowen as my main squeeze. Okay, confession—it was never reading that was my addiction. It was Rowen Garret, the boy who stole my heart all of those years ago. And now here we are, at Leland, together, in love. Every step I take, I can’t seem to hit the ground. Every breath I draw into my body is sweeter than the last.

It’s late Monday, and I breezed through my classes, breezed through my study group for lit before heading down to the Underground to have dinner with my favorite brother whom I happen to be terrified of at the moment. I have no clue how Rowen and I are ever going to be a real couple. Everywhere I look I see couples holding hands, making out behind the dorms, in the dorms. Couples walking about freely having conversations about who the hell cares what. It’s the freedom I’m afraid we’ll never be privy to. Not as long as we need to shelter the rest of the world from our relationship.

My phone buzzes in my hand. It’s a text from Rowen.

On my way to practice. You got a second to meet me in front of the bookstore?

In front of the bookstore? The boy has lost his mind, but I’m glad about that little mental malfunction if that’s what’s causing him to keep gifting me those magical kisses and so much more. My mouth waters at the so much more part. In the last week alone, I’ve become an aficionado of riding the Colossus, and I can testify firsthand that the ride alone is worth the hole this news is going to blow through my brother’s head.

BEHIND the bookstore. I’m already there. ;)

“So am I.”

I spin around to find the most gorgeous man on campus, in Colorado, the universe blessing me with those cellophane eyes.

“Hey, beautiful.” Rowen leans in and steals a quick kiss. “I can’t get enough of your lips.” His arms wrap themselves around my waist. “Have I told you how hot you are today?”

“Only this morning when I rolled out of your bed.” I bite down over my lip because it was our first venture in trying to evict the ghost of a thousand one-night stands past from his not-so humble abode. He swore he boiled the sheets.

“My bed misses you.”

“Your bed misses the nightly massages you give it by jumping up and down.”

He growls out a laugh. “You were pretty acrobatic last night.” His features pinch a moment. “You’re not in pain, are you?” He glances down to that special part of me he’s taken to impaling as if we were making up for lost time.

“Are you kidding?” I pull him in by the cheeks and scratch over his stubble. “I live for you to hurt me.”

He bears hard into me with those day-glow eyes. “I would never hurt you, Sophie Meyer. I would protect you to the death.” He lands a sweet kiss to my cheek. “I would take a bullet for you.”

“Would you take a baseball bat? I’m guessing that will be Braden’s weapon of choice.”

He grimaces at the thought. “I’m betting you’re right. But I can deflect with the best of them.” He frowns a moment as he draws me closer. “I might throw a few punches in there just to protect the boys. Promise you won’t be too upset if he’s the one who ends up with a black eye.”

“Are you kidding? I think it would complete his look as the bullish big brother.”

“You don’t have to say that. I know how much you care about him.”

“You used to care about him.” The words come out slowly.

Rowen cocks his head to the side, a dull smile twitching on his lips. “Still do.”

“You do?” My heart thumps. “I like the idea of the four of us falling back into place. Yes, I’m including Mindy in that equation.” I lower my lids as if embarrassed by the admission.

“Come here.” Rowen pulls me in by the cheeks and lands a soft kiss to the top of my head. “I would like that. I’m just—”

“Still pissed at my brother?”

“No. Just—there are words left unspoken, and I’m afraid if we ever went there, it would just end up in a total blowout.”

“Then be the bigger person. Don’t let it escalate.” I’m practically pleading for something that I would never want to witness. “I know it must be hard to see him with Becca.” The second her name leaves my lips I’m filled with regret.

“Not true.” He pulls back and steadies his eyes over mine as if driving home the point. “I swear to you, I have no feelings left for that girl. In fact, there’s more to the story, and I think maybe it’s time—”

My phone buzzes. At the bar.

“It’s Braden.” I wave the text at him. “I’m meeting him for dinner.”

“Yeah.” A darkness settles over his features. “I’d better get to practice.” He lands a lingering kiss to my lips, and we moan as we struggle to pull away from one another. I never knew it could be this way. I never really believed that it could exist at all with Rowen. “We’ll continue the conversation. Come by tonight.” His thumb rubs over my side with the invite.

“I will. And hey, it’s week five! Seth says there’s no date until Saturday. The entire team is going to interview us.”

His dimples dig in. “I guess they want to learn from the best.”

“And next week, we officially graduate from the lunacy. We should totally celebrate our freedom from our time of terror.”

“I’m not sure I’d call it a time of terror.” Rowen outlines my lips with his finger, and I reach down and take a healthy bite out of it. “Ouch.” He dots my nose with his wet digit. “I think we should celebrate that brilliant stroke of genius that Dexter Houston had because it led me straight to you.” He leans and runs soft kisses from my cheek to my ear. “You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me, Soph. You always have been.”

I watch as Rowen is swallowed by the lavender night, the parched oak leaves swirling at his feet as if venerating his every step.

He turns around and offers that wild grin I’ve worshiped for as long as I can remember.

“I love you, Sophie Meyer!” he shouts into the night, and my mouth falls open. Sure, there’s not another soul around, but the fact he so brazenly proclaimed our love to the rooftops makes me want to throw a rock at him—and then, of course, kiss him.

“I love you, Rowen Garret!” I shout right back with enthusiasm that rivals his own.

We share a quick laugh before he turns and jogs into the direction of the field.

All of the joy that moment brings quickly dissipates because it’s time to roll up Rowen and our love and tuck it into the deepest chamber of my heart so that my oaf of a brother won’t see it.

I head to the Underground, sour and pissed at Braden for being the king of harboring longtime grudges. Maybe that will be the topic at hand tonight.

Maybe this is the year Braden Meyer learns to forgive and forget, to move on with his life, and to let me move on with mine with Rowen.

But deep in my heart, I know that will never happen. It will never be that easy. Nope. Braden will never accept the fact Rowen and I are together.

There will be hell to pay. And in a way, Rowen and I are already paying it.

* * *

The Underground is pumping and thumping as if it were a Friday night and not the crappiest night of them all—Monday. However, my Monday will not be crappy this night nor any other Monday that follows now that Rowen and I are officially together.

Together. I can’t stop grinning like a loon at the idea.

I spot Braden sitting at a table near the back and wave while dancing my way over, because life couldn’t get any sweeter, any better, any more mouth-wateringly delicious. I leap over as Braden stands to greet me and offer him a quick embrace.

“All right. Who is he and what did he do to put that jack-o-lantern grin on your face?” He gives a lazy wink as we fall into our seats.

My stomach cinches. Every last muscle in my body freezes solid. “You’re disgusting. Where’s Becca?”

He frowns as he slides a menu my way. “First, I was kidding about the guy, but I’d swear you smell more like cologne than you do perfume. And second, I’m starting to think there is a guy lurking around in your life because you never ask about Becca. She’s watching that stupid sexperiment show, if you really want to know.”

“Oh, right.” My face heats with color. I could bow down and kiss Dexter Houston’s toenail clippings for editing Rowen and me from the spotlight. I’d die if anyone saw those things we’ve done in the name of sexual science. If Rowen didn’t arrange for our footage to be nixed, I would have quit weeks ago. “No guy. It’s just some new gender-neutral perfume I’m sporting.”

Gender-neutral perfume? I think I just heard my mother groan as she rolled over in her grave. She would never want me to lie to my brother even if it was protecting him from joining her in the great beyond. Braden is going to die when he hears of Rowen and me. And if, God forbid, he envisions the things Rowen has been doing to me, his impending demise will happen a whole lot quicker. Heck, I die a little just thinking about it myself. I’d better ease him into this.

“So, guess who I bumped into today?” I roll my eyes, trying to look as irritated as possible.

“Becca?” He lets out a short-lived laugh as the waitress comes by and we ask for the nacho mega platter designed to feed fifteen. It’s clear both Braden and I brought our appetites. I’m sure Braden is eating away his misery just knowing he has to trek back to his apartment and slam the back of Becca’s hollow head against that headboard for another solid hour. But me? I’m loading up on carbs and protein alike for my own personal colossal adventure.

“I said who, not what.” I give a short-lived smile. “Relax, I like the wicked witch you’ve leashed yourself to.” Almost.

Braden hardens his features once the waitress takes off, his eyes still needling into mine. “Who did you bump into?”

I do my best to swallow all the butterflies trying to burst free from my stomach. “Rowen Garret,” I say his name as if it were the plague—the sexiest plague on the planet. The plague I can’t wait to catch right between my thighs and—I give a hard blink at my brother as I snap back to reality.

Braden’s chest pumps with a dry laugh. “Don’t worry. He won’t bite.”

Oh, he bites. And he licks, and he sucks, and he thrusts—oh, how he thrusts.

“You’ll get used to it.” He shrugs as if it were no big deal. “You see him coming, you just head the other way.”

I see him coming, and I’m halfway there myself.

I clear my throat for no apparent reason. “Anyway, it was awkward but kind of nice.” Braden’s brow twitches. “It reminded me of old times. You ever miss old times?” Perfect. I’ll prime him with good memories from the past, and soon he’ll be scouting out campus himself just to hug it out with Rowen.

“I don’t want to talk about old times.” He scowls past me as if he were staring down Rowen himself.

“Yeah, but there were some good times there, too. Remember the night we all went out bowling, and both you and Rowen threw extra balls down the lanes for Mindy and me just so we could get a strike? And because you were both pretty lame bowlers yourself, you went ahead and ran down the lanes, risking life and limbs just to knock down a couple of lousy pins?” I laugh it up while Braden sinks lower in his seat.

The nachos arrive, and he growls at them as if they were Rowen himself.

“Don’t think of that stuff, Soph. He’s not the guy you think he is.”

“What do you mean he’s not the guy I think he is?” I know for a fact he’s an even better guy than that, and I’ve never really thought that badly of him to begin with. “He just seemed like his old self. I don’t know why—”

“I don’t want to talk about him,” he roars so loud, I’m stuck midair with a fully loaded chip in hand.

“What’s going on, Braden?” My brother is a lot of things, but angry to the point of explosive isn’t one of them. “You can’t still be harboring some stupid resentment all these years? That stuff among the three of you is done. You won. You have Becca—the prize, if you must. Get over it. It’s ancient history.”

“It’s not ancient history,” he says, stabbing at his dinner before retracting his hand. I can tell his appetite has done a disappearing act. “Becca’s been talking about him lately. I think something might be going on.”

“What?” Suddenly, my appetite has vacated the premises itself. “What do you mean going on?” I bark so loud, demanding explanation, and Braden nods as if glad to see me on board with his self-righteous anger. Little does he know my anger is pretty self-centered at the moment.

“I mean, I caught them together the other night.”

“What?” I squawk again, this time far more animated and strangled than before. “Where? Are you sure it was him?” A vision of Becca with her legs laced around my new boyfriend makes my blood boil. I knew she had never really gotten over him. Who the hell gets over Rowen Garret? “Rowen would never sleep with that skank.”

“Relax. And be nice, would you? They weren’t sleeping together.”

A heavy wave of relief washes over me, and I sit down without ever realizing I was on my feet.

“They were talking.” He snorts as if this were an equally salacious offense. “In the dark—last Wednesday in front of the psych building.”

Last Wednesday? The psych building? She must have tried to sink her hooks into him just as he was on his way to do some sexperimentation with me. I almost want to smile at the thought of Becca trying to stop him.

“It was probably nothing. I doubt he wants anything to do with her again.”

“I know. You’re probably right,” he grunts into the crowd. “It’s just that she’s mentioned him a time or two before that, and I guess it didn’t sit well with me.” He takes a bite and washes it down with water. “You know, I bumped into the asshole myself.” He gives a wistful laugh. “It was in the bathroom, and we were each holding our dicks.”

“You held each other’s boy toys?” I grip the table, ready to launch myself the hell out of here. Clearly Braden is having a breakdown—one that I want no part of.

“What? No!” He grimaces as if it were the most unspeakable horror, and it would be. “We were pissing. He asked about you. It fucking enraged me. How dare he say my sister’s name while rubbing his nut sack. He’s lucky I let him live.”

A small, very immature part of me starts to giggle, and I can’t help but tremble with a laugh.

“That’s both disgusting and weird,” I’m quick to affirm, much to my brother’s relief. “Speaking of disgusting and weird, Dad’s birthday is next Friday, and I think we should invite him to the game.” That way I can watch Rowen strut his stuff on the field while happily ignoring Granny Panties for the first three hours of my father’s requisite celebration.

“Nice try, but homecoming is Saturday. There’s no game on Friday. Let’s take him to dinner. That should force you to be civil for a small stretch of time.”

“I’m always civil—except when I feel like Mom is about to be replaced.”

Braden reaches over and picks up my hand. His features soften, but you can still see the thin veil of pain hiding in his eyes. “Mom can never be replaced or erased. Rita isn’t here to do any of that. She’s here because Dad has invited her into his life. Don’t start off on the wrong foot with this lady. Dad really seems to like her. He’s got needs, too, you know.”

I gag openly as I push the plate of cheesy, meaty goodness his way. “Thanks for the visual.” A thought comes to me. “Speaking of which… You know, I’ve got needs myself, Braden.” Okay, perhaps not the most delicate segue to inform him that I’m mounting his former BFF nightly.

“Shit.” He grinds his palm hard against his eye. “Please tell me you’re kidding. I really don’t want to have to track down some poor kid and kill him.”

There it is. Braden went straight for the felony. I’m pretty sure I don’t want to put my brother away for murder one.

“Of course, I’m kidding.” Not. I glare over at him. Why are you such a ridiculous ass sometimes, Braden? I shout as loud as my mind can offer. “Anyway, I’d better get going. I’ve got an early class in the morning.”

That hard look on his face remains as I give a quick wave from over my shoulder.

“Make sure to introduce me to any twerps you meet!” he shouts as I make my way to the door. “My fist has a few needs itself!”

Normally, I’d laugh and flip him the finger, but at the moment, it’s all feeling a bit too real for me.

If Braden ever finds out about Rowen and me, my newfound boyfriend will have his beautiful face rearranged by my beast of a brother. Why does he have to be so damn unreasonable?

* * *

I make the trek back to Canterbury and do a quick change. There are a ton of texts from Vi all saying the same thing, call me stat. And one from Ember that says where the hell are you? But neither of them is in their rooms, so I head towards Rowen’s dorm instead. All I want to do is get lost in Rowen’s kisses. He’ll know what to do to get us out of this mess with Braden. Rowen has always had the way out to every mess I’ve ever gotten into since I was nine years old.

My phone bleats again. It’s a text from Becca. Really, Sophie? That is so fucked up of you. I don’t even know where to begin.

“Geez,” I whisper into my phone as I come upon the campus coffee hot spot. Leave it to Braden to share my discontent with her. If I knew he would betray me that way, I would have never unleashed my sarcastic superpowers. I’m about to text back when my phone rings and it’s Rowen himself.

“Hey, you!” I say, breathless. “I was just about to head up. I thought I’d stop in for a quick burst of caffeine for that all-nighter we’re about to pull. You want a cup? I deliver—topless.”

His warm laughter heats me to my bones, and just as I’m about to fill him on the fact I take sex tips, I spot a familiar looking face storming this way. That dark hair, those familiar eyes—Rowen and Mindy share the same almond shaped eyes. Although, at the moment, hers look downright angry.

“Hey, I think your sister’s on campus,” I whisper.

“Mindy?”

“Unless your mother has done a little procreating since the last time I’ve seen her, that would be the one.”

Mindy spots me and lets out a little yelp before charging my way.

“Oh my God, I think she’s going to kill me!”

“Sophie Meyer!” Mindy hacks out my name like a curse before kicking the metal chair between us deep into the night. “You don’t get to fuck with my brother!”

My heart lurches. My eyes bulge to the point of touching the chair-kicking maniac that is stalking ever so close.

“Sophie?” Rowen shouts into the phone just as it slips from my grasp.

Mindy launches her body onto mine, her hands wrapping around my neck as we fall to the ground in a tangled heap.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” I scream as I surface for air.

Her wild eyes meet with mine, and I can sense something far more viral than hate staring back at me. “What the hell is wrong with me?” she thunders so loud the sound of her voice reverberates through my newly fractured skull. She twists my sweater up in knots and pulls me close. “What the hell is wrong with you?” Her voice rains over my face like a hurricane.

“Mindy!” Rowan’s voice roars from over her shoulder. He’s running like hell as if a team of demons just stole the ball and every soul at Leland was in peril.

She glances back before circling her hands over my neck and giving me a good throttle that assures me she’s fully aware of my dirty little secret. God, she’s not really aware, right? I mean, this neck-crunching, trachea-crushing show of affection could have something to do with her general hatred of me, couldn’t it?

Rowen tackles her and lands us both on the ground once again, rolling under a messy splay of limbs.

“You are such an idiot!” she shrills into his face as he works to restrain her hands. I stumble to my feet as Rowen lifts his sister right along with him.

A small crowd has amassed, and a few phones are whipped out to record the event.

“What the fuck.” Rowen gives his sister a shove, and she stumbles trying to keep from flying. “What the hell was that about?”

Mindy looks from Rowen to me with her hair disheveled, her chest pumping hard with rage. “Don’t play stupid.” She storms over to Rowen and slaps him over the chest. “You could have at least warned me!” Her voice breaks as she screams the words. “You knew it was her!” She points hard my way, and I’m still baffled by my old bestie’s bout of insanity. It almost rivals Becca’s.

Wait a Dexter Houston minute…

“I saw that stupid show!” she riots in his face through tears.

Shit. Shit. Shit!

Rowen gives me a glance that says what the fuck and oh my shit all at the very same time.

“Why didn’t you run the hell away when you saw that it was her!” she thunders while shooting me an incriminating look. “Same goes for you, asshole!” she spears the words at me like a flamethrower.

“Hey, don’t call her that!” Rowen barks while holding her back.

“It’s true.” Mindy snatches her purse off the ground and whacks the crap out of him with it. “You were both a bunch of wild animals in that room. I get it—it was dark to begin with. But when the lights went on and you both stood there with that stupid, stumped look on your faces, you both should have walked the hell away. It was gross! It was disgusting! You practically grew up together.” Tears stream down her face in thick, muddy tracks. Her voice is raw and hoarse. Mindy turns to me while Rowen continues to brace her from tearing out my tongue with her bare hand. “You don’t even like my brother! All you ever talked about was Tanner Carmichael. I bet this is all some twisted form of revenge!”

“Tanner Carmichael was code for your brother!” I shout back, suddenly enraged by her need to reduce my taste in men to preppies.

“What?” Her brows spike at the revelation. “Tell me this doesn’t go anywhere.” Her voice grows small. All of a sudden, Mindy is as fragile as a flower—a dandelion that’s about to get blown away with reality.

I lean in, not daring to get within hair pulling range. “I’m not telling you a thing because you tore out my larynx!”

“Mindy”—Rowen pulls her in before releasing her to the wild once again—“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. How did you find out? What do you mean you watched the show?”

“I watched that stupid show along with the rest of the country, Rowen! Congratulations! You’ve just embarrassed yourself on national television, kissing what amounts to your little sister—who is an asshole by the way—while pretending to enjoy it!”

“I did enjoy it,” he barks right back. “And I’ve never viewed Sophie as my little sister, so get your head on straight.”

“You’re sick!” Mindy shakes her head at her brother with a look that says I don’t even know you anymore. “You’re an animal is what you are.” She turns to me. “And you’re a skank.” She smacks her brother in the chest, sending him stumbling. “You’re choosing her over me. You swore you would always be on my side. You said it was us against them, and now it’s just me. I should have known you couldn’t control your colossal appetite for the opposite sex! You screw anything that moves.” She snaps her head my way with the snap of a ventriloquist’s dummy. “Hear that? You’re nothing special, Sophie Meyer. You may have lusted over my brother all those years, but he was never thinking of you.” She steps in, the hate in her eyes exudes something just this side of evil. “You were just some poor charity case he felt sorry for. He was sick of you hanging out around the house as much as I was. It was a relief for the both of us to finally be rid of you.” She takes off like a bullet, and I stand there stunned, my body riddled full of holes from the ferocity of her words.

“It’s not true.” Rowen presses a kiss over my temple, his breathing roaring in my ear. “I gotta go. I’ll be back.” Rowen takes off into the night like lightning. “Mindy!” The residue of his voice is all that’s left of him as he fades into the night.

The crowd dissipates just as quickly, and I’m left alone with her hurtful words still pouring their acid into all my reopened wounds.

I forgo Rowen’s room for the night and head straight to my dorm where Vi and Ember fill me in on an experimental show they watched starring little ol’ me.

It’s safe to say life for Rowen and me has gone to shit in a handbasket.

And tomorrow—Braden will send us to hell.

* * *

A dark boil of clouds clusters above Leland University as we ready for the first big storm of the season.

Surprisingly, I live long enough to go to all my classes the next day. Rowen keeps in touch with me through a steady stream of text messages, and as soon as we’re both through with classes, we boldly meet up for a cup of coffee.

Heads turn as soon as we walk into the place. A few girls let out catcalls, and suddenly I feel the blistering stare of a thousand different eyes. A girl snaps a picture of the two of us just as I place my order.

The cashier laughs while he rings us up. “So I take it you went for the second date.” The boy with squared-off glasses chuckles as he gives Rowen back his change. “I mean, you’re here together, so you must still be dating, right?”

I glance to Rowen before answering. “We’ll leave that cliffhanger for the next episode.”

We pick up our drinks, and Rowen nods for me to follow him out the door.

“Thank God,” I hiss. “For a second, I thought you were about to sit us dead in the middle of that overcrowded room with its Halloween decorations, spiders, witches, and ghosts—but do you know what the scariest thing is? The scariest thing of all is turning out to be that social experiment we signed up for.”

His lips flex into a dry smile. “Let’s try Dexter’s office one more time.”

Rowen let me know he was checking in between classes, and God knows I showed up kicking and screaming but to no avail. Not even Seth or Petra has been available today. Damn cowards.

“So, what do we do about Braden?” I ask as we cross the field on our way to that demonic hovel where Dexter has his office.

The sky lets out a ferocious growl as if weighing in on the conversation, and a light sprinkle begins to fall.

“Don’t worry about Braden. Come here.” Rowen pulls me in tight. His ocean gray eyes fall over mine, and there’s a reassurance in them that lets me know that everything will be okay. “I love you, Soph. I’m sorry that Mindy hurt you.” His fingers gently caress my neck. Thankfully, she didn’t leave any marks, but she tore at the scars in my heart. “She didn’t mean it.”

“She meant it.”

He blows a heavy breath into the wind. “Okay, she might have meant it in the moment, but she doesn’t feel that way. She cares about us. She doesn’t want to see either of us hurt.”

“You believe your own lies, Garret?”

“I believe in us.” His lips land over mine as the rain falls with a little more promise.

Rowen believes in us. That’s all I need to know. That’s all I ever need to know.

“Sophie!” someone shouts my name in the distance, and I pull back, terrified by that all too familiar voice.

“That’s Braden.” I give Rowen’s arm a tug in the opposite direction, but he doesn’t budge.

“No, let’s do this.”

“Are you nuts?” The rain starts to pelt us a little harder as if warning us to go.

Like a demon staining the horizon, my brother’s frame pops up. Braden sways with rage as he stampedes his way forward. His chin is dipped to his chest, his eyes are lit like flames, his face set in a wicked grin as if he’s already relishing what he’s about to do. But it’s that baseball bat swaying in his hand that has a scream curdling from my throat. Mindy may have tried to slaughter me with her hands, but Braden is going for assault with a deadly weapon.

Rowen’s chest expands as Braden draws near, and he hands me his coffee. “You called the bat.”

“That I did.”

Without hesitating, I jump between the two of them, before Braden starts swinging at Rowen like a piñata, and send scalding hot lattes raining down over the three of us. Leave it to me to initiate an espresso-based thermonuclear war.

“What the fuck did I just see?” Braden is asking me, but he’s staring down Rowen like a hunter keeping his eye on his prey.

“We were just talking.” My voice pitches. “Braden, put down the bat. I can explain everything.”

He cinches it in his hand, and it jumps with a threat. “Get back, Sophie. This isn’t about you anymore.” His growls are set tight, his eyes completely focused on Rowen as if I wasn’t even in their presence.

“This is about me.” I make a dive for the bat, and he jerks it out of reach. “Let me explain!”

“Let you explain?” he roars through the rain. “Let you explain why this fucker was taking advantage of you like that?”

“Becca told you?”

“Becca didn’t say shit. I watched the stupid show on my own. I saw a teaser. Imagine my surprise when I saw my very own sister’s beautiful face on the screen?” He’s shouting so loud it stings to listen to him. “And then seeing this cocksucker treating you like a common street whore!” He swings, and Rowen tries to catch it with his hand, but gets his knuckle slapped so loud it sounds as if a firecracker just went off.

“Oh my God!” I howl as Rowen bends over to nurse his hand and gets pelted on the back of the legs by Braden.

Braden lands the bat hard over Rowen’s back, and I jump on top of him in an effort to shield him. The wind from the bat comes dangerously close to my head before Braden roars and tosses the bat down the field.

“Get the hell off!” Braden plucks me from his body as Rowen moans his way to his feet.

“You piece of shit!” Braden lands his fist to Rowen’s chin, and an audible pop fills the air.

“You’re killing him!” I shrill as the rain continues to pepper us with its icy bites.

Rowen lets out a thunderous roar of his own and pulls Braden in by the shirt.

“You don’t touch me again, or I will go ape on your ass and you will drown in the rain because you won’t have two whole legs to walk on when I’m through with you.”

Braden pulls him forward by the shirt. “You think this is funny, don’t you? You think this is the perfect revenge. You can’t have Becca, so put your moves on my little sister.”

“I’m not interested in Becca. You wanted her, you can keep her. But I’m not staying away from Sophie. Sophie’s mine.”

My stomach pinches with heat when he says it. If you could frame a moment in time, this would be the one for me.

Braden launches out in full assault. It turns out my brother doesn’t need a baseball bat to commit a felony level assault. But Rowen comes back to life and starts pounding the shit out of Braden until I’m pretty certain we’re going to see gray matter spilling out all over the field.

“Stop!” I shout like some stereotypical helpless girlfriend trying to break up a fight between her boyfriend and a bully, and I hate it. “Stop killing each other! I love him, Braden!” I scream so loud my throat rubs raw. I run over to the muddy mess they’ve rolled to and start kicking the shit out of both of them. “Rowen, stop! You’re hurting my brother!”

My leg gets caught in the melee, and I end up on the ground, sucked into the hungry machine of anger that’s eating them both alive. Before they come to a full halt, Braden’s elbow lands under my chin and knocks my head back onto the soggy field.

“Sophie.” Rowen picks me up and pulls me onto his lap.

“You asshole!” Braden yanks me right back out and pulls me to his chest. The rain comes down hard, and it feels as if I’m the one that’s drowning. “Are you okay?”

“No, I’m not okay!” I slap my hands over his chest in an effort to get away. “Why does it matter to you that I’m with Rowen?”

“You’re not with him, Soph.” The veins in my brother’s neck distend. “He’s using you.”

“I’m not using anybody.” Rowen attempts to pull me to him, and a tug-of-war ensues.

“You’re using her just like you said you would!”

“What?” The world stops, and I can’t breathe, can’t see straight.

Rowen shakes his head. “It’s not like that, Soph.”

“The hell it isn’t.” Braden steadies his anger right over his old friend. “You swore to me you’d get even. That you would find a way to hurt me. And this is exactly what this is.”

“It is not.” My voice shakes. “Tell him, Rowen.”

Braden yanks me toward him, nearly pulling my arm out of its socket. “To hell it’s not. Why else would he have asked me how you were doing in the fucking bathroom of all places a few weeks back? He was gloating!”

“Yes, I was gloating. You got me.” Rowen scowls at Braden before helping me to my feet. Braden gets up slow and moaning as if Rowen had already made good on his promise.

“Stay away from my sister.” He turns to me. “And you stay the hell away from this piece of shit!”

“He wasn’t gloating,” I say, wrapping an arm around Rowen. “Tell him I’m not some object of revenge you’ve plotted out to hurt him.”

Rowen closes his eyes a moment, and even with his hair plastered to his head, he looks unfairly, recklessly sexy.

“I may have gloated a little bit.”

My stomach sinks.

“But that’s only because your brother is the only piece of shit around here.” He touches his jaw as if trying to set it back into place. “Tell your sister the truth. Tell her what you did and how far you’ve gone to cover it up.”

Braden glances back toward the street as if he were glancing to Becca for permission.

“What’s the truth, Braden?” I’m screaming through the rain once again.

He looks to Rowen with the grimace of a demonic clown. “You go first, sweetheart.”

A moment thumps by with the two of them locked in a pissing contest over who breaks first. And it’s becoming hauntingly clear they both have something they would rather I not know.

“Rowen, tell me what’s going on. Tell me right now, or I’m going to flip the hell out.” But Rowen doesn’t break his hard stance toward my brother. “Fine. Fuck both of you!” I break free from Rowen’s stronghold and take a step back. “Neither of you talks to me until you grow the hell up. Whatever this is about, it happened years ago! Becca isn’t that big a prize, Braden! And, you!” I shout over to Rowen as the rain fills my mouth. “I thought I meant more to you than some stupid little secret!” I take off for Canterbury like my life depends on it.

And it feels like exactly that.

Neither Rowen nor Braden comes after me. They’ll probably both be dead by morning.

And if they don’t kill each other—maybe I’ll do it for them.