WHAT THE HELL do you think you’re doing?

Nothing could’ve brought reality crashing back down quicker than my brother’s words. Aiden and I had pulled away from each other, but the damage was done. I could see Rick over Aiden’s shoulder, a mix of confusion and rage on his face as he looked between the two of us.

I needed to defuse the situation, and I had to do it carefully. I knew all too well how hotheaded my brother could be when he was upset, but once I explained, he’d understand. I hoped.

Stepping away from Aiden, I lifted my hand as if to calm a wild animal. “Just give me five minutes. I’ll tell you everything—”

“You’ll tell me how you were just making out with our sister’s boyfriend? What the hell, Miles? What are you doing?”

“Look, I know what it looks like, and yes, he’s technically Beth’s boyfriend—”

“Technically?” Rick said. “You’ve got a lot of fucking nerve doing this, and under Beth’s nose?” He shook his head, and then his eyes narrowed on Aiden. “And you…”

Instinctively, I stepped in front of Aiden. “Leave him out of this. It’s my fault.”

“Like hell it is,” Rick said, starting forward.

I held my hands out to my sides and forced Aiden to back up with me, because Rick wasn’t stopping.

“Rick, it’s just pretend,” I said. “He’s not really her boyfriend, he’s—”

“You’d better fucking run, buddy,” Rick said, not even listening to anything I said, his eyes stuck on the man behind me as his nostrils flared and he moved into a charging position.

Oh shit.

“Uh, Aiden?” I said.

“Yeah?”

At that moment, Rick charged forward, and I yelled, “Run!”

“What?” Aiden said, but when he realized Rick was seriously about to mow him down, he turned and ran. The snow being a couple feet high in spots didn’t help his getaway, and he had to practically high-knee-it away.

Rick tore past me, and I flung myself his way, wrapping my arms around him from behind to try to stop him, but he was too muscular for me to get a good hold on, and my arms slipped. I grabbed for the only thing I could, which happened to be the tail of his shirt, and as he chased after Aiden, I bumped along the snow after him like I was nothing more than a bouncing ball.

“Rick,” I yelled, panting. “This is stupid. Just stop.”

“Leave it, Miles,” he growled as we got closer to Aiden. “This guy thinks he can just mess with my sister and my brother? Not on my watch.”

Aiden made it to the high gate and struggled to wrench it open, but the snow was too tall, and he searched around for something to help or somewhere to go.

“Go inside,” I called out, knowing if Rick got any closer, Aiden’s handsome face was done for.

“Get off me,” Rick said, throwing me off into the snow, and then he dove forward, catching Aiden’s sweater and knocking him off balance. But Aiden was able to grasp the backdoor handle, and it stopped him from falling into the snow, where my brother would no doubt attempt to bury him.

As Aiden disappeared inside the house, I pushed Rick from behind, catching him by surprise, and as he face-planted into the snow, I shouted out in victory.

“Take that, you bully,” I said, starting for the house. “And don’t say a word about this to Mom and Dad.”

Rick’s hand shot out to grab my ankle, and as I tried to kick him off, he grabbed my other leg, and I fell down beside him, snow instantly seeping through my clothes. He laughed as he left me there, flinging open the back door and running inside, and I quickly scrambled through the cold, wet stuff after him.

Aiden was standing in the living room with Beth, who had a puzzled look on her face, and then he did a double take when he saw Rick barreling down the hall, with me running after him.

“Gotta go,” Aiden said, taking off for the front door.

“What’s going on?” Beth said, her eyes widening when she saw Rick and me, and behind her, my parents both got to their feet.

“Rick?” my mom said, a crease forming between her brows. “Miles?”

Rick didn’t stop, though, whizzing past them all and out onto the front lawn, where Aiden had rolled a couple of snowballs and lobbed them his way in an attempt to get him to stop.

Or anger the bull more, as it were.

When one hit Rick smack in the face, he drew to a stop and pointed at Aiden across the yard. “You’re dead, Mahoney. You hear me? Dead.”

“Rick, stop,” I said, standing in front of him to block his path yet again. “This is stupid. You don’t even know what’s going on.”

“Oh, I saw what’s goin’ on, little brother,” he said, patting me on the shoulder. “And don’t worry—you’re next.”

A warrior cry sounded, and from out of nowhere, Beth ran toward Rick and jumped onto his back.

“What are you doing?” Rick yelped. “Get off. Don’t you see I’m defending your honor?”

“My honor? By attacking my boyfriend?”

“Your boyfriend is a no-good, two-timing piece of shit.”

“No, you did not.” Beth wrapped her arms tighter around his neck, much like she had when we were kids, and I didn’t envy Rick’s position. She was a vicious little thing when provoked.

“What has gotten into you four?” Dad said, emerging from the house to see Rick pushing past me with Beth still latched on to him like a spider monkey.

“Help him,” I managed, before I was sent flying backward into the snow. Thank God we had more than a few inches of padding, or we’d all have concussions at this point. I already planned on giving Rick one once he calmed his ass down. Jesus, he had it all wrong.

It was like Beth wasn’t even there as Rick again dashed after Aiden, who led him on a wild chase around the perimeter of the yard, with Dad inserting himself into the mix to block Aiden.

“You need to move,” Rick said to Dad, as he attempted to fake him out by going left.

“You need to stop trying to clobber our guests.” Dad held his hands out, much the same as I’d done, but Rick faked him out again and managed to push past him. But this time, I was prepared, and seized Rick’s ankle, and with as fast as he’d been running, the move sent him tumbling into the snow again, and that was the only thing that had Beth letting go.

“Hold him down,” I yelled, crawling over to Rick, and before he could get up, I sat on his stomach, keeping him pinned down.

“All right, who do I need to knock out?” Mom said, flying out of the house with a frying pan held high.

Rick grabbed a handful of snow and shoved it in my face, and as I sputtered, I reached for my own handful and squashed it into his. He bucked up and rolled us over so he was on top of me, and then he began to pile the snow on top of me, burying me in it before clambering to his feet.

“You should all be thanking me,” Rick shouted, and then looked over his shoulder to where Aiden stood by the tree across the yard—as far away from us as humanly possible. “If you knew what he did, you wouldn’t be defending him.”

As Rick was about to take off again, I struggled to sit up, trying to get to my feet so I could attempt to save Aiden from what was bound to be a hell of a beatdown, when I saw Holly’s front door open a couple doors down.

Bundled up in the new red coat she’d bought on our last trip to the mall, she had a white beanie pulled down over her curls and a scarf to match, and as she looked in our direction, I swear to God I saw her eyebrows hit her hairline.

She jogged down the stairs as Rick took off again, and I scrambled to my feet. “Rick, you moron!” I shouted, hoping, by some miracle, he’d slip in the snow and fall on his ass. But no such luck. The boots he wore were apparently made for chasing down no-good, two-timing pieces of shit—or so he thought. Jesus, I’d always known my brother was pigheaded, but this was ridiculous, and so was he.

Holly made her way over to the yard, as Rick zipped by her, and when her eyes followed his path and landed on Aiden, they widened. “Oh my God. Aiden, you need to run.”

My mom frowned. “Who’s Aiden?”

“Watch out!” Holly shouted, moving her out of the way as Rick ran past.

Mom waved the frying pan in the air as she stalked after Rick. “You stop that chasing right now, or by God, I’ll use this. I will!”

“Why don’t you give that to me,” Holly said, taking hold of one side, but Mom wasn’t letting go.

“Do you see these boys? I might need it.”

“You don’t need it.”

“I do.”

As they played tug of war with the frying pan, I realized too late that Aiden wasn’t running anymore. As a matter of fact, I couldn’t see him anywhere at all, and then—

“Aiden!” I traipsed through the snow as fast as I could, to where Rick had grabbed hold of Aiden’s legs and tackled him to the ground. Beth was yelling at him and doing all she could to pry him away, while Dad had Aiden’s hands, pulling him in the opposite direction to get him loose from Rick’s hold.

Everyone was yelling at everyone, even though half the family had no idea what was going on, when all of a sudden, a piercing whistle sounded from behind us, and we all froze. A cop car had stopped in front of the house without anyone noticing, and as the officer stepped out of the car, he dropped his whistle.

“Either this is the most twisted game of touch football I’ve ever seen, or we’ve got a problem here.” He narrowed his eyes. “Is there a problem?”

I looked at Aiden, who looked at up at Dad, whose gaze landed on Rick—who was still practically spitting bullets in Aiden’s direction.

Beth answered first as she got to her feet. “No problem here, officer. Just a fun family game, like you said.” She glanced around, and then smacked Rick in the back. “Tag. You’re it.”

As she began to run off, the cop stepped in front of her and stopped her by the arms. “Whoa, young lady. I think maybe this ‘game’ of yours has seen enough excitement for the day.” The cop gave a pointed look at my father. “Maybe you could have your family take it inside? Unless you’d like your neighbors calling me about a domestic disturbance? Can’t promise I’d be this nice twice.”

“No, that won’t be necessary,” my dad said, stepping forward with his hands up. “We’re sorry for the disturbance.” And then, in a commanding voice I hadn’t heard since I was a teenager, he said, “Everyone to the living room. Now.”