It's the evening after my final GCSE exam.

Max and Mum are in bed, but Galen is stealing us alcohol.

I find him rooting around in the bottom cupboard of the kitchen, where Max hides the good stuff.

"What are you doing?"

He grabs the bottle of vodka then walks over to the fridge and pulls out a bottle of Coke.

"Get some glasses, Fflur. Let's celebrate."

"You didn't finish your exams today."

"No, but you did. Come on, let's have a drink."

I follow him up to my bedroom where he proceeds to pour us generous glasses of vodka barely topping them up with Coke.

We both sit against my headboard and sip from our drinks.

The vodka burns as it slides down my throat. I don't particularly like the taste, but I'll drink it slowly. One more sip and I can feel it warming the blood in my veins and pooling in my belly.

I'm too sensible to get drunk, and acknowledging this—even to myself—is a little sad. What average sixteen-year-old isn't interested in getting drunk?

Me.

I'm a nerd who gets top marks at everything. In fact, the only thing that I could ever be accused of doing that was wrong is having these feelings for Galen.

I kissed a boy who might become my future stepbrother.

'But it was more than that,' my heart whispers. 'It was more than a kiss, and you know it.'

Despite not drinking much, I can feel I'm tipsy.

"Let's do something," I say to Galen as he pours himself another glass.

"Do what?"

"I don't know," I shrug and my elbow catches his, causing a little of the liquid in his glass to tip over his fingers. "I've never done anything crazy in my life."

"And you want to do something crazy now? It's midnight."

"Yes," I say, hitting the mattress for emphasis. "Let's go skinny dipping."

Galen laughs. It's big, it's wild, and it's free.

I love it.

"Now, that would be crazy considering the nearest water to here is the shallow brook in the woods."

I pout. It feels silly on my face. I'm not that kind of girl.

"Oh, come on. We can't go skinny dipping." He takes another gulp of his vodka and shakes his head. "How about we go for a walk and see if those flowers that bloom in the night are out?"

"Evening primrose," I clarify.

"Whatever. Do you want to go and see them?"

"Yeah," I say with a vodka grin. "I do."

We're quiet on the way to the brook. Galen carries the bottle of vodka, but I know I won't drink anymore. At the first sound of the water, he strips off his socks and shoes, pushes down his shorts, and tugs off his t-shirt.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"Well," he begins with his trademark smirk. "We can't skinny dip, but we sure can splash."

With that, he takes off down the hill and strides straight through the shallow water, kicking his feet as high as he can, sending arcs of water into the air. He's twirling and splashing and acting like a complete idiot, and I can't help the laugh that bursts from my chest.

"Come on, Fflur. You wanted to do something reckless."

I take off my shoes, slide off my bottoms and stand at the brow of the hill in only my tiny, pink flowery boy shorts, and plain white tee.

"I'm not taking it all off," I tell him as I jog down the slope, and I squeal when my feet hit the cold water. "Jesus. This is bloody freezing. It's supposed to be summer."

Cold, wet hands wrap around my waist and pick me up, twirling me in the air and laughing loud and free.

"Put me down, Galen," I demand, giggling and screeching, not at all wanting him to put me down.

But he does, and he dumps me so fast, I land on my arse in the freezing cold water.

"You prick!" I yelp, placing both my hands in the water and scooping through it to splash him.

I growl at him, but he just laughs before lying down flat in the water and allowing the slow trickle to push him further downstream.

"You're crazy," I call after him.

"Only when you ask me to be," he calls back.

Later, as we shiver on the bank, pulling our dry clothes over wet skin, he looks at me, and the connection between us crackles, much like it did before we kissed.

"Galen," I whisper hoarsely, while my heart shouts in my chest to 'Tell him. Tell him.'

He moves closer, and I swear my heart stops.

"Yeah, what do you want, Fflur?"

"I— I—"

I'm about to confess—about to spill my guts on the grassy ground at his feet, with the scent of Evening Primrose thick on our tongues—when a rustling in the trees across the brook gets both our attention.

Through the thick foliage on the opposite bank, the head of a fox pops out and regards us.

"Holy shit," Galen whispers. "Look at that."

Moving closer to me, his wet hand finds mine and links our fingers.

We watch as the fox decides if it should be worried about our presence. When it's sufficiently happy that we aren't a threat, its entire copper body emerges from the greenery. Its long bushy tail tipped with white stands perfectly straight as he continues to stare at us, still assessing, until it slowly makes its way down to the brook, takes a long drink and then turns, disappearing back into the dark wood without so much as a second glance.

Galen doesn't ask me to repeat what I was going to say. Instead, we savour the quietness of the moment all the way home.

He never once let's go of my hand.

I wake up the following morning in my bed with Galen spooned against my back.

His breath falls evenly across my nape. His arm is slung around my waist. The heavy weight of it is more than comforting. It sends a thrill to each of my nerve endings.

I try to wiggle out of his grasp, but he murmurs in his sleep and pulls me in tighter.

He needs to get out of here. He's got coursework to hand in this morning.

"Galen," I mumble, elbowing him in the stomach.

He jerks up so abruptly that he almost pushes me out of bed. "Wha— what's wrong?"

"Well, I don't have school," I say smiling to myself. "But you do."

He flops back down onto the bed and groans, "Don't make me go."

"If I don't make you go, then Mum will be up here dragging you out of your bed. Only you're not in yours, are you?"

He stills.

Not that anything has happened between us since that one kiss, but it still wouldn't look good if someone were to see us like this. Even though we’re not doing anything wrong. After all, he's not my blood relative. He's not my relative at all.

Galen jumps out of bed. Obviously, my words have woken him up fully. Without saying anything to me, he yanks open my bedroom door, darts across the hallway to his and slams his door behind him.

I growl at my open doorway, too warm and cosy to bother getting out of bed to close it. I turn over, bury my face in the half of my pillow that smells like sunshine, and I'm asleep within minutes.

The next time I wake up, it's because my phone is vibrating.

It's a group message from Emma and Erin nagging me about the end of year dance.

Somehow they've convinced me to go, although it's the last thing that I want to do.

I check the message to find details of the shopping trip they’ve planned for us to buy dresses. I should probably tell Mum.

I bet she'll be ecstatic to find out I'm finally doing something every other girl my age wants to do—go out, dance, have fun, and giggle about boys.

Only there are no boys for me.

Just Galen.