“Hey B,” he said, squeezing me tightly before grabbing my arms and pushing me away so he could look at my face. “You look great; I can’t believe how long it’s been since I’ve seen you. You’re all grown up.”
I rolled my eyes at his fair impression of our father, but otherwise let it slide. “Where have you been?” I asked, wondering if Mom knew he was here now. Probably not, which meant he needed to contact her ASAP before she gave herself a stroke from worry.
He glanced at the dean and then back to me. “It’s a long story.”
Dean Haywood got up and came around her desk. I looked at her and held my breath, not sure what she was about to do, but she merely squeezed my shoulder lightly and continued on to the door. “You two catch up. I’m off to the dining room for a coffee.” And with that, she left Robert and me in her office, closing the door behind her.
~ ♥ ~
“Where have you been?” I asked again, as soon as the dean was gone.
Robert didn’t answer, but swept his eyes around the room in a move I knew all too well: he was worried about being overheard or videotaped. He looked back at me and raised his eyebrows. I shrugged, having no idea if the dean’s office was secure. Normal girls probably would have been nervous at his paranoia, but for us, it was standard operating procedure when we talked about family to make sure we wouldn’t be overheard, just in case.
“A couple friends and I went to New York City. They had family they wanted to go visit and that made me think of you, so here I am. Aren’t you happy to see me?”
“Of course,” I said, not buying even the tiniest bit of his story. “You’re my big brother. Of course I’m happy to see you. In the middle of the school day. Unannounced.”
He gave me a look that said, “I will explain, let’s get out of this room so we can talk.”
“I probably shouldn’t be out of class for too long, but want a quick campus tour?”
He nodded. “Yeah, sure.”
Without another word between us, we left the dean’s office and I told Mrs. Andrews that I was taking my brother for the ten cent tour of Rosewood, but not to mark me absent; I’d be back for afternoon classes. There were only fifteen or so minutes until lunchtime, so I didn’t think that would be an issue. She nodded and scribbled something on a piece of paper on her desk.
I led my brother down the hall and out the side doors into the brisk autumn sunshine toward the stables. Once we were about ten feet from the doors, he spoke before I got the chance.
“I have stuff to tell you,” he said.
Obviously. “Before you do, does Mom know you’re okay? She called me last night, freaking out about you going missing.”
He cursed and dragged a hand through his short brown hair, making it stand up on end. “I’ll call her. Soon.”
“Robert!”
He shook his head. “It’s complicated.”
I stopped walking and crossed my arms. “What is it? You’re clearly here for a reason, so tell me what’s going on.” He obviously wasn’t in any danger, but he was making me nervous.
He seemed to chew on his words before he practically spat out, “I’m flunking out of school.”
“What? How is that even possible?” My brother is pretty much the smartest guy I know, like Sheldon Cooper smart, (but with social skills and looks that made him really popular with girls) so it was hard to believe he was flunking out. There had to be something more going on.
“The workload in the accelerated program I’m in is killer. Right out of the gate I got behind and then it snowballed and I can’t catch up. I’m taking the rest of the year off.” He shrugged like he’d just announced he was skipping a day of classes to go to Six Flags. Not the same thing. At all.
“You can’t quit, Robert.”
His face told me he already had. “I’ll go back next year. I just need to regroup and get my head in the game”
“What are you going to do?”
He nodded toward the school. “The dean said I could work here for the rest of the school year.”
Whoa. What? “How did that happen? Are you serious? Doing what?”
“I told her I wanted to be near you and would be looking for a job. She offered me one in maintenance. I’m good with my hands and like tinkering with stuff, so I’ll work wherever I’m needed.”
I stood there blinking at my brother, not really grasping the how or why of what was going on. I wouldn’t have been any more surprised if he had told me he’d transferred to clown school so he could run away and join the circus. “You’re telling me that you’re flunking out of Yale, where you were accepted on a full scholarship into an accelerated MBA program, so you came here to visit me at my all-girls school and somehow just talked the dean into giving you a job in maintenance?”
He grinned, making me think he was losing his marbles. “Actually, it’s an internship; I won’t be getting paid. But the rest is about right.”
“Oh, yes, that makes even more sense, Robert.”
He slid his arm across my shoulder. “Come on B, cut me some slack. Most guys my age aren’t on the career fast track like I was. I just need some time to figure things out. It was getting pretty intense at Yale and I figured if I didn’t give myself a break now, I was going to end up in some Wall Street job I hated.”
“So being a janitor is the answer?”
“I didn’t say that. The answer is figuring out what I want before I make any permanent decisions.”
“So why were you off the grid?”
He cringed. “I haven't figured out how to tell Mom and Dad yet.”
“Sure,” I said giving him a look. “That makes total sense because when you call and they hear you’re not dead or kidnapped or something, they won’t care about the Yale thing and how you’ve taken an unpaid job here so you can find yourself.”
He gave me a look back.
“Come on, Robert. They’re going to be pissed no matter what. You know that, right?”
“Yeah,” he said with a sigh, nodding. “I guess that’s unavoidable.”
I shook my head. “You know, for being almost three years older, you’re no wiser. Call them,” I said, pulling my phone out of my pocket and holding it out toward him.
He waved it off. “Soon. First give me that tour—if I’m going to be working here, I’ll need to know where everything is.”
~ ♥ ~
I was pretty sure if Robert was going to be working at Rosewood (and I still wasn’t entirely convinced that he was serious) he would get the tour from whoever his boss was going to be. So, since it was my favorite place on campus, I led him over to the stables.
“You ride here?” he asked.
“Yeah, I’m on the equestrian team,” I said, adding, “I suck, though.”
He laughed. “Probably not as much as you think. Didn’t you get a bunch of awards when you used to ride before?”
I thought back to the ribbons I’d won, the ones I’d bragged about to Brady before I’d known he was a real equestrian. “Yeah, well, those were small scale. Like, microscopic. The coach here is an Olympian.”
“Wow, they take it seriously here.”
“Fairly seriously, but he goes to the boys’ school down the road, so he works here for extra money. C’mon, I’ll introduce you to Charlie.”
“I’m sure I’ll meet your coach soon enough,” he said, screwing up his face.
I laughed. “Charlie’s my horse. Brady’s the coach.” As I mentioned him, my eyes flicked to the parking lot beside the stables and sure enough, Brady’s truck was there.
Just that morning, I’d walked past him in the barn and his eyes on me had been almost feral. I’d had to turn away from him before one of the other girls noticed the inevitable flush on my face. I certainly didn’t need Robert seeing that, especially if he was going to be working on campus. We got along great now that we were older, but I had a feeling much of that had to do with us living in separate towns. Having my brother teasing me about my very obvious and inap
propriate crush on my equestrian coach (who was also the dean’s son) was just the kind of thing that had us at each others' throats when we lived under the same roof. Not that exact scenario, but he would use anything even remotely embarrassing to make me suffer.
“You know what?” I said, stopping short of the stables door. “I need to use the bathroom. Why don’t we go back to the main building and I can do that and we can grab a coffee.”
“What about Charlie?”
I shrugged. “I’ll show him to you later. I had a huge cappuccino this morning and need to make a pit stop.”
Never the huge fan of horses I was, Robert shrugged and turned around with me.
“So where are you going to live?” I asked.
“She said I can either get an apartment in town or there’s a staff dorm room here.”
Yeah, it was selfish, and I love my brother but... “You don’t want to be stuck here on campus.” I said, scrunching up my face as much as I could, like being on campus was horrible.
He bumped into me with his shoulder as we approached the door that would take us back into the Rosewood building. “Are you kidding? I don’t want to be stuck on a campus full of girls? Nice try, little sister.”
I rolled my eyes. “Don’t be disgusting. You can’t think like that if you’re going to work here. You can’t be a creeper, Robert.”
My brother put his arm across my shoulders and squeezed me to him. “It’s so good to see you, B. I missed you.” Sometimes, when he wasn’t trying to torture me, my brother could be really sweet and very charming. I could only imagine the kind of play he got at Yale. Maybe that was why he was flunking out, though as the thought occurred to me, I quickly pushed it out of my head, not really wanting to think about my brother’s love life.
A kachunk brought my attention to the door as it opened. And because that’s how the universe rolls for me, it was Brady striding out holding a large coffee and wearing his riding clothes. Including the super-tight riding pants that practically made me need to wipe my chin. I tried not to notice the lines of his muscular thighs, but it was too late.
He froze in his tracks, his entire body stiffening as we faced each other.
“Oh hey,” I said as casually as I could manage.
Brady wasn’t looking at me, though. He was looking at Robert. And not in a good way, making me realize Robert still had his arm around me.
I swallowed and cleared my throat. “Brady, this is...”
“Rob Prescott,” my brother interrupted, taking his arm from around me and sticking his hand out. “Brooklyn’s brother.”
Brady’s shoulders relaxed as he glanced at me for the briefest of moments before taking Robert’s hand in his own. “Hey,” he said with a rare smile. “Brady Fleming—Brooklyn’s equestrian coach.”
“You’re the Olympian?” Robert asked, giving Brady a once-over. Maybe he hadn’t expected him to be so young. Although Brady didn’t look all that boyish with the couple days’ worth of stubble on his jaw.
“Not yet, technically,” Brady said, looking slightly embarrassed, which just about killed me.
“Good to meet you,” Robert said, recovering and giving Brady a friendly grin. “Brooklyn says you’re a great coach.”
When did I say that?
Brady’s polite smile got infinitesimally wider as he turned to me, his amber eyes intent on mine. “Oh. Well, thank you for that, Ms. Prescott.”
I wondered if Robert had caught Brady’s initial reaction and abrupt change in demeanor after learning we were siblings. But I only had a second to think about it, because then he said, “So. This is interesting.”
I almost choked on my own saliva. “What?”
He looked from me to Brady and then back, shaking his head. “Whatever. I guess I’d better get back to the dean so we can iron out the details of my employment here.” Then he turned to me, smirking. “I’ll see you later, B.”
Great. So much for keeping him in the dark about Brady. That lasted all of what, like point five seconds?
“Make sure you call Mom,” I said, trying to think of something to say to embarrass him.
“I will,” he said over his shoulder as he grabbed the door and pulled it open for himself, disappearing before I came up with a good insult.
“What’s that about?” Brady asked as I was still staring at the door, not quite ready to be alone with this boy in front of me. It was easier in the practices with the horses, even the ones where it was just the two of us. Maybe easier isn’t the right word, because it wasn’t easy. More tolerable, maybe. At least then we had a task to do and the horses between us. Here on the path, it was like there was a spotlight on the fact that it was just us.
Taking a deep breath, I looked at him. “He’s flunking out of school and did a disappearing act, not telling anyone, including my parents, who are freaking out. Then he decided he’d come visit and while he was at it, he somehow convinced the dean to give him a job.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Wow. She’s not easily convinced of anything, especially something like that while the school year is underway.”
I shrugged. “My brother can be very charming.”
That’s when we seemed to run out of things to say.
And it got weird(er).
“So I better go back in,” I said suddenly, turning away from his gaze.
“See you tonight,” he said.
I looked at him blankly.
He nodded his head back over his shoulder toward the stables, not taking his eyes off mine. “Practice. We’re still on, right? Unless you need to be with your brother?”
Yeah, my life would be so much less complicated if I wasn’t on the equestrian team. Or wasn’t into torturing myself.
“No, I’ll be there tonight,” I said. “See you then.”
He gave me one more lingering look before, without another word, he nodded, turned and walked away.
I couldn’t help but watch him go. Stupid skin-tight pants.
Lampshade Fantasies
I was bone-tired after equestrian practice and a long day otherwise. A long week, actually, if I thought about it. Between the stuff with Dave and then my brother’s disappearance and reappearance here, not to mention school and daily training at the stables, I was desperate for some decompression time and almost couldn’t wait to get into bed for a long night of good sleep.
Which I was almost ready for as I stood in the bathroom combing out my wet hair after my shower, already in my pajamas: a pair of flannel shorts and a tank. When my cell rang, I glanced down and saw Jared’s face on the screen. Smiling, I picked it up and answered.
“Hi there,” he said, his voice deep and smooth, making my insides churn. It was great seeing him in person, but something about that voice on its own...
“What’s up?” I said, holding the phone with one hand and combing my hair with the other watching myself smile in the mirror.
“Did your brother show up?”
Oops. “Oh, yeah. Sorry, I should have texted you. He’s here, actually.” Getting a bit tired of telling the story, I gave him the abridged version.
“So that’ll be nice, having family close,” he said when I was done. “It sounds like you get along with him.”
I shrugged, putting down my comb and grabbing the bottle of moisturizer off the counter. “He’s my brother. Of course I love him.”
“Being siblings doesn’t guarantee a good relationship,” Jared said and I detected a definite edge to his voice.
I froze with the moisturizer bottle poised over my right arm, the phone wedged between my face and shoulder. “What does that mean?” fell out of my mouth, but he’d put it out there; it’s not like I wasn’t going to ask.
“Sorry,” he said on a long exhale. “Family can be complicated. Mine especially. Remind me to warn you against growing up in a Hollywood family.”
I squeezed a line of lotion down my arm. “Not much fear of that, but thanks for the warning.” I suspected I’d learn more about what he
was talking about in his manuscript, so I didn’t push for him to tell me more.
“You’re welcome. So I...Sorry, Brooklyn, hold on...”
I heard another voice in the background asking questions I couldn’t quite make out. Jared responded, “What? Yeah. He’s fine. He showed up at Rosewood and is going to be working there now. Yeah...Uh huh...Yeah. Okay, man, but did you want to talk to her or can I maybe have a conversation with my girlfriend and give you the debrief later?”
I smiled, partially at Jared’s response (and that he’d just called me his girlfriend), but also because Dave had asked about my brother, obviously concerned about me. It was sweet and maybe more than that, but I didn’t dare think too much about why he cared. Or that it mattered to me so much.
“Yeah. Okay. Get out of here, will you?” Jared continued and then came back to the phone, his voice clearer. “Sorry about that. Dave. He wouldn’t leave me alone until I gave him the update.”
“It’s okay.” I sat down on the closed toilet to moisturize my legs.
“How was equestrian practice?”
“Hard,” I said as I squirted moisturizer on my thighs and started to rub it in as I spoke. “We went through a bunch of drills and it probably didn’t look like much, but it’s so much work to get in sync with the horse and do the moves over and over. Charlie was having a bit of an off day, so we really struggled. It’s been a long week for both of us.”
“I’d love to see you ride one day,” Jared said.
I smiled at that. I didn’t think he was that interested in horses or riding, but that he wanted to see me ride—well, that was the kind of thing that made him perfect boyfriend material. “Maybe in the Olympics,” I said. “The school Olympics, I mean, not the real ones,” I added quickly. “I’m really not very good. There’s a derby—a competition between schools—that the dean wants me to compete in, but I’m sure I’m not good enough.”
“I bet that’s not true. You practice every day, don’t you?”
I thought about the early mornings and the extra practices with Coach Fleming. “Almost. I only get Saturdays off.”
Reading Between the Lines Page 3