Page 5

He looked up, raising an eyebrow. “Really?”
“Yes. Definitely. Questions followed by conviction. Super attractive.”
“Hopefully, I’ll be half as hot as you are.”
My eyes moved to the mirror in the hallway that was just barely in my field of view. Mom checked her hair in it every morning. I did sometimes.
With my curly hair, which usually was frizzier than anything, I didn’t always look great. Tonight, I’d put more effort into my appearance for my birthday. Still, even with the makeup, I’d say I was more pretty than hot.
“Are you sure you have the right person?” I asked, eyes sliding back to Levi.
“Very sure.”
“I ... You ... Do you want to go to my room?”
My room was occupied.When I saw a flash of a bare ass, I slammed the door shut.
Technically, it wasn’t my room anymore since I went off to college. Mom was desperate for a guest space, and since Emma existed and Calvin needed a game room, we were out of space despite our massive house. The second I moved into the dorm, everything I’d left behind was put in a storage room so Mom could let guests sleep here.
Still, I used it whenever I was staying at home, and the plan was for me to sleep in the house tonight. Shouldn’t I have first dibs on bringing a guy there?
“Sorry,” I said. “Seems like someone got to it first.”
“There has to be somewhere else in this house that’s free,” he said. He gestured to the hallway. “One of these closed doors has to have somewhere private.”
“One of them is my little sister’s, and Calvin’s room is off-limits, but his game one?—”
“He has a gaming room too?”
“He asked for one a while ago. No one says no to him.”
A shadow crossed over Levi’s face and he grabbed my hand. “Sounds like that’s where we’ll find privacy. Lead the way.”
I opened the door to the room at the back of the house. A massive TV sat on the wall with a couch in front of it. As with everything, there were no decorations adorning the white walls. Calvin liked to say that he didn’t have time to decorate since he had such a full social life.
“I don’t know what kinds of games Calvin has or if he’d everletus play.”
“Who cares about games? I want to get to know you.”
While I gaped like a fish, Levi led me to the couch. I didn’t think I’d ever sat on it since Dad got it two years ago.
I felt like a rebel tonight.
“Tell me about yourself.”
“Well, if you know about Calvin, you know a lot about me. I was born in Nashville, we went to the same schools?—”
“I don’t care about the stuff you share withhim.I want to knowyou.Like how you got this scar.” His hand grazed the bottom of my lip where a barely perceptible sliver of white cut through my skin.
“I fell face-first down the playground stairs.”
I was pushed by Calvin, but Levi already hated him enough. No need to say that out loud.
“Those things are dangerous.”
“It’s okay. I learned how fun reading was while recovering.”
And I learned that it was the one thing my brother couldn’t care less about.