Page 46 of The Other Brother

His grin fades slightly as I stalk toward him.

He lifts the hose and sprays me again, but I brace myself for the cold and don’t let it deter me from my mission. Which is to grab him and try to wrestle the hose off him.

Cody doesn’t relent, and so we scuffle. I use my superior weight to pin him against the side of the house. He stretches out his arm, holding the hose as far away as he can, but I clamp down on his hand. I try to twist the hose out of his grasp, but his fingers cling on.

“Let go of the hose.”

“Never,” he replies. His breath is coming hard and fast. Mine is too.

Our chests are pressed together, and his face is so close to mine I can see a scattering of faint freckles across his nose. My heart rate picks up to match my breathing. I’m sure he feels the frantic thumping where our skin touches, an up-tempo beat.

I drop my gaze down to his mouth for a second, which is a mistake because now all I can think about is kissing him. About how it would feel to have his red, slightly chapped lips pressed against mine. My mouth goes dry.

When I flick my gaze back up to his, Cody’s eyes are wide, his smile dimming as we stare at each other. I can’t escape the intensity of his blue eyes. I don’t want to escape it.

I stay pressed against him, feeling his chest heaving against mine, trapped in his gaze.

The noise of a car crunching gravel on the driveway shatters the moment.

I blink. Cody blinks.

I release his wrists and step back. Desperately swallowing, trying to get some moisture back into my mouth, I look at the driveway.

My stomach dives.

Shit.

It’s Frank’s car. I recognize it from the night he drove me home.

Cody’s chest is still rising and falling rapidly. He drops the hose, walking over to turn the tap off. He doesn’t meet my eyes as he walks past me.

Double shit. How much did his parents see when they pulled in? Did it just look like normal roughhousing? Was that all it was?

Cody picks his way on bare feet over the gravel to where his parents are just emerging from the car.

“Mum, Dad.” He gives them both a hug. “I thought you guys weren’t coming back until Thursday?”

“There was a storm forecast, so we wanted to get home before that hit. We changed our flights.” Frank’s voice carries to me.

I grab a towel and wrap it around my waist, because just standing there in board shorts makes me feel exposed.

Frank glances over, his eyebrows raising. His expression reminds me exactly of Kate’s when I was ten and she caught me gluing her jewelry box closed. It doesn’t make the moment any less weird.

“Hi.” I give a foolish half-wave that probably looks even stupider than it feels. In the highlights reel of Ryan’s dumbest moments, it would definitely make the top ten.

“Ryan.” Frank nods in acknowledgement.

Heather tries a little harder, throwing me a wan smile as she grabs her handbag out of the car. “Hi, Ryan, it’s nice to see you. I hope you’ve enjoyed your time here?”

“It’s been great,” I say.

“Ryan’s been teaching me to surf,” Cody says.

“I hope you’ve still been practicing,” Frank says stiffly.

“Of course I have.”

Tension rises in Cody’s spine.