Chapter 1
Maiken
The cafeteria hummed with voices big and small. Utensils clanged together, and trays slapped on the tables as kids set down their food. Kensington High hadn’t changed much since I’d walked out the doors back in June. What had changed? Or I should ask who had changed? Me. My family. My life.
Chaos and tension described how we were living. The twins, Emma and Ethan, my brother Marcus, and I had moved in with my cousin Kade and his wife, Lacey. Their brand-new home was modern, massive, and had more amenities than I’d ever seen. But where we lived wasn’t in turmoil.
Marcus, a freshman in high school, was out of control. It seemed like he’d been in the principal’s office every day for mouthing off to teachers or fighting. I shouldn’t care so much. After all, he was a teenager, trying to find his way, trying to fit in. But I did care. I didn’t want to see him hurt. I didn’t want him to start off his first year in high school with a suspension. After all, I was his big brother, the oldest of eight children. So it was my duty to watch over him. But two weeks into the school year, trying to keep Marcus in line was proving to be a challenge.
Marcus reached over the table and snatched Ethan’s hamburger.
Ethan went to slap his hand but missed. “You’re a pig, man.”
Flicking his shaggy light-brown hair from his forehead, Marcus shrugged. “I don’t see you eating it.”
My skin crawled with fury. “Stop being a dick, man.” I didn’t know how to get through to him, and neither did Kade, for that matter.
“Call me a dick one more time, and I’ll throw the tray at you.” His jaw was locked tight, and his blue eyes were swimming with a dare.
Even though he was fifteen years old, he almost matched Ethan and me in height. I was the tallest out of the three of us at six foot three. I’d grown another inch over the summer. I suspected all of us kids would be tall, considering my dad was six foot two and my mom wasn’t a short lady either. Regardless, Marcus had grown to nearly six feet in the last several months, but that didn’t mean he could win a fight with me.
I kicked the chair back and slapped two hands on the table. The exploding sound quieted the voices from nearby tables. “Try it.”
Ethan swung out his arm and pushed me back down in my chair. “Not here.”
My gut burned. I loved Marcus, but at the moment, rage was all I had for him.
“Yeah, I didn’t think you had the balls to hit me,” Marcus taunted.
Ethan narrowed his brown gaze. “Shut the fuck up. You might be brave enough to take on one of us, but you won’t win if we both gang up on you.” His tone brokered no argument. He sounded like our dad when he’d reprimanded one of us.
My gaze drifted past Marcus to the table of nosy kids gawking. “Mind your own business,” I snapped like a dry twig. If anyone dared to take a picture, I would for sure smash the phone then maybe their hands.
Calm down, dude. You’re acting like Marcus now.
I gave myself a mental shake, sucked in a quiet breath, then released the air in my lungs.
Ethan dragged bruised knuckles through his thick brown hair, which had grown out over the summer. “So, dude,” he said to Marcus, “how does it feel to be in high school?”
I knew Ethan was trying to deflect or break the tension, but I wasn’t sure school was the right topic to bring up.
Marcus’s eyes became slits, and he chewed as though he hadn’t eaten in a week. “Sucks if you ask me, especially with you two on my ass.”
I kicked Marcus under the table.
He growled. “Is that all you got?”
Grinding my back teeth, I fisted my hands in my lap. He definitely needed an attitude adjustment. School wasn’t the place to give him one, though.
I diverted my gaze from my brother to try to get my anger under control. Yet nothing would help unless Quinn walked into the cafeteria, and her lunch period didn’t begin for another five minutes. Nevertheless, I spotted Dustin Lane at a table diagonal from us. I didn’t know him that well, but I knew he was a big deal for the high school hockey team. I also knew he was dating Tessa Stevens again. Apparently, they’d been an item freshman year, had broken up, and now were reunited, which was great for me. That meant Tessa wasn’t gunning to get her grabby hands all over me like she had been when I’d first enrolled at Kensington almost a year ago.
“Marcus, didn’t you say you’re into hockey?” I asked in an even tone.
Marcus loved boxing and rugby. Since we’d moved to Ashford, he’d gotten the hockey bug. “Why don’t you try out for the hockey team this year?” Hockey was a physical sport. Checking and plowing into his opponents would help him release some of the aggression he had bottled up.
Basketball wasn’t a contact sport like hockey, but just being out on the court took my mind away from my troubles. Quinn was also a shining star that always made me smile. Maybe Marcus needed a Quinn in his life too. But I couldn’t force him to find a girlfriend. I couldn’t force him to do much, come to think of it.
“That’s a great idea,” Ethan said. “Tryouts are coming up, I think.”
Our dad had loved sports, any sport. He’d felt that being on a team built character. The military did as well, but that wasn’t an option yet.
Marcus studied Ethan and me, thinking as he chewed.
Man, it would be great if he did take up hockey instead of causing trouble and mayhem. All of us were struggling with our dad’s death, even a year later. We were also praying every day for our aunt Denise, who was battling stage IV breast cancer. She had her good days and bad according to Mom. But the future didn’t look so good for my aunt.
“Well?” I asked.
He shoved the tray of food at me. “Stop trying to be Dad.” Then he stalked off, swallowed up by the incoming crowd.
A low rumble rattled my chest while rage ate at the lining of my stomach like a starving animal. Yep, my junior year was off to a great start.
I’d promised my mom I would take care of Marcus, but that was going to be a huge feat. Kade was having trouble with him, too, which kind of surprised me because Kade was a big, scary dude when he was angry, and I’d seen him furious with Marcus more times than I cared to lately.
“Mom did the right thing in letting us live with Kade,” Ethan said.
I harrumphed. “I don’t know about that.” But I would rather Kade and I deal with Marcus than my mom. She had her hands full with her sister and my four other siblings who were living with her in Georgia.
“Kade will get through to him,” Ethan said. “I think he’s still feeling Marcus out.”
I cracked my knuckles. “Um… we’ve been living with Kade and Lacey since January. He’s had nine months.” In all fairness to Kade, Marcus had taken his rebellion up several notches when he’d started school.
“Maybe we should have one of those interventions,” Ethan said. “You know, get him in a room with all of us and lay down the law.”
I quirked an eyebrow. “Cornering a person never works. You should know that with the bruises on your hand.”
“Hey, I was defending Marcus from the two dudes that were about to beat his face in.”
Apparently, Marcus had pissed off some guy in his math class last week, and after school, the guy and his buddy had cornered Marcus in the parking lot. Luckily, Ethan had been walking up. Otherwise, I didn’t want to think what could’ve happened.
I sighed. “It’s going to be a long one if we can’t get through to Marcus. We’ll have to watch him like a hawk.”
“I’ll do my best, but I don’t see freshmen much during the day.”
He had a point. The school had separate wings for the freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors, which made it hard to find my siblings during the day. The only time I did see them was during lunch, except for Emma. Her schedule was different because she was on the advanced placement track.
“Just keep your radar up,” I said. “You know how kids talk. You’ll hear about a fight before you see it anyway.”
Ethan sighed. “Whatever.”
I didn’t like babysitting Marcus any more than he did. But family took care of their own—words my dad had always said—and I was finding that Kade and his dad had the same motto.
But mottos, brothers, and family slipped away when I spotted my girl sashaying toward me with a smile that was reserved only for me. Yeah, Quinn Thompson was my everything. No matter how bad things were in my life, she had a way of making me forget for the moment, making my stomach flutter, and making me believe that anything was possible.
She slid into the chair Marcus had vacated.
I frowned. “There’s an empty chair here.” I patted the one on the other side of me.
She rolled her gorgeous amber eyes, which were framed by long, thick lashes. “I can’t stay long, and if I sit there, then you’ll have your hands all over me.”
So true. Lately, our relationship was climbing to the next level, as in touchy-feely territory. Kissing her was like walking on air, but exploring more of Quinn’s body above the waist topped everything.
Memories flashed in my mind of Quinn in a bathing suit—a bikini to be exact. We’d spent most of August on the lake, and the first time she’d waltzed out in a bikini top, my jaw had dropped. My girl had breasts that I was sure other girls envied—round, big, and all mine. Sure, I’d known she had nice breasts when I met her, but seeing her in a bikini top was… Well, all I could say was wow!
Ethan pushed to his feet. “I’m out of here. You two make me want to vomit.”
“You’re just jealous you don’t have a girl,” I teased.
“It’s better if I don’t. You know that.”
My brother was afraid to commit to anything, really. He was afraid we would move again. I couldn’t blame him. I feared that could happen at any time if my mom decided that she wanted all of us with her in Georgia.
“I feel bad for Ethan,” Quinn said.
Sliding down in my seat, I extended my leg under the table and ran my foot up her leg, grinning like an ass. “Don’t. It’s his decision.”
Her head darted around the room. “What are you doing?” The shy Quinn I loved was blushing and worried about people seeing us.
“You don’t want to sit next to me. So I have to find other ways to touch my girl.”
She popped up so fast, I barely had time to track her moves before she was in Ethan’s chair. “Listen, you big hunk.” She giggled, turning to face me. “I thought you didn’t like public displays of affection. Remember that night at Shaker’s when you wouldn’t kiss me?”
“Maybe I’ve grown.” I leaned in until my lips and hers were a thread apart. “Big hunk, huh? Where did that come from?”
She squeezed my biceps. “Your muscles are bigger since you’ve been working out.”
The entire basketball team had been on a workout and conditioning schedule since the season ended last year.
And your breasts are a little bigger. “You like?”
As seriously as she could, she said, “Nah. They’re okay.”
I pulled her chair closer to me then grabbed her waist. “I think you should rethink your answer.” I was ready to tickle her, and man, she was ticklish.
She pursed her lips, holding in a laugh, and shook her head.
Wrong answer. I pressed my fingers into her waist.
She squealed, a sound I was finding I really, really liked coming out of her heart-shaped lips. But as much as I loved teasing her, I had to let go. The way my body was reacting wasn’t appropriate for the cafeteria or any public place.
Regardless, it was becoming harder and harder not to do more than kiss her. I had ideas that my dad would probably counsel me not to act on until I was eighteen or maybe even married.
I playfully bit her lip. “Baby doll, try again.”
Her eyes lit up. “Baby doll? That’s a new one.”
I’d heard Kade call Lacey that, and Lacey had melted. Not that Quinn didn’t melt around me when I called her babe, but right then, I was digging how she was ten shades of red and fidgeting in her seat.
“So what’s up?” I asked. A subject change was needed because my jeans were becoming extremely tight.
“I can’t come over after school. My mom and I are taking Apple and Oscar out.”
“Your mom? Since when does she ride horses?”
“She always has, silly. I guess I never told you. Do you want to come with? You can ride one of the other horses.”
I snorted. “That’s a no. I might be okay to brush them or feed them, but riding? No way.”
She giggled. “I didn’t think so. But I’ll keep asking until you do. It would be fun to ride together. We could take the horses down into the woods behind the lake.” She waggled her eyebrows.
Enticing as being alone with her in the woods sounded, I wasn’t ready to get on a horse. I’d had an aversion to them since I was a kid.
But horses and Quinn went by the wayside when a petite girl with wide brown eyes and short white-blond hair dropped into a chair across the table from Quinn and me. “Which one of you is Maiken Maxwell?”
I heard the question but was riveted on how the girl’s red lace bra poked out of her low-cut T-shirt.
Idiot. Take your eyes off her. Your girl is next to you.
“Do I look like a Maiken to you?” Quinn asked.
When the girl shrugged, her cleavage became more pronounced. I didn’t ogle other girls, but it was hard to look away. Her boobs were practically on the table as she leaned forward.
“Quinn could be a boy’s name. Maiken could be a girl’s name,” Nose Piercing Girl said easily as the glare from the sun sprayed in through the large windows.
I guess she had a point. “I’m Maiken.”
The girl sized me up as far as she could see me. “Mm. Maiken, huh? Cool name. Where did you get it?”
“The local Walmart,” I replied, using the same snarky attitude as her.
She bobbed her head. “Good one.”
Quinn jutted out her chin. “Who are you?”
“New girl. You got a beef with that?” she asked.
“What do you want with me?” I asked.
Her barely there eyebrows lifted. “I could think of a few things.”
Quinn snapped her fingers at the girl. “He’s my boyfriend. So don’t get any ideas.”
New Girl sat back, picking at a nail. “Testy.” Then as though she didn’t care about Quinn or anyone else, she smiled at me. “You’re my tutor in physics.”
Quinn’s gaze rounded on me. “Since when?”
That was news to me. All I could do was shrug.
