My Stepbrother, My Lover by Alice Ward

Author:Alice Ward [Ward, Alice]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2015-05-04T07:00:00+00:00

***

“Kennedy… I thought you had a date,” Jackson said when he opened the door to the Sigma house.

“I rescheduled,” I lied. “I’m appalled by the way you spoke to my mother last night. You offered to explain yourself, so here I am. Can I come in?”

He opened the door all the way and moved to let me pass. I stepped into the house and turned to face him. Jackson looked weary and depressed, exactly how I felt.

“Thank you for coming over. I just made a pot of coffee, do you want some?”

I nodded and followed him in to the kitchen. “Is there somewhere we can talk without being interrupted?” The last thing I wanted was for one of Jackson’s fraternity brothers to overhear the conversation.

“I’m the only one here. Most of the brothers went home for summer break. Preston is at a study session with his girlfriend and Rory’s off doing God knows what. We’ll have the house to ourselves for the next few hours.”

Jackson poured us each a cup of coffee. He slid my mug across the laminate countertop and pulled a bag of sugar from the cabinet. “I’d offer you milk, but we don’t have any. I hope that’s alright.”

“Black is fine with me, as long as it’s caffeinated,” I told him and warmed my hands around the mug.

An awkward silence filled the room. We had so much to talk about and neither of us knew where to start. Jackson seemed lost in his own head, so I was the first to speak.

“Can we sit down somewhere?” I asked him.

“Anywhere you want. It’s nice outside; we could sit on the swing,” he suggested.

I shook my head, not wanting to be spotted by any of our gossiping classmates. “Let’s just go to the couch.” I took my mug and set off for the living room. Jackson followed close behind me.

“I’m sorry I woke you up this morning,” Jackson said again as we settled on to the couch. “To be honest, I didn’t realize what time it was. All I was thinking about was how much I needed to talk to you.”

“About what happened last night?”

He sighed. “About everything… last night, our parents… you and me.”

I narrowed my eyes, remember my shock and anger from how he’d treated my mom. “Let’s start with last night.”

He nodded, took another sip of his coffee, and cleared his throat. “You have to understand that this is difficult for me to talk about. My mother, she was everything to me. Dad has always been restless and when I was growing up, he was hardly ever home. He was hardly ever in town, for that matter. There was always a business meeting or a charity event that was more important to him than we were. Granddad lived with us and he tried to be like a dad to me, but it just wasn’t the same, you know?”

His eyes were full of sadness and I could tell that talking about his mother was difficult. But I still wasn’t sure why.

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