Eye Candy

I waved him off, leaning in for the rest of the pumpkins. “Don’t worry. I don’t think it was actually meant toward you.”

His eyes were studying me, and a second later, he nodded. “Got it.” He walked over to where Heather had been standing and took four pumpkins at once. “Her and Channing must be fighting?” He didn’t wait for an answer, but took the pumpkins to the front porch and disappeared inside. A second later he hollered, “PUMPKINS ARE OUTSIDE! COME AND HELP BRING ’EM IN!”

A line of guys came out. No one questioned him. No one barked back. No one even looked like they considered not doing what he ordered. They all just came out, one by one, picked up a pumpkin from the pile in the yard, and carried them inside. I had the last two in my arms, but one of the guys moved to grab them from me. He paused when he realized he would be grabbing where he shouldn’t, and flashed an apologetic grin. “Sorry. I’ll take them in, if that’s okay.”

I nodded slowly and held them out one at a time. He scooped them up, and soon all the pumpkins were gone. Remembering our own for the night, I whirled around. Three guys were reaching for the last pile and I held my hand out. “Stop! Leave six of them for us. Those are for us.”

“Oh.” All of them paused, then one counted the remaining pumpkins, and pointed to the two already being held. “Just put those two back. Leave the four in the truck.”

Logan had come back to stand next to me, and he waited till everyone went inside. Heather was sitting on the curb, the smoke from her cigarette wafting in the air. She was resting her hand next to her, her cigarette pointing upward, until she took a drag from it.

“She looks ready to rip into anyone with genitals.”

I gave him a look.

He corrected himself. “Anyone with a dick and balls.”

I nodded. “Sounds about right.” I clapped him on the arm. “Looks like you’ve got it all taken care of. It’s girls’ night tonight. We’re at our house. That means you’re not.”

“Oh yeah.” He snorted, raking a hand through his hair again. “I’m staying at a friend’s.”

I understood his dilemma. Taylor would sleep at our house, where they usually stayed, but she didn’t live fulltime with us. She might as well have, because she slept there almost every night, but her place of residence was still technically her father’s. Unlike the rest of us, who had moved here for school, Taylor had moved back to Cain after a gruesome end to two years at her first college. Her father was one of the football coaches for Cain University, a D1-league school, and he was a big deal. Known for being wild and yelling at the games, her dad got the nickname Coach Broozer, but he was just “Bruce” or “Taylor’s dad” to the rest of us.

I smirked. “I figured you’d sneak in tonight at some point.”

“Nope.” He grinned. “It’s a girls’ house tonight. I’m respecting it. The guys and I are going to watch Mason’s game tonight anyways. We thought about driving down, but we’ll see him tomorrow. It’s not like we don’t go to any of his games.”

I knew what he meant. I hadn’t been able to see that many because of my training, but I just had one more year and then I could see all the games I wanted. But that was me, not Logan. He’d been to a bunch of Mason’s games, and this weekend was all about the Halloween festivities.

I remarked, “Maybe I’ll see if I can put it on in the background tonight.”

“Either way, you guys will have fun.” He turned back to studying Heather again. “Looks like she’ll need some female friends tonight.”

“Channing’s coming tomorrow night.”

“I know.”

I frowned at his wry tone. “You know something I don’t?”

“Nope.”

My frown deepened. His response was quick—too quick—and he moved a little so he wasn’t facing me anymore. “Out with it,” I said. “Now.”

“Sam.”

“Now.”

He sighed, rolling his eyes. “You’re a pain in the ass.”

“I’m your stepsister, and future sister-in-law, so you have to tell me. Family loyalty.”

He snorted. “That’s what we’re calling it?”

I knew what he meant. Mason, Logan, and me. It was the three of us, always and forever. I softened my tone. “Come on. Tell me.”

“Like you were going to tell me, right?” But I heard the surrender in his voice. He was going to spill the details. “Channing called Mason last night, and Mason called me. He wanted to know if Heather was coming to the party tomorrow night, wasn’t sure that he’d come if she was.”

“What?” I was fighting not to let my jaw drop. Channing and Heather fought, but this sounded like it was on a whole other level.

“He broke it off with her, something about his sister.”

I went back to frowning. Heather had mentioned his sister, and some problems with her last year. “I thought all of that was done.”

“Who knows. Neither of them really confide in us, right?” He was eyeing me, and I moved my head in acknowledgment. It wasn’t that Heather didn’t trust me, it was just that neither of us really talked about our issues. If something happened, we dealt with it. If we had to cry, we did. If we needed to get drunk to take our mind off things, we did that too. If we needed to go dancing to help keep things at bay, it was known to happen. Heather had been there for me during a bad time last year, and if she needed to talk, she knew I’d be there for her too. We fought for each other, but we just weren’t the type of friends to sit and spill our guts—not unless we really needed to do it or it’d literally rip us apart.

Heather had lit a second cigarette, but I knew what we needed to do tonight.

“Okay,” I said to Logan. “If you had plans to scare us tonight, don’t.” My eyes were on Heather as I kept talking. “This might turn out to be a Ninja Sam night or a Dancing Sam night.”

I heard him chuckle. “Those nights are fun. The reasoning behind them, not so much, but the actual drunken Sam moments . . .” He grinned. “Priceless.”

“Heather! It’s time for us to take off.” Heather finished up her cigarette and joined us. I added, winking at Logan, “It’s tequila night tonight.”

“God, yes,” Heather groaned, resting against the truck next to us. She lifted her head up, her chin jutting out toward Logan. “Sorry about being a bitch earlier. I’m sure you know why.”

He shrugged. “It’ll work out, you know that.”

She grunted. “Not sure about that. Not this time.” She pulled out her keys and went to the driver’s side. “Ready, Sam?”

“Ready.” I flashed my stepbrother a grin before going to the passenger door. “See you tomorrow.”

His words were low. “Call if you need anything.”

I knew his meaning. Heather was part of our family. We took care of each other. I nodded to him and climbed into the truck, and a second later we were off again.

Tequila night was about to commence.





Chapter 3