“Wait, wait, wait.” I put my hand up to stop his Cassie-filled love rant. “Rules? What kind of rules?”
“Oh, just these four like, I don’t know, rules. Don’t lie, don’t cheat, don’t say things you don’t mean, and don’t make promises you can’t keep,” he said, rattling them off as if he’d memorized them for a test.
I was lost. “And you’re supposed to prove them all to her?”
“No. I mean, well, yeah. She has a fucked-up relationship with her dad, and so I think that’s where they came from. Shouldn’t be that hard; they’re pretty normal requests for any person.”
“You’re right. I’ve just never met a girl who had rules before.”
Jack shrugged and his face turned serious. “I told her about Mom and Dad.”
My jaw fell open. “Wow. Really?”
We rarely ever told anyone about our parents, especially girls. Jack and I had worked hard to keep our personal life private, at least when it came to our childhood. What had happened to us in our past wasn’t something we enjoyed sharing. Of course, people asked questions about why we lived with our grandparents, but we avoided those mostly, only offering bits and pieces of the truth.
“Yeah. I mean, I hadn’t meant to, but the timing and the conversation just evolved and . . . I don’t know.” He pulled at his hair. “It just felt right. Are you upset that I told her? It involves you too.”
“No, I’m not upset. I trust your judgment.” And I did. If Jack wanted to confess to Cassie about how our parents ditched us when we were kids, who was I to stop him?
“Do you think it was a mistake to tell her?” he asked.
“Do you?”
“No,” he answered without hesitating. “I wanted to. It felt good to talk about all that crap with her. I don’t know why, but I felt relieved once she knew.”
“I think you might really like this girl,” I said, stating the obvious.
Jack met my eyes and nodded. “I think I might be in serious trouble when it comes to this girl. And I’ve never wanted to get into more trouble in my life.”
“Did you kiss her?”
He laughed and slapped my knee before using it to push off my bed. “You know who I am, don’t you?”
“So that’s a yes?” He hadn’t really answered my question.
“That’s a yes, little brother. And it’s more than you did with little Funsize tonight. I expect more from you.”
“Challenge accepted.”
As he walked out the door, I wondered how in the world I was going to get that beautiful little pixie to want me back.
Jack poked his head back in my doorway as I was getting settled underneath my covers. “Cassie tried to say that our kiss changed nothing, but I told her it changed everything.”
“Did it?”
“Yeah.” He nodded. “But she asked me to prove it.”
“Because she doesn’t believe you?” I shook my head, half-amazed at the things that came out of that girl’s mouth. Even more surprising was that it didn’t send my brother running for the hills.
“Exactly.”
“How the hell are you supposed to do that?”
“I have a few ideas, but I might need your help,” he said before disappearing without waiting for my answer.
He knew I’d do anything he needed.
Things Are Changing
The past four weeks had been fun to watch. Jack and I talked about the things he could do to prove to Cassie that she could trust him. Hell, I even wrote down a list of ideas, but he didn’t need it. He’d already known what needed to be done when it came to her. It was weird, but he had these spot-on instincts about her.
The day after their first date, he stopped eating at his normal table. His legion of fangirls practically whined themselves to death when they noticed him not only eating at another table, but doing so with a girl. One girl.
I thought one of them might faint at the sight, but thankfully they all remained upright. That didn’t stop the girls from throwing themselves at Jack every chance they got. He could barely walk through the student union without girls grabbing him, trying to pin him down with questions.
Jack used to tolerate the madness when he was single, but now that he was chasing Cassie, he had no patience for the fangirls. His body language completely changed, more closed off, and he got a little meaner.
He’d also started spending more time at Cassie’s apartment, which meant that both Cassie and Melissa saw my brother more than I did. I wasn’t too upset, though, because I saw how happy he was, and I’d never seen him like that before.
On campus, the four of us became pretty much inseparable. At lunchtime in the student union one day, I saw Jack putting an overfilled tray of food on the table that we shared, and I made my way over with my own lunch tray to join him, Cassie, and Melissa.
Before I could get there, a sorority girl named Andrea stopped me with a hand on my arm. “When is your brother going to dump that girl?”
I pulled away from her. “Hopefully never,” I said with a smirk before walking away. I’d never understand these girls.
As I neared the table, Jack was saying, “Cass, I don’t ever want to hurt you, but I can’t promise you that I’ll never screw up or make you mad.”
“He’s good at pissing people off. Isn’t that right, big brother?” I smirked down at Jack, and he took a halfhearted swipe at me before I set my tray down next to him.