Chapter 1
Kinsley
Chapter One
June 28, 2021
Harrison, New York
I opened the front door and stepped outside with my bags hanging on me like Christmas decorations. “Not a word,” I said to the two boys leaning against the black car, already packed in and ready to go. Connor snapped his mouth shut, and from the corner of my eye, I saw Thomas turn his gaze toward the sky before he walked up to me and grabbed the bag off my shoulder and the suitcase out of my hand and put them into the trunk. “Thanks,” I said, without expecting an answer.
The older Rhodes brother almost never talked to me since our parents announced that they were moving in together. I turned to Connor, and he opened the back door so I could push the rest of my bags into the seat. “And thanks to you too,” I said, shaking my arms, trying to get the blood flow back into them.
“You could have told me that you needed help.” Connor elbowed me as we leaned against the car. I looked up at him and watched the sunlight play within his blond curls. “I could have sent Thomas in to help you.” He grinned.
“Funny.” I made a face.
The front door of the house opened and Helena Green, my mother, walked out, followed by Joshua Rhodes. Her latest boyfriend, and the first she had moved in with since my dad. I had a feeling the nice house Josh lived in played into her decision just a little bit, because they barely saw each other whether they lived under the same roof or not. The price of success, it seemed. My mother was an attorney, working nonstop, day and night if that’s what the case required, and Joshua Rhodes, Thomas and Connor’s dad, had a successful architecture firm in New York, which, as an open secret, he intended to leave to his oldest son.
My mother was already in her work clothes, a black blazer with matching pants and one of her fancy briefcases in her hand. As always, she put her brown hair—so similar to mine—into a tight bun. Her high heels knocked harshly against the sidewalk as she approached me, and pulled me into a quick hug, awkwardly patting my back. She always hugged me when I was going away. Not other times, though. She usually didn’t have time for these kinds of things. She let go of me just as suddenly as she hugged me and tugged a loose hair behind my ear.
“Kinsley.” Her tone was flat. Seemed like the pretending hadn’t reach her voice just yet.
“Mother,” I replied, trying to sound just as emotionless as she did. I glanced sideways to the boys and frowned when I realized they weren’t paying attention to us. They were busy talking with their father. I looked back at my mother. It was weird that she put on this much of a show when there wasn’t even an audience.
“Be good.” The same two words she said to me every time she left me at my nan’s when I was little. I love you or I’ll miss you wasn’t in our vocabulary. “And text me when you get there.”
I nodded, making a mental note to do so, but I knew she wouldn’t notice if I didn’t.
We turned away from each other in sync and I leaned down, pushing my bags to the other side of the backseat so I could sit and shut the door behind me. I listened to my mother’s heels receding through the barrier of the car door while I fixated my eyes on the windshield, looking at where the boys stood with their father.
It was ironic how much Thomas looked like his dad, when he hated everything Josh did. Dark waves and eyes that could read people like they were an open book. They were intimidating with their analyzing stare. Connor was standing between them like the embodiment of the sunshine caught in a storm. His blond curls fell into his light green eyes, and he nodded along to something Josh was saying. Thomas’s lips were pressed into a thin line, his arms crossed over his chest. He looked annoyed. The distance was too far for me to adequately read Josh’s lips, so instead I pulled a book from my tote bag and settled into the leather seat, focusing on Miss Marple’s latest mystery.
I only read one chapter when two of the car doors opened and shut simultaneously, and I jumped in my seat. Thomas and Connor took their seats in the front, and Connor rolled down the window, letting in the warm summer breeze. Josh was standing at the front door of the house, one of his hands already on the handle, the other in his pocket as he watched us while Thomas started the engine.
He lifted a hand while we rolled down the driveway, and Connor waved back. I gestured, too, even though the windows were tinted, but it wouldn’t have mattered, as Josh’s attention was fully on Thomas, who completely ignored him. I looked away, feeling a strange kind of relief leaving the suburb behind. Like the last few months could still have been a bad dream. I sighed and turned my attention back to the safe pages of the book in my hand, hoping to get lost between them.
???
I opened my eyes to the sunlight trying to blind me through my eyelids, and I shielded my eyes, sliding closer to the middle seat. As soon as I settled back into the shadows of the car, I inspected my surroundings. There was music coming from the radio on a soft note, and from the way Connor’s head had fallen backward, I assumed he was asleep just as I had been only a moment ago.
I peeked out of the window, scanning the fast-changing view. We were surrounded by large, colorful trees. I suppressed a yawn and looked at the clock on the dashboard. It was past four p.m., which meant we had been on the road for around four hours now. My feet numbed, and I quickly changed position, pushing my green Converse shoes off my feet and pulling my legs up to the seat. As soon as I relaxed back into the seat, I felt a tingly feeling on the side of my face. I turned my head away from the road, and my eyes met with another pair in the rearview mirror. Thomas’s gaze was impossibly dark as he studied me a moment too long before turning his attention back to the road.
I turned away, too, boring my eyes back into the view. It was true that Thomas and I shared some history before our parents met. We were…something back then. It was complicated. But as soon as they announced that they were moving in together, he had cut off every thread from me. Part of me understood it, but part of me didn’t. I still caught myself missing our usual bickering. Nowadays he either ignored me or stared into my soul until my skin started to itch. I never thought I would feel this way, but I missed his snarky comments. I grimaced. Maybe the word missing was an exaggeration.
When our parents suggested I accompany Connor and him on their trip up to Maine to their old lake house, my first answer was no. What else would it have been? I didn’t want to spend any part of my summer with him. But Connor later came into my room and didn’t leave until I promised I would think about it. In the last few days, he’d somehow succeeded in convincing me to come. But there was also another thing I couldn’t understand. Why did Thomas choose to go to Maine instead of their summer house on Martha’s Vineyard? I even asked Connor about it one night, but it didn’t provide me with any answers.
“You know Thomas.” He had shrugged. “He doesn’t really explain his decisions.”
So, this was how I found myself in the car with the boy I should have been avoiding, heading to our week-long getaway where we were going to have fun. I glanced at Thomas and grimaced. As fun as it could be with him being there.