17. Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Seventeen
H e didn’t want dessert but picked up a piece of strawberry cheesecake and followed his buddies to one of the tables where he could still see Brooke with him .
Cody was her stepbrother. He shouldn’t have his hands on her like that.
He seethed, a coiled rattler ready to strike.
Who was he kidding? He didn’t have it in him to demand the guy take his damn hands off his woman.
Brooke didn’t seem to mind.
She was being polite. Not making a scene in front of everyone. That’s all it was.
He narrowed his eyes, wondering at Cody’s game as much as Brooke appeared to be. Because the second he’d wrapped his arm around her, her eyes went wide with surprise, like this was something unexpected.
Why would Cody touch her like she belonged to him when the blonde in the gold dress, glaring from across the room, was his girlfriend?
Which meant all of this was for show. Cody was making sure every man in the room knew she was off-limits. He was being an overprotective stepbrother. That’s all.
Not a problem. I’ll see Brooke back at school. When she’s alone.
He still had a shot with her.
Everything inside him centered on Brooke.
She was his future.
He stared at Brooke through the small crowd. She smiled and hit Cody on the chest as he kissed her on the head.
In that moment, he knew what he had to do.
He needed to be more like his father. Confident. Strong-willed. Take-charge.
How many times had his father said, “No one will hand you anything. You need to take what you want.”
Maybe it was time he took his father’s advice.
He’d let another guy take her away.
He shook his head, disgusted with himself.
He wouldn’t let it happen again.
Thanks to Brooke, he had a purpose.
He’d transform himself into the man Brooke needed him to be.
And then, he would take what he wanted most. Brooke Banks.