Snowed in With You

Chapter 1

ELI

“Can’t I wait at your office and go with you? I’ll stay so still you won’t even know I’m there,” I ask my sister Ava.

“You? Still?” she says with a snort that she doesn’t even attempt to hide.

“I could do it if I really wanted to,” I argue, but we both know I’m lying through my teeth.

Mom says I was born restless. Even in the womb, I was kicking her so hard her stomach was bruised her entire pregnancy, or at least that’s the story she goes with.

I can’t help it if I’m constantly moving. I like to say I’m charging up my brain. Movement helps me think, and boy, am I always thinking.

It’s one of the reasons I never learned how to drive.

Ava tried to teach me a few years back, but I was too focused on the dangers of a moving vehicle instead of listening to my sister.

She got fed up pretty quickly, and that’s how my brief foray into driving ended.

I haven’t bothered trying again since I didn’t really need a car at college, and the public transportation in Corio City is easy enough to navigate.

“I’m going to be here pretty late, and traveling back to the city is a waste of time. Just stay home and wait for Nathan. He said he’ll be there soon to pick you up.”

“But I can—”

“One second, Eli,” Ava interrupts. I can hear her speaking to someone else, but her voice is muffled, like she covered the phone speaker with her hand.

I let out a frustrated groan. My leg is bouncing so hard my entire body is shaking. I shoot up from the couch and start pacing to try to let out some of the restless energy.

If only I’d listened to my second sister, Zoe, and signed up for drivers’ ed in high school, then I wouldn’t be in my current predicament. But he was taking it the same year I considered it, and that turned me off the idea entirely.

I nibble on my thumbnail, waiting for Ava to return to plead my case. I have half a mind to head over to Ava’s office right now, but I know it isn’t appropriate to show up unannounced.

Ava’s boss seems like a pretty cool dude, but I doubt he’d like his assistant’s younger brother lingering around, especially when they’re this busy. She’s worked for him for years, and I’ve run into him a few times when I visited Ava at her office.

If I’m being completely honest, her boss is hot as fuck.

The first time I met him, my little gay teenage heart had me tripping on air at the charming smile he shot my way.

He has a unique sense of fashion that I didn’t understand, but the man can wear a trash bag and still look like he came straight from the runway.

My secret little crush on the older man was never going to lead anywhere, and it officially ended the day Ava told me he’s in a serious relationship. I might not be experienced in dating, but I knew not to mess with those already entangled with someone else.

“Eli, I have to go. Go with Nathan. Please? Being in the same car as him for a couple of hours won’t kill you,” she says a minute later. There’s even more noise coming from her side now.

“It might,” I mutter.

Ava laughs, even though I’m dead serious.

Who knows? Nathan might have figured out a way to make me spontaneously combust since I last saw him. I wouldn’t put it past him. He might have the rest of the family fooled, but not me. The man is a snake and evil straight to his core.

“I’ll see you tomorrow. Tell everyone I say hi. Love you.”

“Love you, too,” I grumble, even though I’m currently annoyed at her. It’s not her fault that she’s caught up at work and won’t make it to our family trip until tomorrow, but I’d say it’s kind of my right as the baby of the family to throw little tantrums.

Ava chuckles, and I can imagine her shaking her head, too. She puts up with me because she loves me, and I’m her favorite, even if she denies it.

Despite her being ten years older than me, Ava and I are close.

I’m close to both my sisters, but Zoe moved to the other side of the country right out of college, so I only got to see her during the holidays.

Plus, I have slightly more things in common with Ava, since we’re both part of the rainbow.

Zoe flew back last night and is already with our mom and stepdad at the cabin we rented for our yearly winter getaway.

The trips started when Mom married Gerald. She likes to joke that there’s no better way to bond than being trapped in a cabin together. She thinks she’s way funnier than she actually is.

I’m lucky enough to say that I enjoy spending time with my family. They’re all amazing people—even Gerald. The only person I can do without is…yep, you guessed it. My stepbrother Nathan.

And what’s worse than being trapped in a cabin with him for the next week? Being stuck in a small car all alone with him, with none of our other family members as a buffer.

I flop myself sideways onto the couch and turn onto my stomach to bang my head against the decorative pillow. It doesn’t have the same dramatic effect since it’s so damn soft.

Mom somehow always chooses pillows that feel like you’ve been transported into the clouds.

Which is why it isn’t my fault that so many of her pillows have magically disappeared over the years.

Though I can’t take complete blame for their disappearing act, since I’ve caught my sisters leaving the house with a pillow tucked under their arm more than once before.

I lift myself up to examine the soft pillow I’m lying on. It’s a light blue, and the front side has kittens playing in the snow. This pillow’s going to be the next victim of the unsolved pillow-snatching case at the Madison house.

Maybe the cute image will soothe me for the two-hour car ride from hell that I’m about to experience.

I groan again and lie back down on the pillow, face first. Suffocating to death seems a better fate than having to spend even a minute alone with Nathan. Plus, it helps that there’s a pleasant spicy scent coming from this pillow.

I know the situation is entirely of my making, since I’m the one who decided to spend an extra day at school instead of coming home and heading to the cabin with my parents yesterday. My frat had its annual winter formal, and since it’s the last one before my graduation, I didn’t want to miss it.

I know, a guy like me in a fraternity? I’m shocked too.

I didn’t go off to college thinking I’d join what I considered to be a group of party animals, but the guys at Eta Gamma are more than that.

They were one of the most genuine, accepting groups of men I’ve met.

I’m going to miss them like hell come next year, but I know even after I graduate, I’ve made brothers for life.

Which is nice after growing up in a household surrounded by women.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my mom and sisters, but I’ve always wanted to have a brother.

Nathan is technically my brother, but I don’t consider him as such—step or not. He can fuck off for all I care.

Speak of the devil…

The garage door rumbles, announcing the arrival of my arch-nemesis. I don’t bother moving from this position. The pillow is too damn fluffy to block my airflow and put me out of my misery, but at least it can block me from having to see the man.

There’s a minute of silence before I hear a door—probably the garage door—open. Nathan doesn’t say anything, probably knowing that I won’t reply even if he calls me. Sure, it’s petty, but my default coping mechanism is to just ignore the man entirely.

The sound of footsteps inches closer, and I feel my body tense up. I don’t move even when I sense his huge form hovering over me. He doesn’t say anything either. Instead, a hard jab on my shoulder makes me raise my head to glare at him.

The fucker is looking down at me, an infuriating grin painted on his infuriatingly handsome face. Even my hatred for the man couldn’t make me deny the fact that he is undoubtedly hot as fuck.

I know for certain that half our high school drooled over him. I guess I can begrudgingly understand. He’s the embodiment of a stereotypical ‘cool kid.’ Tall, good-looking, charming, and part of the high school football team.

He assimilated into the popular crowd the first week of transferring into my high school during his senior year. It made sense, since they’re all the same type of people: bullies.

I smack Nathan’s hand away from my face and sit up. He’s unfazed by my glare and shrugs. “Just making sure you weren’t dead,” he says casually.

“I bet you wish I were dead,” I mutter, mostly to myself.

Nathan’s face falls, and if I didn’t know him better, I’d think he’s genuinely sad. But the year of living together before he went off to college was more than long enough to learn to see through him.

“I don’t think that. I like having you around, you know?” he says. He looks tired, with fatigue marring his handsome face. I’m tempted to ask if he’s not sleeping well, but then I remember what he does is none of my business.

“Yeah, whatever,” I say with a snort.

Nathan just smiles and ruffles my hair before I can dodge him. He glances at the pillow I was lying on and bites his lip without saying anything. He probably thinks the design on the pillow is childish or something. He probably thinks I’m childish.

My glare turns fiercer as I flatten my brown locks. It takes forever to get my hair to stop looking like I’d just climbed out of bed, and he ruined my meticulously styled waves in seconds.

A green beanie covers Nathan’s curls, but I know even without the hat, his black strands are never out of place. Everything about the man is irritatingly perfect.

Nathan’s smile grows wider, if that’s even possible. It’s pure evil. I want to wipe the smile off his face, but he turns to the side before I can say anything.

“You bringing all that?” he asks, nodding to the giant suitcase by the front door before peering at me with judgmental eyes.

“Yeah, so what?”

I cross my arms and wait for him to make a snide comment about me packing so much for a week away. In my defense, it’s half full of board games for us to play. Sue me for trying to keep my family entertained.

The mocking doesn’t come. He just shrugs, walks to the front door, pops the handle of my suitcase up, and rolls it toward the garage door.

He pauses and turns toward me. “Hurry up before I leave you here,” he throws over his shoulder, then disappears into the garage.

I mumble curses under my breath and stand. I bet he wants nothing more than to drive off and leave me behind, but I won’t give him the satisfaction.

I shoot to my feet and grab my new pillow. Steeling myself to spend the next two hours in a confined space with a man I loathe, I follow after him.