Chapter 10
TEN
Rhett
Sixteen Years Ago
“ W hat’s up, Penelope?” I said as I walked through the living room of the girls’ house, getting closer to where she was lying on the couch.
I hadn’t bothered to ring the bell since their parents were out for the day. She didn’t look at me or respond, but her eyes were open, and her arms were raised high, her hands moving like they were dancing but no music was playing. The sight was odd enough that I paused in front of her.
“Pen?” I stood over her, making it impossible for her to miss me.
But the weird thing was, she didn’t appear as if she was seeing me at all.
“Penelope?” I waited. “Yo!” I shook her shoulder. “Pen … hello? Why aren’t you answering me?”
When I pulled my hand away, she sat up like a bolt of lightning, reaching for the dark blue glass on the coffee table, and while she guzzled several sips, her eyes finally connected with mine. When they did, she almost choked mid-swallow.
“Rhett!” She wiped her mouth, returning the glass to the table. “I didn’t even see you! What are you doing here? Oh, never mind. I know.” She pointed behind her, to no place in particular. “If you’re looking for Lain, she’s up there. Somewhere.”
“I know Lainey’s in her room.”
“Then, why are you here with me? Unless you came over to see me …” Her teeth skimmed her lip. “Ah, Rhett, you’re finally coming to your senses.” She smiled as though she’d just scored a point. “Sit.” She patted the spot next to her. “Tell me all the reasons why you think I’m the better twin.”
I studied her blown-out pupils and the way her hands wouldn’t stop moving. How there was something about the way she’d positioned her body and how her jaw was swinging that just didn’t feel right.
And what she was saying—that shit felt so off too.
What the fuck is going on with you, Penelope?
“I was just making sure you were all right. That’s why I’m standing here.” I nodded toward her. “You’re looking a little fucked up, Pen, and it’s only eleven in the morning.”
“I’m looking hot. And you”—her eyes dipped down my body—“are looking all kinds of hot.” She took another drink and almost dropped the cup when she returned it. The glass was too dark of a blue to tell what was inside. “Besides, I’m the best ever. Just like you’re the best ever. Just like”—she smiled and pointed up—“she’s the best ever.” She started to dance again, this time her shoulders moving, her neck sliding left and then right. “Did you hear?”
I shifted my weight and crossed my arms, wondering why I was giving her any attention rather than going upstairs to find Lainey. In my gut, I knew something was up, and I wanted to get to the bottom of it. “Hear what?”
“I’m celebrating.”
“Celebrating what?”
“All the things. For all the reasons.” She turned her head, giving me a side angle of her smile. “This badass”—she thumbed her chest—“got into NYU. I’m going back to New York. Where I belong. Wanna come with me?”
“Congrats—”
“Penelope,” a guy called out.
I hadn’t known anyone was here; there hadn’t been any additional cars in the driveway when I arrived. He wasn’t in the living room; it sounded like he was in the kitchen. Whoever it was, his voice was vaguely familiar.
“I’m getting a pizza delivered. Do you want pepperoni or sausage?”
“And kill this buzz? Don’t think so.” She winked at me.
“Baby, I have plenty more to keep that buzz roaring.” He poked his head into the living room. “You’re really not hungry—” His voice cut off when his eyes met mine.
Anthony Potter.
The captain of the lacrosse team.
A dude who had rubbed me the wrong way since our freshman year. I didn’t like his cockiness. His fucking attitude. And I didn’t like how he thought he was invincible. Rumor was, he’d wrecked his car over the summer, and his dad paid someone the right amount of money so Anthony wouldn’t get charged, and the DUI had disappeared.
“Rhett.” He nodded toward me.
“Anthony.” I shifted my gaze to Penelope.
Her body was still moving like she was at a club. Whatever was going on here, it wasn’t right.
“You should listen to him and eat something.”
“You can daddy my sister, not me.” She smiled and playfully kicked my leg. “Go. She’s waiting for you.”
“I know you’re not telling my girl what to do,” Anthony said as he walked over to the couch, sitting next to Penelope. He put his arm around her shoulders and pressed his mouth against her cheek. “You need to go,” he said toward her, but it was directed at me.
I didn’t give a fuck what he said. “Pen?” When I gained her focus, I added, “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Never been better,” she replied.
She faced him, and they started to make out.
I’d seen enough.
Whatever these two were into, it was nothing but fucking trouble.
“Holler if you need me—or if you need anything,” I said.
I headed for the stairs, taking two at a time until I reached the landing. At the end of the hallway, I knocked on the last door.
“It’s me.” I opened it without waiting for a response.
“Where have you been?” Lainey was reclining across her bed and sat up, getting on her knees so, as I got closer, it was easier to wrap her arms around my neck. “It feels like it took you forever to get here.”
I kissed her, holding her face steady, and while the softness of her cheeks rubbed against my palms, my nose filled with her rose scent. It reminded me of my mother’s rose garden, but Lainey’s perfume was richer and so much sexier.
And her taste—fuck, it was good. Like she’d been eating some type of gummy candy before I came over, my tongue watering as I pulled back and hugged her against my body.
“I had to drop Ridge off at a friend’s house, and I was in your living room for a few minutes, talking to your sister.”
Her back stiffened; her breathing stopped. “Is Anthony still here? They were hanging out earlier, and … I had to come upstairs.”
“Yeah, he’s still here.”
She leaned back to look at me. “I don’t like him, Rhett.”
“He’s not my favorite dude either.”
“And I don’t like them together. The way he was acting bothered me so much that I couldn’t be around him.” With her mouth closed, she rubbed her tongue over her top teeth. “And Pen wasn’t herself. She’s so different around him.”
I had an idea what that different could be. I just wasn’t going to out her sister, not until I had solid proof that the two of them had been doing more than drinking. Plus, Lainey was stressed enough, and I wasn’t going to add to it.
“What could she possibly see in him?” Her arms dropped from my shoulders, and she slumped onto the bed.
I climbed in next to her, wrapping her up against me. “A good time. That’s what I’m thinking.”
“I was sure things were going to work out with the linebacker, and then, like she’d promised, she was suddenly working her way through the lacrosse team. You’d told us they weren’t good guys, and you weren’t kidding.”
At the start of the school year, I’d warned the sisters that the guys on the lacrosse team weren’t people you wanted to mess around with. They weren’t like my teammates. They were a group of guys who took partying to a whole new level, and instead of trouble accidentally finding them, they hunted for it, and they fucking craved it.
“Good thing is, you know it’s not going to last.” I brushed some hair out of her face. “Not when she’s going to NYU next year. I doubt Anthony is going there—he doesn’t have the brains to get in.”
“She told you she got accepted?”
I nodded. “Just now. Downstairs.”
“You don’t think he could get in on a lacrosse scholarship?”
“I don’t think NYU has a lacrosse team.”
She sighed, and her hand went to my chest. “Even better.”
I didn’t want to mention that if Anthony’s dad had enough money and power to get him out of a DUI, then there was a chance he could get his son into NYU. But with the way Penelope flew through guys, she’d probably be done with Anthony next month.
I held her chin, waiting for her stare to lock with mine. “There’s no reason to worry—and I know you are. Your sister is obsessed with that school, and nothing or no one is going to stop her from going there. Certainly not Anthony Potter.”
“Just as obsessed as you are with USC.”
She turned quiet, and I wondered if she’d heard back from the three schools she’d applied to. Because there was a piece of paper in my back pocket that was burning a hole in my jeans.
“I got something in the mail today.” I reached behind me and pulled out the sheet, holding it in the small space between us. “It’s from USC.”
“I got something from them too.” She pointed across the room. “It’s on my desk. Well, actually, there are a couple of things on my desk. I heard from all three schools.”
“And it took you this long to tell me?”
The truth was, I hadn’t applied anywhere else despite Lainey telling me to do so. USC was where we were going. There was no reason to waste my time with applications and schools I had no interest in. But when Lainey had asked if all three of my applications were in, I’d avoided answering her. Therefore, I hadn’t lied; I just hadn’t said anything.
I slipped the paper in her hand. “Open it.”
Her brows furrowed. “You don’t know what it says?”
“I didn’t want to look until I was with you.”
She sat up and crossed her legs in front of her. “I’m so nervous, I’m shaking.”
I chuckled. “Why?”
“Because this is the moment, Rhett. The one that’s going to decide so many things. What if?—”
“Just open it. Please.”
There were no ifs here.
Not when it came to this.
She held the paper in her lap, staring at it, and slowly unfolded until it was open in front of her, her eyes scanning the words. She filled her lungs and gazed at me, holding in the air, a smile creeping across her face. “You’re in.”
I know. That was what I wanted to say since I’d had no doubt I’d be going there.
“I’m so happy for you. Rhett, my God, you’re a superstar. The school of your dreams and, like you said, a total shoo-in.”
Without voicing a word or even showing a reaction, I got off the bed and went over to her desk, opening the envelope that had come from USC, facing her while I said, “You’re in too.”
Something else I knew would happen.
Whether my father had made a call, I didn’t know. He had just assured me that both of us would be attending USC if we wanted to. When Ray Cole made a promise, his word was his bond.
But seeing it in writing and getting to tell her? It was the best fucking feeling.
Her hands went to her chest. “I am? Seriously?”
I couldn’t stop grinning. “Yes.”
“For a Bachelor of Science in nursing? Just like I applied for?”
I didn’t have to look at the paper—I was that sure. “Yes, baby. Just like you applied for.”
“Oh my God.” She tucked herself into a ball and rocked over the bed. “What about the others? There are still two envelopes to open.”
“You want me to open them?”
She nodded.
I thought about my words carefully before I asked, “Because you’re curious?”
“That’s one of the reasons.”
“And what are the others?”
“Rhett, please, the suspense is killing me.” She paused. “I knew you were coming over—that’s the only reason I haven’t ripped open the envelopes.”
I could understand the curiosity, but did that mean she was actually considering going somewhere besides USC?
A question I was going to ask once I found out if it was even a possibility since the worry could all be for nothing.
I set down her acceptance letter and picked up the next envelope. This one was from the University of California, Berkeley. I only had to read the first sentence since the wording was almost identical to the letter from USC. I picked up the final envelope and opened it, reading the first few lines before I set all the paperwork back on her desk and joined her on the bed.
She wiped her hands on her knees. “And?”
“I don’t know why you questioned it. You’re a badass, Lainey. Of course you got into all three schools.”
“What? Stop! I did? Really?” She shook my shoulders. “You’re not bullshitting me, are you?”
“Congratulations, baby.” I pulled her in for a hug.
She squeezed me back. “I didn’t think I’d get into all of them. I really didn’t. Especially Stanford—I thought that was a long shot.”
“I’m sure your dad is going to be pleased when he finds out.” I pulled back to look at her face. “I know he’s been pushing you to go to Stanford.”
“Yes.” She bit her lip. “He has been.”
I didn’t want to ask. And I hated that I had to even question this. “Is that where you’re going to go?”
She traced her hand across my face, starting with my eyes, moving to my nose, and stopping at my mouth. “I’ve thought about this so much, Rhett. What’s best for me. What I want rather than what everyone else wants me to do.”
Why don’t I like the sound of this?
What the fuck caused her to change her mind?
“I swear it’s been keeping me up every night,” she continued. “And that was before I knew where I’d been accepted, so I was just playing all the different scenarios in my head, and it was eating away at me.” She swallowed, like her throat hurt. “Would people be happy with my decision? Could they accept it?”
“What are you saying, Lainey?”
She put her hands on top of mine. “I’m saying I’ve made a choice. I know what’s best for me and what I want.”
“And that is?”
I found myself holding my breath, my insides churning, as if I was on the verge of being sick.
If she was at Stanford and I was at USC, we’d be about six hours from each other, and I feared it wouldn’t work. I’d want it to, but I knew the distance wouldn’t make us closer. Neither would the partying we’d do separately and the booze we’d be drinking with our friends and all the shit that came with college that would test our relationship in every way.
We could try. But four years and over three hundred fifty miles? That was a lot.
She shook my fingers, her lips gradually pulling into a grin. “USC.” She winked. “Duh.”
“Jesus Christ, you’re killing me.” I tugged her so hard against me that she let out a tiny scream, which was quickly followed by a laugh. I rolled us sideways against the bed, and I wouldn’t let her go. “I really thought you were going to tell me Stanford.” I needed to feel her, so I gripped her even tighter. “I was getting ready to lose my shit.”
She tilted her head back from my neck and kissed me. “I know. I couldn’t help myself. It was the perfect opportunity to tease you a little—something I never get to do.”
“I don’t like it, but I get it.” I pressed my lips on hers. “Why were you so curious about whether you got into the other two colleges?”
“It’s hard to explain. I guess I needed to see if I was good enough, to see if all the time I’ve put into school had paid off.”
“Makes sense. Everyone needs their ego stroked. I have football for that, you don’t.”
She rolled her eyes and laughed. “And then there were certain things I needed to do to keep Dad off my back. It’s up to me if I think Stanford will be a good fit. But I don’t. I have no desire to go there, and he can’t force me to. Besides, Pen is going to NYU. She applied to Stanford, but everyone in this family knows she wouldn’t go there even if she got in. So, it wouldn’t be fair if he pushed me and not her.”
“What if he doesn’t pay? Will that change your mind?”
Her hand lowered to my neck and then my chest. “I’ll take out student loans. I’m not afraid of that.”
I rubbed my thumb over her lips, breathing in the rose scent with every inhale. “Christmas is next week, which means we’re leaving in only eight months.” I hovered my mouth over hers. “We’re doing this, Lainey.”
“We are, and I cannot wait.”