Chapter 8
Iswiped my peach gloss over my lips, smacking them together, as I stared out over the open grounds of the Cape Canyon College campus. The sun was shining, which meant the lawns were full of students trying to soak up the rays while they studied or ate lunch.
Arena sat beside me, both of us opting for spicy salmon poke bowls from the nearby dining hall. She’d been talking my ear off about some petty drama between a couple in one of her classes that were always having public arguments. On any other day, I’d be deeply invested in the latest update, but I was still rattled by the letter the maid had handed me on my way out this morning.
Another note from my father.
No more games, Dempsey. Time to come home.
Home.
That house had never felt like a home. He’d made sure of that. There was no way in hell I’d ever willingly go back there.
“Hey, isn’t that one of your smoking hot brothers?” Arena pointed towards the parking lot, pulling me from my own head.
Despite claiming she rarely spoke to the Aston brothers, Arena knew them well. Knew a crazy amount of detail about each of them, the same way most people at Triple C did. Because of their near-celebrity status, I’d fallen into some strange kind of notoriety thanks to who my stepbrothers were. More than a few people had tried to befriend me in my first few days here, purely because I was an Aston now. Others had given me a wide berth and some of the bitchiest glances I’d ever received.
I squinted across the lawn to the parking lot. Sinclair was leaning against the hood of a shiny red Porsche. He looked mouth-wateringly good in tailored pants, dress shoes, and a white button-down shirt that was rolled up to his elbows. His piercing green eyes were hidden by dark sunglasses, his hair a perfectly dishevelled mess like he’d spent the morning sitting at his desk running his hands through it.
“God, he’s so fucking hot. How do you live under the same roof as that without accidentally-on-purpose walking in on him in the shower?” Arena asked, practically drooling.
I rolled my eyes. “Because he has arrogance seeping from his pores.”
She stared at me like I’d lost it. “So does every guy at this college and in this damn town. At least the Aston brothers can back up the arrogance. They’re the richest family in the state and they’re all fine as hell. They can be as arrogant as they want, if you ask me.”
When I glanced back at Sinclair, he was looking in our direction. His sunglasses were tipped down and he stared at me, those green eyes unsettling me even from across the lawn.
Movement to our left distracted him, and he pushed his glasses back into place, moving to greet the girl who ran over, throwing herself at him.
He pulled her against him for a hug and I went back to my lunch. It was the same girl he’d been huddled up with on the couch after the wedding.
“Who is that?” I asked Arena, fighting to keep my tone casual.
“That’s Veda Posey. Sinclair’s girlfriend.”
My gaze snapped to hers. “His girlfriend?”
I didn’t think guys like the Aston brothers did girlfriends.
“Yup,” she said, popping the ‘p’ as she toyed with her rice bowl. “Lucky bitch has been dating him since he was a junior at Triple C. Snapped him up nice and early.”
Sinclair was twenty-two. He was two years out of college and already running a successful company. And it also meant he and Veda had been dating for three years.
My eyebrows crept up my forehead. “Wow, that’s a long time.”
Arena took a bite of her food, both of us watching Veda and Sinclair with their arms wrapped around each other, deep in conversation.
“Yeah, it was weird. Because before her, Sinclair had never really been with the same girl for more than a few weeks. But then he just started dating Veda, like, overnight.” She shrugged. “They’ve been together ever since.”
She leaned closer, expression serious. “I asked her once when we were alone together in the bathroom at an event how she managed to bag an Aston and could she write the rest of us a cheat sheet. She just laughed that perfect hot girl laugh of hers.”
I gave her a tight smile.
I had no idea why Sinclair having a girlfriend annoyed me so much. He wasn’t anything to me and I didn’t want him to be. So why would it matter if he was taken?
Veda and Sinclair broke apart, going to separate sides of his car to get in. Sinclair gunned the engine and sped out of the lot.
Who my stepbrother chose to date was none of my business. And that feeling creeping into the pit of my stomach definitely wasn’t jealousy.
That would be a level of crazy that I didn’t have time to deal with.