I spear Mason with a glare.What did he do?
He barely glances at me, then continues down the hall and around the corner.
“Are you okay?”I ask Gen.
“Yeah.”Her face is calm, so I relax a little.“I’ll explain in the car.”
And she does.It turns out the party was a bust all around.
Mason tried to kiss Gen in his bedroom and she dodged it.I tried to cuddle with Jaeger and he passed out.No one got lucky tonight.Not my goal, but still.
My brilliant plan to help Gen is in a shambles and my own relationship drama battles hers for the biggest disaster.
ChapterNine
“Yo, sis, what’s up?I was just thinking about you.”
My slightly overprotective brother, Tyler, is a slob, but he’s a good brother and I could really use his company.I rang him up, hoping he’d be up for a stay while he isn’t working.
“What do you think about coming out to Tahoe?”I say over the phone.
Tyler is a community college teacher with summers off, so he’s available.As long as I don’t tell him about Eric—he hates my ex—having Tyler around will help take my mind off things.There’s a small voice in the back of my head that wants to pump Tyler for information about his old high school buddy Jaeger, but I’m ignoring it.
He chuckles into the line.“Funny you should ask, because I’m here.”
“What?Where?”
“With Mom.Came out to see her new digs.”
My mom just bought her first house, in Carson City.She’s rented her entire life, so this is huge.
“You should check it out,” he says.“It’s not much, but she’s proud.It would mean a lot if you came.”
Jesus, as hard as my mom worked at the casinos to put Tyler and me through college,I’mproud.She only recently relocated to Carson.She’s got a stable job with benefits there.It pays less than what she made in Tahoe, but Carson City has lower living costs.“I will, I promise.I’ve been getting settled with my job and all, but I’ll come out as soon as I can.”
“Well, don’t take too long, or you’ll be leaving again.”
For grad school.How could I forget?
“So, what do you think?”he asks.
“About what?”Tyler doesn’t know about my reservations over school.I’m avoiding thinking about them, but they’re fixed in my subconscious.
“Dude, what’s up with you?About me driving out.”
Oh right.“Tyler, I called you, remember?I already said I want you to visit.”
“Cool.I’ll be there in a couple of hours.Everything okay?”
I wouldn’t call my brother the most perceptive male, but he can be at inopportune times.“Yeah, fine.”
And it will be.Now that things are officially over with Eric, I’ll eventually move on.It’s everything else that has me screwed up.The reason I couldn’t see how bad my relationship with Eric was.My reservations over grad school.At some point I’ll have to address these issues.Just not now.
Two hours later, Tyler walks in the door and drops his duffel on the dark brown wall-to-wall carpet of our rental house.We picked this place for its proximity to the lake, but it’s the size of a dog kennel and the furnishings look like something from a seventies sitcom.
Tyler lifts his brows warily.“Where do you want me?”He peeks inside the single bedroom.“I don’t mind spooning with Gen, but you snore.”
“I do not snore!”I punch him in the arm and he grins.“You can sleep in the loft,” I tell him.
