Page 110 of Naughty November
A STEP TOO FAR
GIANNI HOLMES
PROLOGUE
IGGY
“Kee is home! Kee is home!” My heart leaped into my throat and became temporarily stuck there as I looked out my bedroom window. The silver sedan braked hard in the driveway. He’d been driving fast again, and Stepdad would argue with him about it, but I didn’t care. After watching the street for the past hour and a half, after not seeing him for the past four months, after only speaking to him on the phone, he was finally home, just like he’d promised.
The car door opened, and he stepped out, stretching to his full height. As much as I wanted to run to welcome him, I waited. And watched. He made his way to the front door without letting anyone else out of the car. The last time he’d brought a leggy blonde with skimpy outfits that’d raised Stepdad’s blood pressure.
He’d come alone!
I wouldn’t have to share him.
Light-headed and giddy with excitement, I dashed out of the room, my bare feet slapping on the hardwood floors, and bolted down the stairs two at a time.
“No running in the house!” Stepdad shouted.
“Yes, sir!”
But I kept running. I’d been grounded so often it was nothing new, and Kieran was worth it.
The front door opened, and I halted instead of throwing myself into Kieran’s arms like I wanted. I was no longer ten years old. At thirteen, I was aware of certain things, like my crazy hormones making my older stepbrother seem more attractive than I had any right to notice.
Or that my stepbrother was the reason I figured out I was gayer than a peacock in a field of rainbows.
“Kee, you’re home!”
He grinned, his bright blue eyes crinkling at the corners. My heart fluttered.
Good, it’s no longer lodged in my throat.
“Hey, squirt. Come here.” Unlike me, he didn’t hesitate to grab me by the shoulders and pull me into a headlock. He ruffled and kissed my hair. I shoved at him as if my insides hadn’t turned all mushy and soft from his affection.
“You’re messing up my hair!”
Didn’t he know how long I’d spent getting the curls to look just right?
“Since when do you care about your hair?” He let me go and placed his hands akimbo. “You have a girlfriend?”
“Of course not.” My face heated. I hadn’t told him I was into boys. I hadn’t told anyone—not since Stepdad had argued with Kieran about being bi. He wasn’t tolerant at all. Sometimes I thought Mom married the worst husband, but he was good to her, and I couldn’t regret their marriage when it meant I had Kieran.
Kieran was the best thing that had happened to me. Other kids in my class had stepbrothers and stepsisters who were mean to them, but not me. Kieran was the coolest. The first moment we met, he’d thrown one of his game controllers at me and told me to sit and play with him.
“You have a boyfriend, then?” Kieran asked.
“Don’t be absurd.”
He tapped my cheek. “I think you’re protesting too much. Anyway, look what I have for you.”
He dug into his front jeans pocket and took out a tiny clear poly bag. “What is it?” It looked like a button.
“I found it. Didn’t you tell me you’d started a button collection?”
My cheeks burned as I took the bag from him. I’d lied about the button collection after he caught me stealing a button off his shirt. How was I supposed to tell him I wanted to add it to my collection of Kieran’s Stuff? Then he would know I had a crush on him, and that would be awkward.
I wasn’t stupid. My little crush probably came from him being the coolest guy I’d ever met, but it would go away soon, like all the other times I’d had a crush on someone.