Rock Hard: A Stepbrother Romance Page 0,3
a light and came into the heart of town. It wasn’t much of a city center, at least not like the towns out on the east coast, but it was home. Everything looked the same, more or less, and although that may have been depressing to some people, to me it felt right.
I wanted Ridgewood to be timeless. I knew it wasn’t, that there were problems boiling under its pristine veneer, but I still felt good every time I came back.
Reid suddenly slowed down and pulled over into the minimart’s parking lot.
“What’s up?” I asked him.
“Gotta do something real fast. You wait here.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Craving a Slim Jim?”
“I don’t think they even make those anymore,” he said, laughing.
“This is Ridgewood. This is the place time forgot.”
He nodded, smiling. “That’s the truth.” The car stopped in a spot and he put it in park. “Be back in a second.”
Before I could say anything, he jumped out and ran into the store. I watched him through the front windows, but he quickly disappeared behind a display. For a second, I wanted to follow him in, but I didn’t feel like getting soaked. I was finally beginning to dry off after all.
A few minutes later, he came back out of the store and climbed into the car. He put it in reverse, pulled out of the spot, and then headed back into traffic.
“Changed your mind?” I asked him.
“What?”
“You didn’t get anything.”
He looked at me for a second and then nodded. “Oh, yeah. They didn’t have it after all.”
I gave him a weird look but decided not to press. Reid could be mysterious when he wanted to be, after all.
I had learned not to bother trying to puzzle him out. If he wanted to open up, he would.
We moved back through town in a strained silence. I hated it, hated that he wasn’t teasing me mercilessly for being a science geek or something equally stupid and immature. Anything would have been better than the silence.
“What’s your plan for the summer?” he asked finally, breaking the silence.
“Not sure. Thought I’d look a few people up.”
“Like who?”
“Lindsey, for starters.”
He snorted. “She’s the waitress at the Blue, right?”
Blue was the Blue Light Diner. Most people just called it “Blue” for short.
“Last I heard, yeah.”
“I forgot you two were close.”
“Why, what’s that mean?”
“Nothing. She’s just different than she was in high school, that’s all.”
“Different how?”
He shrugged again. “People change. You sure did.”
“Oh good, this again.”
He laughed. “Don’t get all angry, college girl. Or should I say science geek? Since you’re not in college anymore.”
“If I’m a geek, you’re a meathead.”
“That’s not a bad tradeoff. I’ll take it.”
“What about you? Got any competitions coming up?”
He had a far-off look on his face for a second and then nodded. “Yeah. Got some stuff lined up.”
“How’s it going?”
“Good. Been training hard.”
My eyes roamed down his body. I had to admit, he was looking even more muscular and fit than usual, which was saying something. He glanced at me and smirked.
“Quit staring, Becca.”
I blushed and looked out the window. “I wasn’t staring.”
“You were practically eye-fucking me.”
“I was not. Don’t be a perv.”
“It’s fine, sis. I get it. Hard to control yourself around me.”
I sighed and shook my head. Maybe the silence really was better.
Soon we turned off the road and headed up a thin dirt path, hardly enough room for two cars to squeeze by each other. Each wind and curve and bend was utterly familiar to me since I had gone up and down them hundreds of times. Up ahead, a wood and glass building materialized into view, smoke rising lazily up through its chimney.
“Got the fire on for us,” Reid commented.
I smiled big. I was coming home.
Chapter Two: Reid
I hated being the new kid in town. Even years later, I still felt like I wasn’t exactly a local. Sure, I knew the woods around Ridgewood better than anyone, and I was the golden boy of climbing, but if you weren’t born in the town then you were always a bit of an outsider.
She never made me feel that way. Rebecca was a lifer, as I liked to call them, and when I first moved to Ridgewood as a kid she was nice to me. It was hard at first trying to get into the swing of small-town living, and kids weren’t exactly welcoming.
But Rebecca was different. She probably didn’t even remember, because we weren’t exactly friends back then, but she was nice to me anyway. Any sign of