Breaking Down (Breaking #4) - Juliana Haygert Page 0,1

worked toward my dream, so be it. One way or another, I would play polo for a living. I would live my dream. Someday.

With a happy sigh, I plopped down on the couch and propped my legs on the coffee table. Now, here was exactly where I wanted to be.

“Hey, if you’re gonna put your paws there, take off your shoes.”

The company, though.

I rolled my eyes and lifted my hand, giving my brother the finger.

He groaned, and beside him, Hilary chuckled. “Gui, let her be,” she said.

“But her boots are dirty,” he complained. I glanced over my shoulder and witnessed as my brother, my big, strong brother, pouted at his girlfriend.

Hilary chuckled again and waved him off. “You do that all the time.”

“That’s different,” he snapped, glaring at me.

Shaking her head, Hilary whirled around and grabbed a tub of ice cream from the fridge.

“Oh, I want some too,” I said.

“One scoop? Two scoops? Three scoops?” she asked, grabbing bowls from the cabinets.

Gui took the tub from her and began serving the ice cream—our Friday afternoon snack. Looking at them moving around the kitchen like they had been doing that for years, no one would have guessed they had only been dating for six months. And, last week on Valentine’s Day, Gui invited Hilary to move in with him. And she had accepted. They were moving her stuff in this weekend, and I would probably help, since I was here visiting.

We had a big party with lots of food coming up tonight, so I just said, “One scoop is fine. For now.”

“Aren't you going to ask how many scoops I want?” Gui asked her sarcastically. She rolled her eyes and handed him a chocolate bar. He wasn’t a fan of ice cream, but he always made some kind of joke when we were all eating it.

I picked up the remote from the coffee table and turned on the TV. Even Netflix here was different from in Brazil—there were more movies and series options here. And I wanted to find a new obsession to binge during the remaining nine days I had here. Not that I wanted to spend my time watching TV, but everyone else was busy. Gui, Leo, Ri, and Pedro had practice, Bia and Garrett went to vet school, Hilary would go back to L.A. on Sunday night for her classes, Hannah had the ranch, and Iris was in college. They would all be busy during the day and I would be alone. Sometimes, I wondered why I even bothered visiting them outside of holidays.

A soft shuffling sound came from the hallway leading to the bedrooms and Pedro came into the room, dragging his flip-flops across the hardwood floor. He looked like shit—apparently he and Iris had had a big fight and hadn’t spoken in four days. And Pedro refused to tell anyone about it.

“I heard the word scoops.” Even his voice sounded like shit. He glanced at Hilary, then shifted his gaze to the bowls of ice cream. “Can I have some too, please?”

“Sure,” Hil said. She reached behind them and grabbed another bowl, and Gui served him.

Pedro plopped down on the couch beside me and started devouring his ice cream.

I couldn’t take his miserable looks. “Want to talk about it?”

“No,” he grumbled.

“Okay.” I scooted a little away from him, pretending I was afraid of him. “Sorry for asking.”

He sighed and looked at me. “No, sorry. I’m just …” He sighed again. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

Hil and Gui joined us in the living room. They sat on the other couch and Gui put his feet up the coffee table—but he had on socks.

Trying to break the awkward silence, Hil glanced at me. “Gui told me your classes start in March. Vet school without pre-vet. So cool.”

In Brazil, there was no pre-vet, pre-med, or pre-law. A person wanting to become a veterinarian only needed to apply for it and take a test called vestibular. If the person passed it, she was in. Those majors took one or two years longer than other degrees.

“Not that cool, when you don’t really want to do it,” I muttered, shoving my spoon in my ice cream.

“Give it a chance,” Gui said. He had already finished his chocolate bar. “Maybe you’ll love it and won’t want to do anything else.”

“I doubt it.”

“You'll see,” my brother said. “I bet it’ll change everything.”

Hilary scrunched her nose. “March. What an odd time to start the semester.”

“You have to remember that it’s still summer there