My brother was always better at parties.
He could thrive in chaos, even back when we were in high school.
I didn’t thrive in it.
Chaos tended to swallow me whole, actually.
Pressurewas something that followed me everywhere, whether I was at home, at school, or at a party where I felt like I might explode.
“Margarita?” Hunter asks me, circling around the counter and holding one of the plastic cups toward me.
“No thanks.”
He stares at me. “You sure? I used the zero-sugar lime mix for yourhealth-freakass.”
I let out a long breath, stretching my neck and back after mopping. “Fine. Give me that thing.”
“You okay?”
“Do you consider wishing I could be on an island alone for the next six monthsokay?”
I’d been trying to make a joke, but Hunter frowns. “If there’s something on your mind, say it, Wes. I mean that. don’t want things between us to ever get as bad as they used to be.”
I shake my head. “They’ll never be that bad again.”
“Damn,” Hunter says, watching as I tip back the cup and chug half of the tart, sweet margarita in one go. “Classes rough today, or something?”
I drink a little more and then wipe my mouth with my hand. “Maybe you just make mixed drinks too weak.”
“I pour heavy. That tequila is about to go straight to your head.”
“Good.”
He laughs and I manage to give him a quick smile before it falls away from my mouth.
Even if I’m on okay terms with Hunter now, everything that went down last semesterwasclear confirmation of something ugly that I’d always suspected:
Hunter is the lucky one, between the two of us.
The luckier brother.
Hunter gives my sleeve a tug. “Some of the guys are doing plunges in the pool out back. Let’s go.”
“The pool is still frigid at this time of year. No way.”
“That’s why we’re just doing plunges. We’re seeing who can stay in the cold the longest.”
I groan. “Notsafe at all, Hunter.”
“People do cold plunges in icy lakes in Alaska, Weston. No one is going to get hurt,” he protests. “Come hang out with Niko and Rayne. Please.”
Hunter’s being nicer than usual.
And I’m a sucker for that, even after a week like this.
“Fine. But I’m not jumping in cold water.”
I head out into the backyard, every nerve ending in my body already on high alert looking for Sevan.