My stepbrother was as straight as could be, soof coursehe was fucking gorgeous. Perfect dark brown hair—long on top and short on the sides—that always looked like he’d spent an hour styling it. Big silver-blue eyes that were both soulful and deep and framed by long, full lashes.
His perfect smile, his pillow-plush lips, and a jawline that could cut glass completed the all-American boy look.
Add in that he was six feet of lean muscle, even though he’d never played a sport in his life and didn’t work out as far as I knew, and he was easily one of the hottest guys I’d ever seen.
Then there was me. Small, mousy, and plain Jules.
“See something you like, Julian?”
I snapped my eyes up, my face heating. I’d been staring at his mouth.
“Can’t say that I do, Asher.”
He smirked and took another sip of his juice.
“Here you go, Giant Max.”
Riley held out a plate with two cookies on it. Ash and I both reached for it. I pulled my hand back as if burned and put it on my lap as another wave of irritation swept through me.
Ash took the plate and put it in front of the giant teddy bear.
“Do you like the tea, Jules?” Riley asked.
I picked up my teacup and took a sip.
The juice was warm and overly acidic. I wasn’t a fan of apple juice to begin with, but I could drink it for Riley.
“It’s incredible. The best tea ever.”
“Do you want sugar?” She picked up the plastic sugar container and looked at me expectantly.
“Of course.”
She busied herself with scooping imaginary sugar into my cup, then turned to Ash.
“Ash?”
“Yes, please.”
“Milk?” she asked when she’d finished adding a half dozen fake scoops into Ash’s cup.
“Please.”
“Yes, thanks,” Ash said as she dumped imaginary milk into my cup.
We waited as she did the same for hers. Then I passed her Giant Max’s cup so she could fix it too.
When everyone was set, she sat in her chair and picked up a cookie.
That was our cue that it was okay to start, and I did the same.
The cookies were soft, but not because they were the soft baked kind. These were on the cusp of being stale and were pretty much falling apart.
Would it have killed my stepmother to buy fresh cookies so Riley would have some decent treats for her tea party?
Crystal was on another diet, which meant that all sweets were banned from the house. These must have been in the back of the cupboard for a while.
Riley made a face and put her cookie down. “Ew.”