“No, don’t tell her, Rian. She won’t let me come along anymore.”
Tanner gripped her under the arms and helped her up. Jonas stared at her knees.
“You don’t need to be coming with us anyway, Sasha. You’re too young to be hanging out with us anyway.” Rian crossed his arms over his chest and narrowed his eyes at her.
If not for Jonas and Tanner telling her older brother that her tagging along was fine, Rian would have made her stay behind most likely.
“You going to be okay?” He gestured to her legs, and she nodded. “All right then, come on.”
Rian didn’t wait for a reply, just turned and started back for the lake. Tanner and Jonas stared down at her.
“You guys don’t like me hanging out either, do you?”
She’d known them her whole life. Even if they were three years older than she was, they never made her feel like Rian’s annoying, little sister. They both watched her with the same hazel eyes that were more green than brown.
They might have been fraternal twins, but they looked so much alike they could have passed for identical.
Tanner exhaled and ran a hand over his short, dark hair, the same color and length as Jonas’s. “Come on, Sweet Pea.”
He’d always called her that endearment, and her heart gave a little pitter-patter at the nickname. Jonas took her hand, and they made their way to the lake. Even if the guys were going there to flirt with the girls and hoped to catch a glimpse of their bikini tops popping off, Sasha did like spending time with them.
Tanner and Jonas never complained about her presence, and they never said she couldn’t do what they did. Rian was the only one who was annoyed that their mom made him watch over her when she tagged along.
But to be honest, she crushed hard on Tanner and Jonas, and because of that would have gotten dirty and hurt just to be near them.
The only problem was the brothers didn’t see her as anything more than their best friend’s little sister.
* * *
Fourteen years old
High school waslike stagnant water. It smelled and was toxic.
Sasha tightened her hand around the strap of her backpack and turned around to see Tanner talking with some blonde girl off to the side.
The girl wore a skirt that was the length of some of Sasha’s underwear, and her top, if it could be called that, stretched so tight across her boobs Sasha could see the outline of her nipples.That is so a dress code violation.
But the blonde’s clothes weren’t the issue. No. The girl was gorgeous and confident, and she kept Tanner’s attention in a way Sasha never had before. Not likethat.
The cherry on top of the shit sundae of seeing girls batting their eyelashes and vying for Tanner’s attention would be the same thing happening to Jonas. Even two years later, she wanted the Ashbury brothers like she wanted to breathe.
Sasha slammed the door of Rian’s beloved Mustang and smirked when he climbed out of the car and narrowed his eyes at her. He treated that car like it was made out of diamonds and gold. Sasha admitted it was a beautiful piece of machinery, though, what with its glossy, midnight blue paint job and completely restored frame. He’d worked hard on it with their father over the past couple of years.
Rian said, “If you don’t behave, Sasha, I’m going to make you ride the bus.”
She rolled her eyes because they both knew he would do no such thing. He got out and walked toward the front of the school, and several guys came up to him and slapped him on the back.
It was a move she’d seen Tanner and Jonas do countless times. She noticed girls off to the side start giggling when her brother walked by, and she couldn’t help but wrinkle her nose. What was it with the female student body and the men in her life?
Sasha looked at the front of the high school, and unease knotted her stomach. Pushing all her worries aside, she breathed in deeply. She was so damn nervous about what lay behind those ominous double doors of Hayven Hill High.
She made her way toward the school, but a hand on her shoulder stopped her. Jonas and Tanner stepped in front of her.
“You look about ready to sprint, Sweet Pea.” Tanner grinned down at her, and Jonas gave him a light shove.
“Leave her alone, Tanner,” Jonas said seriously, but his lips twitched with suppressed amusement. “Come on, Sasha.” Jonas wrapped his muscular arm around her shoulder and steered her toward the front entrance.
With Tanner on one side and Jonas on the other, she felt her belly tighten and her heart race. Rian called out from her left, and they stopped. He ran up to them and ruffled her hair.