However, Cade used it to his advantage. He loved the attention he didn’t have to work for. It was always just there.
They may have been related, but the Drake brothers were like night and day. Complete opposites of one another. While Cade was reserved and more laidback, Adrian was the life of the party. He was the big man on our college campus. The same way he was in our high school before he graduated. Now he was officially the president of the best statewide fraternity at our university.
Everyone knew who he was. At times, I wondered if Cade felt like he was living in Adrian’s shadow. Although he never admitted it to me, it didn’t take the thought away.
One of the only things they had in common was they were both wicked smart. It was in the Drake genes. Their father was a coding engineer, working with the elite around the world. It didn’t surprise me they both graduated at the top of their classes. There wasn’t anything the Drake brothers couldn’t do, and they proved that time and time again.
Yet, where they really differed was their love lives—or lack thereof for Adrian. Cade was a relationship kind of guy and Adrian… Let’s just say he was a bedhopping kind of man. We’d never seen him with the same girl twice. His reputation as a man whore preceded him wherever he went, but chicks didn’t seem to care as long as they got one night with him. It was pitiful to watch.
Truly pitiful.
If Cade didn’t have to try to score with chicks, Adrian put in no effort whatsoever. All he had to do was flash that incredible smile of his and panties literally dropped at his feet.
Through the years, Adrian and Cade’s relationship hit highs and lows. Sometimes they were on good terms, other times they were at each other’s throat. But in the end, they were always there for one another. Especially when we were younger and Cade would get bullied. Adrian was the king of getting into fights. At one point, it seemed like it was all he did.
Ignoring my question, Cade exclaimed, “Hayley knows how important you are to me, Paige. She wouldn’t care if you slept in my bed.”
I opened my mouth to reply how ridiculous that was, but a deep, familiar voice rasped, “What if she wants to sleep in my bed?”
Our gazes darted toward Adrian. He was leaning against the doorframe of Cade’s new bedroom, looking every bit the playboy he was.
I’d known the Drake brothers since I was seven years old. After my parents got a divorce, we moved from Kentucky into the house next door to them in Tampa, Florida. My mom was hired as the new emergency room doctor in the Bay area—working fifty, sometimes sixty hours a week. I was alone a lot. Mostly after I was old enough to stay home by myself. Her career had always come first, but I was a close second. It was the reason for their divorce to begin with.
My father wasn’t in my life. Not for lack of trying on my part. He didn’t care to have me in his world. I couldn’t remember the last time I saw him. He was a workaholic like my mother. His business was the only thing that mattered to him. He stopped paying child support after the first year of their divorce. My mom didn’t care. We didn’t need his money. She made more than enough for the comfortable life we lived.
Sometimes I thought about him. Although, I tried really hard not to. It hurt too much.
I remembered the day as if it were yesterday. I met Adrian before I met Cade. His bedroom window was parallel to mine and two days after we moved in, I was sitting in the nook by my window, drawing in my sketchbook. I loved to draw, still did.
Then all of a sudden, I heard a door slam and looked up.
“Adrian Michael Drake!” The door to his bedroom flew open. “How many times have I told you that you can’t slam the door to your bedroom?”
“But, Mom—”
“Don’t you, ‘But, Mom,’ me, young man. You got in trouble at school again for fighting.”
“It’s not fighting when he doesn’t hit you back.”
“How could he? You tackled him to the ground.”
“He deserved it.”
“Adrian…”
“What was I supposed to do? He was bullying Cade.”
She took a deep breath, looking at him the same way my mom did when she was disappointed in me.
“I appreciate you defending your little brother, but you need to learn to use your words.”
“I did.” He nodded. “I warned him last week that if he stole Cade’s lunch again, I was going to beat him into the ground. You’re always saying I don’t follow through on my promises, so I was just doing what you wanted.”