I gritted my teeth. “I’m here for the band.”
“Right. The band,” he said disbelievingly.
“My brother plays guitar.” I pointed Maddox out.
Derek barely glanced that way. “We both know you wanted to see me.”
I actually snorted. “Keep dreaming, Holy Cross boy.”
“You know, Holy Cross boys and St. Catherine’s girls go together.”
“Is that what you’re supposed to be dressed up as?”
He laughed. “No. I’m a sailor.”
I looked him up and down. He just looked like a regular dude. “Right. Obviously.”
He opened his mouth to say something else that I’d likely detest, but then his gaze shifted past mine, and his face dropped. I turned to search the crowd, but it was just a bunch of drunk people.
“Excuse me,” he said and then brushed past me as if I weren’t there.
He stormed right up to some girl. I didn’t recognize her, but she was beautiful. Waist-length, pin-straight brown hair in an all-white tennis outfit, complete with a racket. He grabbed her arm and furiously spoke to her.
I shrugged and turned away. Probably his girlfriend. Maybe she wasn’t supposed to be here, so he could flirt with everyone else. Sounded like something Holy Cross boys would do.
“Hey, who were you talking to?” Lila asked, coming back with drinks.
“No one,” I said, putting Derek out of my mind. I took one of the drinks out of her hand and sipped. Then I sputtered around the harsh taste. “You’re right. This tastes horrid.”
She laughed. “Right?!”
Despite Derek being a dick, the party was actually—as much as I hated to admit it—fun. Local Carnage played a full set, and then a DJ showed to play dance music. Maddox tried to talk to Josie and failed. Josie was too busy flirting with half of the room to notice or care. Lila and I danced our asses off. Both of my friends had probably had too much to drink.
“I’m going to find the bathroom,” I yelled to Lila.
She nodded. “Want me to come with?”
“I’m good. Just stay with Maddox.”
Lila grabbed my twin’s arm and put her head on his shoulder. “Got him.”
I laughed and went in search of a bathroom. But the house was enormous, and after a few minutes, I gave up and asked someone. The girl pointed me in the other direction, and I headed that way, only to stop and curse. There were at least ten intoxicated girls in the line for the bathroom.
“Motherfucker,” I said under my breath.
There was no way that I was waiting in that line. There had to be more than one bathroom in this huge house. I backtracked to the main foyer and ducked under a rope that blocked off the stairwell. I assumed it was to keep drunk people from having sex in the upstairs bedrooms. Not that it likely did a good job of that either, but I was here for the bathroom.
I just made it to the second-floor landing when I heard a thunk. I turned around and found Derek holding a guy up against the wall. The pretty girl from earlier was standing behind him, crying.
“Derek, stop it!”
Derek ignored her protests. “Don’t ever let me catch you touching my sister again.”
Sister.
Oh! Well, that explained everything. No wonder he’d looked so pissed when he saw her.
Whoever the guy was, he looked a lot older than her, which was a red flag.
“Derek!”
“Mia, shut it,” Derek snapped.
“What the fuck, man?” the guy said.
“Did you fucking hear me, Chuck?” Derek snarled. “Nod your head if you can’t open your big fucking mouth to do anything but shove your tongue down her throat.”
He smartly nodded his head once. “I hear you.”
I obviously wasn’t supposed to be witnessing this. But as I stepped backward to find my escape, the hardwood under my foot squeaked. I winced at the noise.
But all three of them whipped their heads in my direction.
I cleared my throat and waved awkwardly. “Uh… sorry to interrupt. I was looking for the bathroom.”
Derek released Chuck with a shove. “We were just finished. Weren’t we?”
Chuck glared at Derek and then brushed out of the upstairs, passing me and darting down the stairs. He all but ran down them. Personally, I thought he was getting off easy. Derek looked half-ready to kill him.
His sister swiped at her tears. “You’re such an asshole, Derek.”
“Fine, Amelia. I’ll be the asshole, but Chuck Henderson is not good enough for you.”
She shoved his arm, and as she rushed away, she said, “God, I hate you.”
Derek watched her leave with his jaw clenched. A door slammed hard from somewhere down the hallway. He winced at the sound and then closed his eyes. He stayed that way for a few seconds before releasing the tension from his shoulders and finally turning to face me. All of it had happened so quickly that I’d been too frozen to move.
“Uh…” I managed.
Because the Derek Ballentine that I’d seen at the football game and downstairs in front of his row of adoring fans was not the person standing in front of me right now. This Derek only cared that he’d saved his sister from a creep. And then tried to act as if he didn’t care that she was mad at him, but he did. He definitely cared. For some reason, that made him twice as hot.
So now, my words were fractured and forgotten. So much for all the SAT vocabulary prep.
Our eyes met across the distance, and my face flushed at the attention. I’d found guys hot before. I’d even found Derek hot before. But in that one interaction, something shifted. I witnessed something private. A side of himself that he clearly didn’t show everyone else. That he cared… even if throwing a guy against a wall maybe wasn’t the best way to show it.
“Sorry you had to see that,” he said.
“Yeah. Well, that was my bad. There are a dozen people in line for the one downstairs.”
“Sounds right.”
He pointed down the hall, the way that Amelia had gone. “The bathroom is the second door on the left.”
“Um… thanks.”
“No problem,” he said and then sank into the sofa in the second-story landing. It was large enough to be a whole other living area, complete with a giant television and all the video game consoles.
I scurried past Derek and found the bathroom with ease. I took my time in the bathroom, hoping that I could avoid any more of the awkwardness. After I finished, I peeked back out to find him still sitting there, staring off into nothing. I could scurry away like Chuck Henderson and not ever have to talk to Derek again. It would be easy.
And somehow, it wasn’t.
I bit my lip as I walked out onto the landing and then took the seat next to him. He looked up in surprise. Those hazel eyes searching mine for an answer for my continued appearance.
“That was a nice thing you did for your sister,” I said.
He chuckled, a low rumble in the back of his throat. “She sure doesn’t think so.”
“I’m well acquainted with the Chucks of this world. Seen a bunch of them up close and personal.”
He arched an eyebrow, and my cheeks heated again.
“My mom,” I said quickly. “She’s dated her fair share of jerks. I’m usually pretty good at spotting the Chucks. Which is kind of why I was like that with you.”