Only You (Adair Family #5)(6)

We were quiet as we walked outside, but then Brodan said with a gruff annoyance, “You know Harry fancies the pants off you. That’s why he’s a dick to you.”

This time, I couldn’t help the blush that stained my cheeks red.

Brodan’s eyes narrowed on my face. “But you already knew that.”

That was the problem with being friends with someone as long as I’d been friends with Brodan. We could read each other like a book. Trying to be casual about it, I shrugged. “He asked me out at the start of the year.” And had been a little shit ever since I turned him down.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” He scowled. “How come no one told me?”

Probably because they knew you’d act like an overprotective big brother. Ugh. I shrugged again. “Because I don’t fancy him, and it didn’t matter.”

The frown between Brodan’s brows didn’t ease as we walked toward the school gate where Arran waited by the bike rack.

A devil nudged at me, and I blurted out with a breeziness that belied my jealousy, “Anyway, I thought you’d be off snogging Michelle Kingsley right about now.” Brodan had been sneaking away whenever he could to get off with Michelle these past few weeks. Michelle was in the year above us, and there were rumors she was letting Brodan do way more than just snog her.

The thought made me sick.

Brodan nudged me gently. “When have I ever not walked you home?”

Never. He always walked me home. Only times he didn’t were on the rare occasions he was at home, unwell.

Arran came into view, standing with some mates at the bike rack. He was in second year and was hitting a growth spurt. He was a cutie. All the Adairs were unfairly blessed with good looks, but cursed with heartache and a crumbling old castle that might one day sink them into poverty. Not that I’d ever let anything happen to Brodan and his family if it was in my power to help.

“I’m glad you said no to Harry,” Brodan suddenly confessed.

I swear my heart somersaulted in my chest. “Why?”

“Because he’s a wee dick. You’re too good for him.” He looked down at me, his expression fierce. “You’re too good for anybody here.”

Pulse racing, I could only gape at him, wondering if he counted himself among anybody.

“Bro! Roe!”

It broke our intense eye contact as Brodan turned toward the call.

Fergus, Brodan’s friend who was in our year but looked like a first year, ran toward us, his massive backpack bouncing almost comically. Poor Fergus got terribly bullied because his family didn’t have a lot of money and also because of how small he was. The Adairs might not have money, but no one dared mess with them, mostly because the three eldest, Lachlan, Thane, and Brodan, were built like they had Viking blood. Also, their family had standing in Sutherland as landed gentry. They lived in a bloody castle on one of the biggest estates in the country. No one cared if they were technically low on funds.

Fergus was not so lucky, but Brodan tried to protect him as best he could. That was who Brodan was and probably one of the many reasons I’d started to have feelings for my best friend.

Sometimes I wished we could just be kids again.

Life was way less complicated then.

So were feelings.

“Don’t let Arran hear you calling us that,” Brodan grumbled good-naturedly as Fergus caught up to us.

Fergus grinned at me, and I smiled. I didn’t mind the Roe and Bro nicknames Arran had given us. It made me feel like our connection was so strong, everyone else could see it too.

Arran peeled himself away from his friends, and he and Brodan unlocked their bikes from the rack. Ardnoch Estate was a good ten-, fifteen-minute drive from the village, so the boys had to bike it most of the time. There was snow on the ground last month, though, so their dad, Stuart, drove all the Adairs to school. Come November, Lachlan would turn seventeen, and he’d be old enough to drive them. When he graduated, that duty would fall to Thane.

The boys chattered about some football game they were arranging for the weekend, and I walked quietly at Brodan’s side. He always slowed his long stride so I could keep up.

We said goodbye to Fergus first, and then Arran got on his bike and rode slowly ahead of us. He looked back over his shoulder at his brother. “I’ll get you on the road.”

Brodan frowned. “Don’t go too far ahead.”

“Just go with him,” I said.

He shook his head, and I rolled my eyes, even though I loved it that he wanted to walk me to my house.

“How are things?” Brodan asked as we approached my narrow street of row cottages.

I tried not to tense at the question. With my dad gone, things were somehow just as awful. Mum didn’t raise her hands to me, but her cruel words hit with enough force to leave a mark. But I didn’t want my friend worrying about me. “They’re fine.”

He didn’t look convinced. “Sunset.”

“It is what it is.” I smiled brightly up at him. He’d given me the nickname Sunset when we were twelve, and when I asked him about it, he just grinned that boyish grin as he replied, “I think of your hair every time I see the sunset.” I didn’t think he realized how romantic that sounded to me now.

At my smile, Brodan’s gaze dipped to my mouth, and his frown deepened.

Sensing he wanted to push the subject, I changed it. “I was thinking we could jump on a bus and go to Inverness this Saturday. I phoned Ness Island Vinyl, and they have the US import in for The White Stripes album.” We couldn’t get the album any bloody where because it hadn’t been released in the UK yet. “They said they’d put it aside for me, if I can guarantee coming in for it this Saturday. I’ve been saving up.” My paternal grandmother sent me Christmas and birthday money every year, and I’d saved almost every penny. Now that Dad was gone, we were even more strapped for cash than before. Mum was a nurse at the hospital in Golspie, about twenty-five minutes north of here. Let’s just say she saved all of her bedside manner for her patients.