Chapter 5

Elijah

“So, that was Delaney,” Winter hums as she plops down on my bed, making herself at home like she always does.

“Don’t.” I point at her, giving her a stern look.

It only makes her grin. “I can see the appeal. She’s hot. Like, if I didn’t already know my best friend fucked her, I’d make a move.”

“Winny,” I growl, and she bursts into giggles.

“Relax. I’m not going to make a move on your girl.” She slides herself up until she’s leaning back against my headboard.

I was asleep, but then voices woke me up. So now, I’m wide awake.

“She’s not my girl,” I grumble begrudgingly, joining her on the bed. She moves so she’s facing me while lying on her side.

“I love your brothers, I do, but I think Logan only came up with the hands-off rule because he’s jealous.”

“I see the way he looks at her. The way both of them do. I’m not stupid enough to think they don’t want her too. Owen hasn’t exactly been subtle. But Logan has a point. She’s not just some girl we all like, she’s our stepsister.”

“Not yet,” Winter points out.

I give her a blank look. “She lives with us, and the wedding is in a week and a half. My dad is crazy about Melissa, and I can tell she loves him just as much. It’s happening.”

“I get it. Logan has a lot of stuff going on in his life. I can see why he wouldn’t want to add a woman into the mix. A woman who is going to be family. But why does he get to speak for all three of you? I don’t like it,” she huffs, crossing her arms with an angry pout.

I love how much she cares for me. And I understand her annoyance with it all. She’s looking out for me, and she knows how big of a deal my time with Delaney was.

Sighing, I lay back on the pillows and stare up at the ceiling. “I don’t like it either. But it’s the way it has to be.” No matter how much it kills me. Seeing her every day, it hurts. Knowing how I feel about her, the things just looking at her does to me. I’m glad I have work, it gives me a chance to get away from the constant reminder that she won’t ever be mine.

“But does it?” Winter asks softly. “Your brothers might like her, sure, but do they feel the way you do about her? Eli, she’s the first girl you’ve had any attraction to, someone you connected with, and that’s not easy for you.”

She’s right, it’s not. The ghosts of my past had shut me down to the point that I was a shell of myself. If it wasn’t for Winter, I don’t think I’d be here right now.

Then something changed. I saw Delaney, and it sparked something inside me that died a long time ago. She made me laugh, smile, and actually feel. It was both terrifying and exhilarating.

I knew it could only be a fling, one night of passion that ignited my soul. She was a girl just passing through, someone who was staying at my dad’s resort and would be moving on with her life.

Never did I think she would become so much more. How could someone I only knew one night affect me in such an extreme way?

Since that night, she’s consumed my every thought. I slipped back into my darkness, knowing I’d never see her again.

So when I did, my whole world burst with excitement before crashing and burning. There she was, my dream girl, standing right there in front of me. Then I remembered my dad referred to her as my sister, and I felt like I was going to be sick.

How cruel can life be? After everything I’ve been through, why couldn’t I, just this once, have something that made me happy?

“I know.” I roll my head to look at her. “I want her, Winter. I want her so bad it physically hurts. I feel like I’m being punished. But I don’t know what for.”

“Don’t,” she growls. It takes a lot to see that angry look on her sweet little face. “You deserve every ounce of happiness. You deserve Delaney.”

“I don’t even know her, Winny. Maybe my mind has hyped her up to be something she’s not. We spent one night together. Maybe I’ve been so desperate for someone to love me that I’ve made it all up in my head.”

“I think you're being dramatic.” She pats my shoulder, giving me a smile. “But there’s only one way to find out. Be her friend like your brother suggested. Get to know her. And see if you still feel the same way you do now. Maybe you're right, or maybe she’s everything you’ve been needing.”

“Doesn’t change the fact that she’s going to be my stepsister,” I point out.

“Again, with that,” she sighs, shaking her head. “Sure, it’s not really something our little town would be too happy about, but since when do the Crosses give a shit about what anyone thinks about them?”

“We don’t.”

One of the things I love the most about my dad is that even though he’s a man of high society, a man who comes from both new and old money, he never once asked anything from us that we were not willing to give. We don’t get dragged around to fancy events. We don’t have to be the best at everything we do.

We’re allowed to make mistakes, knowing he will be there for us no matter what.

Yet, even with all that, knowing my dad would love me no matter what, I still wasn’t able to tell him about my deepest, darkest secret. The one that took the son he knew away and replaced him with a clone.

“So, what if I become best friends with her and realize I’m in love with her?”

“Then you fight for her,” Winter states, like it’s just so easy. “If she’s worth it, then you need to.”

Winter always wants to see the best in people. It’s something I love about her, but sometimes that's also her downfall.

Her home life isn’t good, it’s why she spends most of her time here, why she has an open invitation to our place.

While her parents don’t hit her, they fight a lot. Sometimes it gets turned on her. Verbal and emotional abuse is just as damaging as physical abuse.

Maybe that’s why we get along so well. We’re unable to save ourselves from our trauma, so we try to save each other.

“So.” Winter moves to snuggle under my blankets. She places her head on my chest and blinks up at me. “Are we getting a new best friend?”

I huff out a laugh. Another reason we work is that we don’t care about what other people think about us. We don’t use our money to get by in life. But it also makes it so that not many people pay us any mind. We don’t care, we like it better like that. My life consists of Winter, school, work, family, and baseball.

That's all I need. All I’ve wanted. Until her.

“Yeah.” I nod slowly, thinking about the afternoon spent watching her try on dresses, the spark I felt when I placed my hand on her shoulder, and the look of want and need in her eyes. I’m not sure what made me blurt out my attraction to her, but it’s like I needed her to know. That maybe it would make a difference. I’m not ready to give up on the idea. Maybe being friends will be a good thing, or maybe it will just leave me hurting more. Or maybe I’m just a masochist who doesn’t care. Either way, I need Delaney Jones in my life. “We’re getting a new best friend.”

“Yay!” She grins, and I roll my eyes. “Now, I’m tired, let’s get some sleep.”

I shut my bedside lamp off, rolling onto my side as Winter faces the wall. I stare into the blankness, wondering how long it’s going to take before it swallows me whole again. And will I survive it, or will this time really be the end?