Mad Boys (Blue Ivy Prep, #2)(3)

After scrubbing both hands over my face, I rolled out of bed and then remade it. Neat corners that were even with the sheets and blankets helped relax me. I liked a tidy environment. Lachlan and Jonas both thrived in chaos. I couldn’t do that.

Once the bed was made, I checked the messages on my phone on the way to the bathroom. Jonas had sent a message with a time only.

That must be when his flight was coming in. Helpful. I had a couple of hours. There were some news alerts on my phone too. I kicked on the water as I scrolled through them.

Over a dozen featured KC partying her way through Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, and Hollywood. She was the talk of the town. More than one article featured pictures of her dancing. In a couple, she looked almost stoned.

I stared at those pictures for a long time before finally turning off the screen and setting the phone down. In the shower, I ducked under the hot water and let it beat down on me. Kaitlin Crosse could irritate and tempt a saint.

Even after telling myself I would turn off the alerts about her, alerts I’d turned on when I found out she was coming to Blue Ivy, I just hadn’t done it. Stubbornness? Masochism? Idiocy?

I craved information about her, even when I disliked it. Craved knowing she was okay, but I didn’t want to picture some other guy kissing her. The fact Lachlan had been wasn’t lost on me, or that Jonas was so damn angry about it.

Neither knew about my indiscretions. I’d kissed her. Not only that, I’d enjoyed kissing her. I’d enjoyed her. Sharper than she came across in the gossip and news stories about her, KC possessed a kind of playful, dry wit that was delightful.

The fact she’d busted her ass to get caught up made lies out of all the reports of her diva behavior. But her mercurial reactions left me stumped. She would go from hot to cold to lukewarm. She dismissed authority, made her own calls, left campus when she felt like it and…

I had to fight the urge to keep from hitting my head on the tile wall. Thinking about Kaitlin Crosse was a dark and dangerous path to pursue. More than once, I’d decided to do one brief check and it would be hours I’d spend poring over the fan sites, the TikTok videos, the Instagram posts, and their personal website where the girls often posted special messages.

The desire to know waged war with the side that said let her go. We might be step-siblings, but she’d made it perfectly clear she wanted nothing to do with us. The fact she hadn’t even realized we were brothers grated, however.

We didn’t advertise it at school. In the same way we hadn’t advertised our new address when Mom and Gibs first moved in together. They spent more time on the road than here, but when they were here, Gibs took the time to talk to us.

He took the time and the energy to ask us what we wanted to do and how we wanted to accomplish it. He was the reason all three of us got to go to Blue Ivy in the first place. Tuition had been his gift to Mom for as long as I could remember. We’d all started at Blue Ivy in the primary grades and worked our way up.

The only thing Gibs ever talked about with the same kind of joy he expressed when we gave him reports about our years was his daughter, Kaitlin. On weekends when she visited, we were always made to be scarce if we were on summer break. Otherwise, we were at school.

Then Gibs’ touring schedule picked up, and she just stopped seeing him. He’d lauded her accomplishments, though. When Torched went platinum, he’d lost his mind. I didn’t understand why she stopped coming to see him. Why did she cut ties with a man who clearly adored her and was so proud of her accomplishments?

My own father didn’t get me. He did his best, but I pursued more intellectual and artistic avenues and he was an executive in the music industry. He dealt in facts and figures, crunched the numbers. Not that he wasn’t proud of me, just…Gibs got KC. They were in the same career. Of course, he understood her.

So why couldn’t she understand him?

I was rinsing the shampoo out of my hair when it hit me. I was doing it again. Obsessing about her. That needed to stop before we got back to school.

Twenty minutes later, I headed into the kitchen where Juliet was just sliding a loaf of bread out of the oven. “Good morning,” I greeted her as I went straight to the coffee.

A whiff of the bread made my mouth water. Pumpkin bread with honey butter. Jonas was coming home, and Juliet was prepping his favorites.

The older woman gave me an indulgent smile. “Don’t you worry, your loaf is going in soon. I just wanted Jonas’ to be ready for when he came in. He’s been gone so much this summer…” Disappointment edged the words. “Lachlan’s barely been here at all.”

“I’m sure he’ll be back soon.” I wasn’t, but it sounded better than Lachlan was gonna do whatever he wanted. As he loved to remind me, he wasn’t a kid anymore. He was a legal adult.

Downing a mouthful of coffee, I moved over to the butler’s pantry, where Juliet had already set up fruit, oatmeal, and scrambled eggs with bacon on the side. A little bit of everything.

Fresh guilt edged me. Juliet was used to feeding all three of us and for the last month, she’d just had me and I simply didn’t eat like Lachlan or Jonas.

“Juliet,” I said as I carried my plate and bowl back into the kitchen to eat. I could go out to the table but she was in here and I didn’t feel like eating alone. “Can I ask you a weird question?”

Wiping down the counter, she gave me a gentle look of reprimand. “You can ask me anything. Just don’t expect me to answer everything.”