Free Crash: A Bad Boy Stepbrother Romance by Sophie Sawyer Page A

Steve.”
     
    “Anytime, kiddo,” Dad said.
     
    I watched as Katherine opened the front door and stepped inside. Then she paused and turned around.
     
    “Thank you for the panda, Luke,” she said softly.
     
    Her hair fell over her shoulder, and she peered up at me through a veil of lashes. She bit her lip, and then walked away before I had a chance to say anything.
     
    “Panda?” Dad asked.
     
    “Luke brought her a stuffed panda a few days ago,” Katherine’s mother said. “It was so sweet.”
     
    “I just figured she could use some cheer,” I shrugged. “No big deal.”
     
    Lucy put her arm around me and said, “It was a very big deal. I know she’s been a little out of sorts since the accident, but she’s been sleeping with that thing every night.”
     
    Suddenly it felt like the air was sucked from my lungs, and my heart flopped like a fish. Did it really mean that much to her?
     
    “We’d better get going, Lucy,” Dad said. “Luke has classes tomorrow, and I have to be up early for that meeting.”
     
    “Alright,” Lucy said, snuggling with Dad for another moment. “Call me when you get home and let me know you’re safe.”
     
    “I will, darling,” Dad said.
     
    I turned away as they did their kissing thing again, heading toward the car. I grabbed the door handle and turned to glance up toward Lucy’s bedroom window, and I noticed the curtain flutter. She’d been looking down at me. Or at least at all of us.
     
    Maybe there was hope after all. As long as that punk from the theater didn’t interfere.
     

Chapter Fifteen
     
    Katherine

    I’d been watching Luke as he went to the car, and then he turned around and looked right at me. I’d quickly released the curtain, but I feared I was too late. He must have seen me, surely. Damn.
     
    I flopped onto my bed and wrapped my arms around Oswald, which is what I’d decided to name the panda Luke had given me. Oswald was the only one who knew how I felt about Luke, and he was the only one who ever would.
     
    How could I let anyone else know? This guy was about to be my stepbrother, and when Mom and Steve got married in June, he’d be truly off limits for good. There was no stopping it. Less than a month away.
     
    Ever since Luke had brought me Oswald, I had begun to realize the reason I’d been so terse with him all along. I had this intense attraction to him that I knew I could never fulfill. How could I? The whole world would think I was some kind of disgusting pervert if they knew I had a huge crush on him, right?
     
    I mean, technically we weren’t related and never would be. Even when our parents married, it wouldn’t really mean anything as far as the law was concerned. But… ugh, it just seemed so weird. I mean, if one of my friends had a thing with her stepbrother, I’d think she was insane.
     
    I heard the slam of a car door and the roar of an engine, and I knew they were leaving. A knot formed in the pit of my stomach.
     
    “What am I going to do?” I asked Oswald. His huge glass eyes stared blankly back at me, and I sighed. “Even you think I’m crazy, huh?”
     
    My phone rang suddenly, and I glanced at the screen. Chad.
     
    “Hello?” I answered.
     
    “Hey, you! Been thinking about you since the movie,” Chad said. “I was thinking, maybe you’d like to go grab a bite with me tomorrow.”
     
    “I have classes tomorrow,” I pointed out.
     
    “Oh, I heard you had to delay Berkeley until fall,” he said.
     
    “I did, but I’m taking some art classes at the community college until then,” I explained.
     
    “Oh, cool. I’m going to be starting art school in the fall,” he said. “What are you taking? Painting?”
     
    “Oil painting and sketching.”
     
    “I’d love to see your work sometime,” Chad said. “Maybe I could bring my sketchbook tomorrow on your lunch break and buy you lunch. You can show me your stuff, and I’ll show you mine.”
     
    “I don’t know, Chad, I’m a