Chapter 1
ISLA MAE
6 Years Ago
“Can we please sneak downstairs?”
I hugged my arms tight around my waist and chewed on the inside of my cheek, my resolve withering with every pound of bass from downstairs.
“I don’t know,” I deliberated, shifting on my feet as someone below shouted something about taking shots.
My parents were out of town for the annual Fire Ecology and Management Congress in California, leaving me in the care of my oldest brother, a few hundred miles away in Laurel Peak, Colorado.
At fifteen, I hardly needed a babysitter. My parents knew this but didn’t want to leave me alone at home, so they asked Garrett to drive back early from college for Christmas break.
Before my parents left, my mother kissed my forehead and warned me to behave for Garrett, and we bothburst into laughter.
Although he was six years my senior, I’d have a harder time ensuring that he behaved this weekend. He went to school nearly seven hours away in Fort Collins, and I knew he was anxious to reunite with his friends from Laurel Peak.
I had not, however, anticipated that he’d throw a raging house party on the first night of his homecoming.
Almost as soon as my dad’s Ford truck vanished around the curve of the winding mountain road, Garrett turned to me and said he planned on inviting a handful of friends over this evening. He said I could invite Skylar and Eliana over too, so long as we promised to stay in my room once his friends arrived.
So, I texted my best friends.
We grabbed dinner to-go from Lookout Grill, the latest rom-com from a Redbox, and facemasks from the local drug store. We were about half-way through the raunchy movie and cucumber skin-peels when the music started.
Every time the doorbell rang for the next hour, the music intensified. Laughter and shouting. Pounding bass. Another doorbell. A new song.
It didn’t take long for Skylar and Eliana to abandon the last twenty minutes of our movie and crack open my bedroom door.
“Oh my God, I love this song,” Eliana groaned, tilting her head back in agony. “Puh-lease Isla! Haven’t you always wanted to party with your brother’s friends?”
I snorted. “No. And Garrett was pretty clear that he doesn’t want us around tonight.”
Eliana pouted, but Skylar continued to glide a wand of sticky clear lip-gloss on her lips in the mirror.
“Well, he should’ve thought of that before inviting half of Laurel Peak tonight,” Sky drawled, sheathing her lip-gloss and rearranging her tight black curls. “Like, did he really think we’d be able to sleep through this?”
I glanced toward the hallway, where multi-colored lights streamed and cast shadows on the walls from downstairs. “He told me there’d only be a few people.”
“Oh, I’m not complaining.” Sky grinned, stepping away from the mirror to face us. She looked gorgeous. Her caramel skin glowed despite the harsh lighting in my bedroom, and she’d changed out of her pajama pants and back into a pair of tight black jeans that showed off every inch of her long legs.
Skylar radiated confidence. She always had, even when we were just kids on the playground. Our mothers were best friends and stuck us together on playmates from the time we could open our eyes. Sometimes, I wondered if Skylar and I would’ve been friends if it weren’t for our moms.
“Are you girls ready for our first real party?” she challenged, and my heart lurched into my throat.
“Hang on!” Eliana giggled, pushing into the bathroom to apply some of Skylar’s lip-gloss to her own mouth. She combed a brush through her red waves, smoothing out the bumps from her ponytail earlier.
I groaned and rubbed at my forehead. “If Garrett catches us, he’ll be pissed.”
“He won’t catch us,” Sky persisted. “There’s like, a freakin’ ton of people down there.”
“Ugh,” I groaned again, hugging my twisting stomach a bit tighter for one second before releasing a deep breath.
I’d spent the better part of my adolescence following the rules. I made perfect grades. I volunteered at the animal shelter and babysat our neighbor’s kids on most weekends. I deserved to go to a party.
Even though it was a party of twenty-one-year-old college students. With alcohol, no doubt.
These are my brother’s friends, I told myself. Nothing bad will happen. And, if it does, I’ll just haul Eliana and Skylar back to my room and lock the door. Problem solved.
With that, I swallowed my nerves.
“Fine. But I’m borrowing some of that lip-gloss, too.”
Half an hour later, the three of us stood at the top of the stairs and looked down into the fray.
“This is so cool,” Eliana whispered, eyes wide.
In the foyer below, someone had set up a beer pong table, and half a dozen young men and women stood around it. Some were playing. Others watched. Everyone had a drink in their hand.
“This is so against my parents’ rules,” I grumbled, worrying the inside of my cheek again. If the night continued like this, I’d gnaw a hole through it.
Sky, who wore a wonder-struck grin, nudged me with her elbow. “Not our party, not our problem. Come on!”
She led the way down the stairs, and Eliana followed suit, leaving me to bring up the rear.
I took a deep breath, tugging on the hem of the long-sleeved mini-dress Sky plucked out of my closet. Although I wore a pair of nearly opaque tights underneath it, the dress suddenly felt entirely too short. And yet, as I descended the stairs and more partygoers came into view, I realized that my outfit covered far more than most. In fact, with my blonde hair pulled into a low ponytail, I looked more like I was ready for brunch with the ladies at the library than a party.
Resisting the urge to retreat up the stairs, I joined my friends at the bottom and surveyed the body of strangers surrounding us in every direction. I didn’t recognize anyone in the vicinity and told myself that was a good sign.
“Remember—” I began, but Eliana cut me off.
“Stay away from Garrett,” she drawled, her giddy smile never faltering. “We know.”
“Come on, Isla,” Sky looped her arm through mine and tugged me in the direction of my kitchen. “You need a drink.”
A drink. Like. Alcohol.
A fresh wave of nerves rolled through my stomach, and I fought to force a smile on my lips. “Okay…”
The three of us navigated my house with ease, having spent most of our lives running through its halls, but I’d never seen it with so many people in it. College-aged men and women filled each room, drinking and dancing, chatting, and laughing. Kissing.
I felt like we stuck out like three sore thumbs, yet no one seemed to notice us. They paid us no attention as we weaved through the crowd, arriving at the kitchen and securing the first alcoholic beverage we could find.
“Vodka," Skylar cooed, twisting the top off of a clear bottle that read ‘Absolut.’
While the party raged around us, we watched in fascination as Sky carefully poured the water-like liquid into three red solo cups. When we each had a cup, I lifted mine to my nose and inhaled.
“Blegh!” I gagged, nearly spilling the vodka on my suede boots. “It smells like rubbing alcohol!”
Eliana brought her own cup to her nose, her face pinching in equal distaste. Only Sky seemed unfazed by the stench.
“I don’t think it’s supposed to taste good,” she reported matter-of-factly. “From what I’ve heard, it’s best to just drink it all at once.”
My nose wrinkled at the thought, but I also couldn’t imagine anyone wanting to prolong the torture of drinking this. If I had to guzzle it down in one gulp, I would.
Besides, Sky didn’t pour too much. Just half a cup.
“We just drink it as quickly as possible?” Eliana questioned, uncertainty written plainly on her freckled face.
Sky nodded, although I wasn’t convinced even she knew the proper way to drink it. “Maybe it’ll help if we plug our noses?”
I doubted it, but my throat felt too tight with nerves to object. I simply took a deep breath and held my friends’ gazes as we simultaneously brought the plastic rims to our lips and—
Jeez Louise! I got two gulps down before sputtering the rest of my cup’s contents across the counter. My throat burned, and my mouth watered from the overbearingly foul taste.
Eliana and Skylar weren’t much better. They gagged and coughed and cursed, and, for the first time that evening, the three of us garnered some unwanted attention.
Two girls wearing chic cropped sweaters and faux-leather leggings eyed us with an even mixture of concern and amusement. They dropped their voices but didn’t bother concealing their laughter as Eliana made one grotesque face after another.
Too aware that we were causing a scene, I grabbed my friends by the arms and led them out of the kitchen. With every step I took, warmth spread up my neck. To my cheeks and my ears. Embarrassment? Or the immediate effects of the liquid fire that I’d just poured down my throat?
By the time we made it back into the foyer where the beer-pong table was set up, we were giggling.
“Oh my God,” Skylar laughed, tipping her head back. “That was awful. I can’t believe people drink that for pleasure.”
“Y’know, maybe we were supposed to mix it with something?” Eliana wondered, her cheeks a bright shade of pink.
Skylar shook her head. “Nah. In the Vampire Diaries, they just drink it straight out of the bottle.”
I stopped listening to their conversation as soon as my eyes snagged on a familiar figure across the foyer. Even with his back turned in my direction, I recognized him.
I’d recognize him anywhere.
He was bigger than the last time I saw him. Taller and stronger, maybe, with massive shoulders that strained at the seams of his waffle-knit Henley. He’d buzzed his dark blonde hair, and, when he turned his head to the side, I could see the shadow of scruff lining his jaw.
Older. Different. But the same.
Heath McCord.
My brother’s best friend. The boy who’d known me since I was toddling around in diapers while he played BB guns with Garrett. Who I’d watched from my treehouse, book in hand, while they had water balloon fights and practiced field hockey in the summer. Who pulled on my braid like a nuisance but walked me to school with the rest of my brother’s friends when I had trouble with the class bully.
Of course, when the boys graduated from high school and went to college, I stopped seeing Heath as often. Just on spring breaks and summer vacations, and never for very long. Only in passing.
I couldn’t pinpoint the exact day when my perception of Heath shifted. Maybe it happened when he left for college, and I stopped seeing him every day. Maybe it had more to do with myverylate onset puberty that opened my eyes to boys and romance.
ButGod…My stomach twisted into a thousand knots at the sight of him in my parents’ foyer once more.
“Is that Heath McCord?” Sky said, entirely too loud. “Damn. He’s always been hot, but he’s, like, smokin’.”
“You think?” I feigned nonchalance but felt warmth creep up my neck.
“Uh, do you need your eyes checked?” she countered with a chuckle. She looked eerily similar to a hyena that had just spotted a half-eaten carcass on the ground. “That man is fine with a capital F.”
I shrugged. “I don’t know... I guess I’ve just known him for too long. He’s like a brother.”
Not a complete lie.
Across the foyer, Heath tipped his head back to drain the contents of his beer bottle. His lips closed around the narrow head, and his throat bobbed with each pull of liquid. I couldn’t explain the rush of heat that suddenly pooled between my thighs at the innocent sight.
Then, the young woman beside him laughed, a sexy, almost raspy sound, and leaned into his side. As if on instinct, Heath slipped his hand around her back, and his palm landed on her skirt-clad backside. Big fingers bunched against the fabric, digging into her fleshy globes. The fabric on her skirt rose, just high-enough to reveal that she didn’t appear to be wearing panties.
What the hell?
The blush on my cheeks intensified, and I immediately forced myself to turn away, back in the direction of the kitchen. “I think I need something else to drink. I’m not feeling it.”
Eliana’s eyes bulged. “You’re not?!”
“I think I just need a bit more,” I lied. I wanted to get the heck out of there. “Besides, we should avoid Heath too. He’s just as likely to kick us out as Garrett.”
Sky wrinkled her nose at that, then let out a long, dramatic sigh. “You’re probably right. Fine, no talking with your brother or his friends. But I am dying to dance. Let’s go get one more drink, then we’re hitting the dancefloor, Isles.”
“You mean my living room?” I teased, leading them back to the vodka bottle and praying that the liquid fire might kill the strange Heath-related thoughts swarming my head.
