The Stepbrother (Red's Tavern 5)

I bit back a smile as I sat there alone, waiting for my insistent erection to go away, plotting exactly how I was going to get my revenge on him.

It was almost sunset when we finally pulled into the next RV campground. We were further south now, in Durango, Colorado. Mountains towered nearby, dusky blue in the distance.

The RV park was different than the one before. It felt less like camping and more like being in a regular park. The parking spots pulled up right in front of the river.

I’d driven in the RV with Mom and Greg after Mom had complained that she hadn’t been seeing enough of me on the trip. I also liked the idea of being away from Fox for six long hours on the road, after he’d left me hard and desperate by the pool this morning.

He was clearly trying to torment me, making me want things that I knew I couldn’t have. But I wasn’t going to fall for it.

I could play that game, too. And I could torment him just as much.

I knew better by now. My dating life had been nothing but an endless parade of fuckboys recently, and Fox was the ultimate definition of a fuckboy. We’d had fun last night, no doubt. But the moment this trip was over and he headed back off to New York, he was going to act like I didn’t exist.

That was just what Fox did. And no matter how goddamn hot it had been when we were together, I knew Fox, unlike the other fuckboys I’d been with.

I already knew exactly what to expect. There was no point in worrying about him like I usually worried about people I hooked up with. I knew we weren’t going to end up in love, because he was Fox. We’d already hated each other for so long.

So I was going to bring my A-game, having as much fun as I could in the weird alternate reality of this road trip.

The moment the RV came to a stop, I stepped out with Cocoa and snapped a few pictures of her sitting next to the river, posting them to Instagram.

Full cell service. One more reason this RV park was better.

I flipped the camera around and took a selfie for good measure, making sure I caught my best angle in front of the river, the setting sun falling over my cheekbones.

A few minutes later, everybody was gathering around one of the picnic tables by the river, and my phone rang.

It was Gavin, one of my friends from high school that I hadn’t heard from in years. I furrowed my brow at the caller ID, surprised that I even still had his number programmed into my contact list.

“Gavin?” I said, answering the phone.

“Hey cutie,” he said.

I narrowed my eyes, getting up from the picnic table and pacing over to the river. Why on Earth would Gavin be calling me cutie? We’d had each other added on social media since school, but I really hadn’t spoken to him directly since back in my theater days.

“Um, hi,” I said. What’s up?”

“You’re here!” he exclaimed. “In Durango.”

“Wait. Do you live in Durango now?”

“No. I’m here on a trip with my sister. We’re going cross country this summer. I just saw your Instagram post. I’m ten minutes away from you.”

“No way.”

“We should hang out, dude,” Gavin said. “How long are you staying?”

“Just for tonight,” I said. “We’re about to have dinner. I mean, would you and your sister want to come join?”

I told him the info for how to get to the RV park and he said that the two of them would arrive in half an hour. I crossed back over to the picnic table where Mom and Greg were prepping for dinner. Laura and Jim had gone on a stroll along the river.

“Don’t get mad,” I said, “but I may or may not have just invited two more people to our little cookout tonight.”

“Oh, that’s great, hun!” Mom said. “We’ve got plenty of food. Who’s coming?”

“Remember Gavin Henderly?”

“Gavin? Was he the one with the shaggy hair?”

“He certainly was,” I said. “Shaggy hair dyed jet black back in high school. He wanted to look like the lead singer of Green Day. Or maybe My Chemical Romance. I can’t remember.”

“Hah,” Mom exclaimed. “You had a huge crush on him.”

“Oh, that Gavin,” Greg said.

Fox was sitting across from me at the table, his chin resting on his hand, as he gave me a smirk, raising one eyebrow.

“Where’s Gavin been all these years?” Mom asked.

“He moved to California for college,” I said. “Never really heard from him, to be honest. He was too busy hanging out with a bunch of actors in L.A.”

“Is he famous?” Logan asked.

“No. Not really, I don’t think,” I said. “He does theater work.”