Stepbrother No More

I had to shake my head freeing me up from the photo my roommates were going bonkers over. Some friend of his was over and snuck a peek IPhone photo of Jake in his tight jeans, boots, cowboy hat, sans shirt. He looked just like a model seen on the covers of books. He was that hot. There he was standing, raising his forearm over his forehead to wipe the sweat dripping down his face. His cowboy hat raised just slightly, giving a good tease of his long wavy locks. She posted #hotcowboy up on Instagram as a joke but the next thing everyone knew, it went sort of viral ending up on people’s Pinterest boards, and of course, his personal Instagram profile was tagged. After all my friends saw it, they went on and on about the photo. I’d seen it over a dozen times and had to bite my tongue.

“Holy fuck, he’s hot?”

“Man, I would let him do anything to me just to feel those muscles gliding over me.”

“He’s a piece of art!”

They would go on and on and on.

“Okay, stop it! He’s my stepbrother!” I’d try to change the subject.

“Yikes. How do you even think straight with that hottie roaming around?”

“He’s a horse trainer so I don’t. And like I said, he’s my step brother!”

“Wow, even sexier. He knows his way around a saddle. And hey, he’s not blood.” They’d joke and laugh about it saying the same thing every other day as they’d ask to Skype with my hot step brother. Jake made me the most popular girl it seemed in my last semester of school.

Yeah, those were the comments from my schoolmates I tried to erase from my memory. Those ideas, “Hey, he’s not blood”, were what got into my veins, surging throughout my consciousness, tempting and luring me to consider the possibility.

But it’s just a picture. It’s just a picture. Yet, why did a picture like that invoke such feelings inside of me? I had to shake it off and ignore the strange longing. I shook my head to free my strange thoughts.

He grabbed my carry on bag and led me along in the way southern boys do. Taking control and protecting, leading and guiding.

“So where’s Mom? Since I forgot to charge my phone last night, it’s been dead since this morning.”

“Ah, figured. She’s been calling me all morning worried about you. They got held up an extra day since their flight was delayed on their romantic getaway.”

“Those two lovebirds. Glad they’re still at it. I should call her once my phone charges.”

We were now side by side and his aura was so strong, it was if we were walking arm in arm, but we weren’t. My body was just such on high alert next to him, I suddenly was without words. He was talking, but I wasn’t hearing him. All I could do was think about how I felt and the butterflies in my stomach that had returned until finally we made our way out of the airport and the gust of warm wind reminded me of my senses.

“It’s damn hot!”

“Yep. Well? All hail the conquering graduate from the swanky east coast preparatory school. Sorry you’re back at the farm for a bit, Yank.”

I elbowed him teasingly and we were back in our familiar flow and my nervousness took a back seat for a bit as we transitioned back into our normal banter.

But once in his truck, the nerves came visiting back like a fresh spring rain in April that promised May flowers. I sighed. Was this my fate for the next two weeks? Constant nervousness?

Or would something else bloom? I nearly moaned out loud, annoyed at my inner banter so I rolled down windows and welcomed the scent of freshly mowed grass in the rolling plains. I couldn’t help but to close my eyes and inhale the sweet grass, mixed with the smell of livestock. It was a smell I never knew I would actually enjoy. I unbuckled my seat belt to feel even more free and at ease. We were almost home anyway, and I needed to really breath. It was all beginning to feel too restrictive, all this thinking, pondering, and feeling.

And even in doing so, I could feel his eyes on me. That instinctive knowing.

“Looks like you can’t take the Okie out of the Eastie.” He wore an easy grin.

“Ah, you know this place grew on me. In fact, I did miss that smell, you know. And the quiet.”

“Tell me about it. I don’t know how you get anything done up there with all them liberal high strung stressed out—”

I stole a teasing glance his way and felt my self blushing at his dimples. His strong forearm so steady at the wheel. His other free arm secured out the window. We always had these debates; these little fun banters and it made me truly feel like home. “Yeah, well, I’m sure they feel the same about you rednecks in the south.”

“Midwest.”

I sighed a sigh of good cheer. It felt so nice to be back. And I couldn’t help but to feel happy to see him, in an easy way.

His finger trailed along the flat screen of his Iphone changing his play

list as we took a wind down a familiar street that would yield ten miles of quiet views of more scenic vibrant land of summer green. The light breeze carried his fresh scent of his cologne and I inhaled deeply surveying it all. But suddenly, a pothole caused me to slide his way crashing into him, from the sharp turn, and from taking my seatbelt off.

“Whoa!”

My hands naturally fell across his strong biceps and the other across his strong quad to steady myself.

Damn did he feel strong! It was as if I had touched a hot stove, I quickly removed my hands.

“Opps! Sorry about that.”

“It’s okay.” I could barely muster.

The heat of his body against mine, the feel of his skin, it was all I could take before I quickly slid away back to my side of the truck, my arm back on the side of the door. My heart pounded from the sensation of being so close to him like that.

I searched for a quick distraction and suddenly the dark rain clouds that congregated in the distance was just what I needed for a new conversation starter. I cleared my throat.

“Would you look at that cloud formation? It’s...beautiful yet eerie.”

The eclectic happy music made the view seem a picturesque scene, one that invoked a sense of awe, yet there was something more ominous and looming about it, something greater than any happy music could cover.