He was her brother’s best friend, but he completely made her fall Novel – I looked out the window, watching the winding road as we headed to our summer home in South Carolina. We went there every summer, but this time, without our parents. Mom and Dad were away on an important business trip, and instead of canceling the vacation, they put my brother in charge, believing we were old enough to take care of ourselves.
I would be turning eighteen in a few days, but I wasn’t as excited as I thought I would be. Why? Because he wouldn’t be there. Kaleb Hayes. My brother’s best friend. Five years had passed since the last time I saw him, since he packed up and left without so much as a goodbye. For as long as I could remember, he had been a constant in my life, always teasing and toying with me.
He left when he was eighteen, and I was thirteen, still flat-chested, with silver braces and thick glasses perched on the bridge of my nose. To everyone else, he was the classic bad boy; arrogant, tattooed, reckless, and dangerously hot. But to me, he was also the boy who taught me how to ride a bike, the one who slipped candy in my hands when my parents said no.
He was a walking contradiction. Too wild. Too off-limits. And yet I remembered everything about him. He always joined our summer vacations, jumping off docks and making bonfires too big. He and my brother would sneak beers in while I pretended not to notice, and he would always toss me in the water whenever I threatened to tell on them. “We’re here Bailey.” My brother called, and I blinked out of the memory as we pulled into the driveway.
The house looked the same; wide front porch, sun-bleached shutters, and that lazy charm that only a summer home could pull off. The air smelled like pine and salt, and for a moment, it felt like no time had passed at all. I headed inside with my bags, the wooden floors creaking beneath my feet. We already knew our rooms, and a wave of nostalgia hit me as I entered mine.
The first thing I did was take a bath, and as I settled into the warm water, I heaved out a long sigh. I lost track of time, but when I finally stepped out, my stomach grumbled. I wrapped myself in a towel and padded into the hallway, my ginger hair turning brown from being damp, dripping against my back. I let out a yawn as I stretched my limbs, making my way to the kitchen to get a snack.
But when I saw an unfamiliar figure standing there, his back turned to me, too toned and rigid to be my brother’s, I froze, my heart lurching in my chest. He was bent over the open fridge like he owned the place, his presence swallowing the whole space. I couldn’t move. I just stood there, wide-eyed. But I wasn’t scared.
His scent…a mix of cinnamon, lavender, and manly essence. It stirred something within me, but then I noticed the rose tattoo on his left shoulder. A memory flashed in my mind at that moment, one of my ten-year-old self, choosing a random rose art from a magazine, telling a certain person that it would look better on his arm. I stumbled back, my eyes rounding in realization. No. No it couldn’t be. “Kaleb?” He turned at the sound of my voice, eyes meeting mine with a flicker of surprise… and something else I couldn’t name.
It was really him. Kaleb Hayes. Older. Taller. Devastatingly hotter. His brown hair was longer than I remembered, pulled back into a messy half-bun. His jaw was sharper now, highlighted with a stubble that only made him resemble the boys’ mothers warned their daughters of. His muscles flexed underneath his tank top as he shut the fridge door, and his sweatpants hung low on his hips, revealing deep V-lines that made my face hot.
Then his tattoos. They were more now, black ink trailing down his arms, wrapping around his biceps, crawling up his neck. He fully faced me, his gaze dragging down my body, leaving goosebumps in its trail. When he met my eyes again, he smiled, showing perfect rows of white teeth. “Long time no see, kid.” He said, his deep voice snapping me back to reality. I flinched, and the