Jennifer usually joins him in New York, but I’m wondering if she’ll stay now that Ives is living with us. She’s not very maternal, so I would not be surprised if she goes with him.
“Excited for your junior year?” Babs asks pushing my protein shake across the counter to me.
“Yeah, I’m starting quarterback this year, so you know we’ll kill it.” I give her a cheeky wink. “My course load is intense though.”
“Work hard on academics this year and then you can coast next year after you get accepted to college.” Her eyes light up and a smile crosses her face. Babs is actually a pretty attractive woman for being around my dad’s age. She has light brown hair and bright blue eyes, a face that has the character of aging gracefully. “You must be Ivy.” She steps around the island to shake Ivy’s hand.
I pull out the stool beside me for her to sit once introductions are over. She doesn’t look at me as she sits.
“Morning,” I say with a smirk.
“Good morning,” she replies primly.
“What can I make you for breakfast?” Babs asks Ivy.
“Could you do avocado toast with eggs? Two whole and three egg whites scrambled?”
“Do you really need that much, Ivy?” Jennifer appears behind us. “You eat like that no one’s going to give you a second glance.”
I meet Babs’s eyes, and we share a silent what the fuck moment. I look over at Ivy expecting her to show some form of emotion, anger or hurt or something, but she just looks resigned. Defeated. Like this is something she’s always dealt with.
“She was up at five this morning swimming laps again. That’s probably not even enough food to fuel her,” I say sharply.
“Barbara, we’ll need to discuss what Ivy is and is not allowed to eat later today,” Jennifer ignores me. She turns her attention to Ives and pats her shoulder condescendingly. “You’ll thank me in ten years when your metabolism goes to shit.”
Sounds like we’ll be stuck with the twat this week. “Jennifer, are you staying here this week or going to the city with Dad?”
“I’m staying this week.”
Fuck. That sucks.
I swear I see Ivy’s shoulders droop. She’s clearly as bummed about that answer as I am. Jennifer takes her hot lemon water and leaves the kitchen without saying another word. No “have a good first day at your brand-new school” or “I love you.” How is Ivy such a good, sweet girl when she comes from someone so nasty?
“You riding with me today?” I ask.
“Yeah, do you mind driving me the first couple of weeks until my car comes? I don’t feel comfortable driving your dad’s cars.”
“No problem, but I do have practice every day after school. You can hang out on the bleachers and watch like you used at camp.”
She rolls her eyes and shoulder checks me. She finishes up her breakfast and slides off the stool. I haven’t gotten a good look at her this morning, and, damn, she’s smoking in our uniform. She’s wearing the high heels, and her legs are bare and toned. She went with royal blue tartan skirt—my personal favorite for the girls—not that she knows that. She has the black blazer and blue tie over the standard white oxford shirt. Her hair is pin straight again, and she has a light layer of makeup on. Not that she needs it. She smells the same, that light, fruity smell that makes my dick perk up.
“The uniform looks good on you,” I say while I give her an obvious once over.
“I could say the same for you,” she returns the look, “but you’d probably look good in a hazmat suit, so I guess that isn’t saying too much.”
I can’t help the grin I give her. She clearly feels the same way about me that I do about her. I grab my backpack and gym bag and gesture toward the side of the house the garage is on. “Let’s do this.”
I look over at her when we’re on way, and she’s fidgeting with the hem of her skirt.
“Are you nervous about starting a new school?”
She looks over at me like she’s trying to decide how honest to be. “Yeah, a little. I haven’t gone to a mixed gender school in five years.”
“Awww, you scared of some boys, Ives?” I tease.
“No, asshole,” she punches my shoulder with surprising force. “I’m just not sure what to expect.”
“Stick close to me, and you’ll be fine.” Almost everyone respects me, due to my family name, who my friends are, and that stupid nickname Margaux gave us last year. The Titans. I hope everyone forgets about that this year. Like I want the reminder of the weight of my life expectations hanging over me.
“Oh, it’s really pretty,” Ivy says leaning forward to get a better look at the campus as I drive up.
I park between Con’s Bentley and Griff’s Range Rover right at the front of the parking lot. They’re both leaning against Con’s car, neither smiling as usual. I get out and wait for Ivy, who takes a deep breath, straightens her spine, and lifts her chin. She nods hello to both Con and Griff, which they both return.
“I’m taking her to pick up her schedule in the headmaster’s office.” I wrap my arm around her shoulder, pulling her closer when she tries to shake me off. I’ll be touching her as much as possible today, showing all the assholes in this school she’s off limits. I don’t care if they think it’s because she’s my stepsister or more, the end goal is the same. No one touches my Ives.
“We’ll come too,” Con says falling in step beside me. Griff starts a conversation with Ivy, and she tries shaking me off me again.
“Levi,” she makes an irritated growly sound, “get your hands off me.” She elbows me in the side, packing a respectable amount of strength into the hit.
Our interaction is gaining a lot of attention as we walk through the atrium of the administrative building. A couple guys from the lacrosse team watch closely, which is good because they’re all a bunch dicks that I don’t want even glancing at Ivy. I wouldn’t want those assholes sniffing around any girl, especially one I care about. I glare at each of them as we pass by, and I know Con’s doing the same thing.
Con pulls the office door open and cuts to the front of the line. Mrs. Adams starts to tell him to wait until she looks up and sees who’s standing at her desk. She gulps and prints off Ivy’s schedule.
“I could have waited,” Ivy mumbles beside me. “Is he always like that?”
“Yes, asshole is his default setting.”
Con walks back to us and hands Ivy her schedule after scanning it himself. “You’re taking all the advanced math classes,” he says.
“Yeah, numbers are my thing,” she replies.
I grab her schedule from her. I whistle and raise my eyebrows at her reading off her courses, “Trig, Statistics, Chemistry, Asian Geopolitics, Feminist Theory, English Lit, Water Sports, and study hall. Ives, I knew you were a beast in the pool and cute as fuck, but you’re smart too?” I wiggle my brows at her. “You’re the whole package.”
“Shut up, you moron.” She rolls her eyes, but she’s also blushing. She snatches her schedule back and looks at Griff. “Can you show me where my classes are?”
He looks at me with amused glint in his eyes before they walk off together toward the building her seminar class is located. An uncomfortable feeling rises up from my belly watching her walk away from me with someone else. It’s stupid because it’s Griff and I know it’s nothing more than him being nice.
“What’s going on with you two?” Con asks.
“What do you mean?”
“Playing dumb isn’t going to work. Your dad and Jennifer might be oblivious, but Griff and I are not.” The crowd parts for us as we walk toward our first class.
“I don’t know what you mean.” I decide to deflect by changing the subject. “Did Margaux finally get you to fuck her Saturday?”
“I’d stick my dick in a woodchipper before I’d go near her pussy.” The glare he hits me with would make anyone else whither, but I just chuckle and pick a seat in the back. He grabs the seat beside me and tosses his bag in the one in front of h
im to save it for Griff.
“Ivy’s nice,” Griff says when he comes in. “Oliver Abbott was looking very interested, by the way.”
Great, just what I don’t need, the British captain of the soccer team sniffing around her. I’ve never been good at sharing her attention. My thoughts drift back to the first time I chased boys away from her. I was mad at my dad for making me give up basketball at camp and wanted to escape.
I’m walking through the mess hall with my cabinmates when I see Ivy sitting at a table with all the swimmers. She’s surrounded by dudes on every side, and I’m annoyed. Instead of dropping my tray down at our usual table, I walk over to where she’s sitting.
“Hey Ives.” I toss a leg over the bench between her and some pimple-face guy who looks a few years older than us. “Mind if I sit with you guys today?”
“I do.” Pizza face says.
“Don’t care.” I puff my chest out. This kid is probably thirteen, and I’m already bigger than him. “Maybe you should look into Proactiv for that.” I rudely point at his face. I am a jerk; I know this, and I don’t care. Pizza face backs down but doesn’t run away, so he earns a tiny bit of respect from me. Now that I’ve asserted my dominance, I turn to Ivy.
“That was so mean,” her pretty gray eyes are narrowed to slits. “Why are you over here, meat head?”
“Meat head?” I smirk.
“You are clearly lost, you big, dumb jock.” She points at the table where my friends sit. “Your friends are over there.”
“We’re all jocks. This is a sports camp.” I hold my hands up. “Plus, I thought we became friends last night, when I saved you from the bottom of the pool.”
I don’t know how I expected her to react, but it wasn’t to throw her head back laughing. She laughs until she snorts and a tear runs down her tan cheek. “You’re an idiot. You mean when you ungracefully belly flopped into the pool needlessly and disturbed me from my time to think? I didn’t need you to save me last night, and I never will.” She rolls her eyes while she swipes the tear off her face.
“Never say never.” I wink.
She blinks.
She blinks again.
“Whatever,” she sighs as picks up her apple and takes a bite. “Seriously, why are you over here?”
“Just thought I’d mix it up.” Truthfully, I want distance from anything related to football. “See how my new best friend is.”
Her friends all look at each other start getting up. “See you in a few.” One of the guys says to her.
“You scared my friends off.” She says not really sounding mad about it.
“Good.” I tear into my pasta. “Let’s hang out again tonight.”
“Really?” She side eyes me.
“Yeah,” I shrug, “why not?”
“Don’t you want to hang with your football or basketball buddies? There’s only a week left before camp is over.”
“Nah. I go to school with most of them, or at least play them through the season.” I answer around a forkful of spaghetti.
“Where do you go to school?” She asks.
“Founder’s Ridge Preparatory Academy.” I watch her out of the corner of my eye. Half the time, people start acting weird when they hear that. My friend Connor said it’s because we’re all from rich families, which, I guess, is true. He is an even bigger jerk than me though, so it could just be his attitude.
“Where’s that?”
“Massachusetts.”
“Oh, I live in Connecticut.” Just then the swim coach walks in and looks at Ivy. “Oops. I better go, or she’ll make me run laps instead of swim them.” She jumps up, but I grab her wrist before she can run off.
“Meet me on the dock after room checks.”
She nods and takes off without looking back.
She always leaves without looking back. Someday, she’ll say goodbye and give me a second glance. I’ll make sure of it.
I leave my weightlifting class early, so I could meet Ivy before lunch. Coach Huffman, the offensive coordinator for the football team, knows how hard I work during the season, so he’s not going to stop me. After seminar, I stopped back by the headmaster’s office to get an extra copy of Ivy’s schedule; thank you stepsibling benefits. I also moved some of my classes around, so we’d have them together.
The door swings open, and a steady stream of people exit, most giving me plenty of space as they notice my presence. It is one of the perks that make being one of the Titans worth the absurd nickname.
“Hey,” I fall in step with her as soon as she exits the room and put my arm around her, “how’s your morning going?”
“Good so far. It’s tolerable although I have caught people whispering when I walk by.” She tries shrugging off my arm again. “Are we going to lunch?”
“Yep, we’ll meet Con and Griff in there.” I guide her across the quad.
“Ivy?” I hear Mason say from behind us. “Ivy Bane?”
We both turn, and I drop my arm.
“Mason!” She takes off at a run and jumps into his arms.
They became pretty close at camp through me, so I am trying really hard not to be jealous. I try, but I fail because, damn, I wish I had gotten a greeting like that. She even let him pick her up off the ground; if I tried that, I probably would have ended up with a knee to the balls.
“What are you doing here? How did I not know?” He looks at me accusingly with the last question.
“Ives is Jennifer’s daughter. I didn’t know until Saturday that Ivy was my new stepsister.”
Mason’s eyes grow at that revelation. I’ve never told anyone the specifics of my relationship with her, but he had a front row show to the summers of us growing closer. He’s more of an insider to us than even Con or Griff.
“They look cozy,” Con says walking up beside me. “You okay with that?”
“Yeah, we all went to camp together. Mason hung out with us a lot the last couple of summers.”
When Mason leaves his arm around her shoulders, she doesn’t push him away. I swallow down that bitter pill and walk between Griff and Con. If she's with Mason I know she's covered, and maybe it'll make her feel less pressure from me. I'll have to pull him aside and tell him to keep an eye on her when I'm not around.
I'm lost in my thoughts, and when I turn back to Ivy and Mason, I see that boring British douchebag, Oliver, is all over Ivy. I'm not sure why the girls go crazy for him, he's okay looking, but he plays soccer so he's skinny. It has to be the accent, and by the way Ivy smiles and laughs, I know she's falling into his trap.
"Oliver," I give him a polite nod, "I see you've met my stepsister Ivy."
"We're getting acquainted," he smirks with a cocky challenge in his eyes. "I was just trying to get her to come out with me this weekend. Miller is having a pool party Saturday."
"If it's a pool party, I'm there," Ivy smiles at him.
"Aren't your dad and brother coming in town this weekend?" I hope I heard her right last night.
"No, that's next weekend."
"We'll talk about it tonight." I'm treading on thin ice here.
"I don't need to talk about anything with you tonight. I make my own choices," her eyebrows draw together in annoyance.
"Not here," I'm about to really piss her off. "We decide who goes where and who does what," I point over my shoulder at Con and Griff. "Our word is gold around here. You want to be a social pariah, keep pushing me."
"I'm not afraid of you, mate." Oliver offers his arm to Ivy, and she slides her hand through it automatically. The cocky bastard has the balls to smirk and pat my shoulder as he walks away with my girl.
I watch them for a few seconds, wishing she'd give me even a backward glance, but she doesn't.
"You fucked that up nicely." Mason's giant paw slaps my shoulder and squeezes. "Let's go get lunch. It's not like he can do anything with her while we're at school."
"Unless he pushes her into an empty class and fucks her over a desk," Connor says and then laughs when I growl
my displeasure at him.
"Let's go get the big guy fed so he can protect me in the pocket," the four of walk to lunch together. I force myself not to look over to where Ivy is sitting surrounded by the soccer team. I'll see her soon enough in our next class.
5
IVY
We decide who goes where and who does what. Arrogant much, Levi? Who says that with a straight face and means it like that? I had trouble listening to Oliver and his friends while they were talking to me. Oliver is adorable, dark brown hair and brown eyes; he looks pretty trim, but it feels like there's some legit muscles hiding under that uniform, and one of his incisors is just a little crooked. He's as charming as his accent, and I am truly looking forward to spending time with him this weekend.
I think he introduced me to the guy who is throwing the party, Miller. I need to get my head in the game and pay attention to these people. I've noticed the girls circling me all morning. There is definitely a hierarchy in this school. Apparently, Levi and his friends are at the top, then a group of mean girls. From the way everyone is dispersed at lunch, I think each of the sports have a table. Football players all congregate together by the center windows, the soccer players are beside them, and lacrosse is across the room from every sport. Levi and his friends sit at a small table right in the middle of the room. I'm surprised they don't sit on a dais or something equally ridiculous.
"What's your next class?" Oliver asks, pulling me out of my thoughts about Levi.
"Feminist Theory," I smile and look at him through my lashes. "It's in the humanities building."
"I know exactly where it is, I took the course last year," he winks at me and a rabble of butterflies takes flight in my stomach.
I follow him out onto the quad and answer his questions about me. He asks where I went to school before, if I have other siblings, what it’s like living with Levi. I answer as vaguely as I can get away with. I'm annoyed with Levi, but he also has my unyielding loyalty, no matter how big of a douchebag he is.
Relentless (Titans of Founder's Ridge Book 2) Page 4
