Page 136 of Of Pucking Course

Nerves pop off inside of me. I glance down at Sam’s t-shirt as I struggle to think of a perfectly innocent reason for why I’m standing there wearing Sam’s clothes, but I come up short. Because anything I could think of would sound ridiculous.

I look at Del, who’s sporting the angriest glare I’ve ever seen on his face.

“Del. Calm down,” I say.

He steps around me and walks inside Sam’s place, dragging a suitcase behind him.

“Hey, man. What are you doing here?” Sam’s tone is light, despite the murderous glare my brother is aiming at him.

“You left your suitcase in my car when I dropped you off earlier, so I came back to bring it to you,” Del says. “And to see that you’ve been fucking my sister.”

Sam holds up a hand. “Hang on.”

Del pushes the suitcase aside so hard, it crashes into thewall. “Don’t fucking tell me to hang on when you’ve been hooking up with my sister.”

“It’s not like that,” Sam says calmly.

Panic and frustration whip through me as I watch my brother lash out at my boyfriend. A second later, I get mad. Del is acting like I’m not even here.

He’s ignoring me and confronting Sam because he sees me as his little sister, the one who always needs to be sheltered and babied.

The frustration inside of me bubbles over.

I’m so sick of this, of him treating me like this.

Maybe I should finally do something about it.

I rush over and stand between them, facing Del. I plant my hand on his chest and push him back.

“Stop. Right now,” I order.

Del blinks at me, frowning like he’s confused.

“Dakota, you don’t understand. Sam promised me he would never date you or hook up with you.”

I look him in the eye. “I don’t care.”

He blinks at me, clearly surprised at what I’ve said.

“What?” he finally says.

“I don’t care what he promised you years ago when you were in college together.”

Del’s eyebrows crash together. He looks more confused than I’ve ever seen him.

“This has nothing to do with Sam. Your issue is with me. And we need to talk about that right now.”

I turn around to Sam. “Can you give us a minute?” I ask.

“Yeah, of course.” Sam walks off, disappearing down the hall. When I hear his bedroom door close, I turn back to Del and gesture to the couch.

“Sit down. I’ll be back in a second.”

He does what I say and sits in the armchair next to the sectional. I head to my bedroom and throw on a pair of yoga pants so I’m not half-naked while my brother and I talk this out.

When I come back into the living room, I sit at the end of the sectional and look at Del.

For a second, we’re both quiet. Tension hangs in the air as I go over what I want to say to him.

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