HUGE STEPS: A TWIN MFM MENAGE STEPBROTHER ROMANCE (HUGE Series)

“Son of a bitch. Did you eat the last of the pop-tarts?” I hold up the evidence—an empty box, half-filled with empty silver wrappers.

But Jared doesn’t even bother to look up from his phone. “Hm?”

Bastard. He can pretend to be the health nut all he wants because we both know he has a not-so-secret stash of junk food hidden in his nightstand.

“I just picked this up the other night, too,” I mutter more to myself since my brother is very obviously not listening. I toss the leftover cardboard into the recycling bin and start rummaging through the pantry, hoping to find something else for lunch. Usually, the two of us go grab it while we’re out between jobs, but neither of us has had the chance to pick up groceries at the market this week.

“You know, since we need some food at the house, we should run by the store. And…I was thinking maybe we could stop over at Abi’s place to try and cheer her up. She seemed pretty weirded out by that guy at the diner,” Jared says.

It’s funny how the so-called psychic twin connection can come into play sometimes. “Yeah, that’s not a bad idea,” I reply, scratching at the stubble I’ve been letting grow in for the past few days. “We could even pick her up a few things.”

I try not to think about the spooked look on Abi’s face, or even worse when her eyes were so puffy and red after Cody stood her up at their engagement party, because every time I do, I start seeing red. No one deserves to be treated like that. Especially Abi.

—

I knock loudly on the door, ringing the doorbell a couple of times just because, and stand back and wait. It isn’t like we had to walk very far with the groceries anyway, not when Abi’s apartment building is right next to our place. We didn’t even plan on us living so close to each other, but I know it helps Sam, our step-dad, sleep better at night knowing that we’re there if she needs us.

I hear her footsteps inside the apartment when she yanks open the door, and I’m surprised to see her already in her pajamas for the night. It’s barely even past three o’clock. “What are you guys doing here?” she asks. Maybe we should have called first but at this time of the afternoon, it didn’t even cross my mind.

Jared pulls out the bottle of her favorite red wine and the chocolate sampler box stashed inside, smiling at her. “Room service.”

There’s still a weird expression on her face, but she finally opens the door wider and lets us in. “Sorry,” she mumbles softly, “My place is sort of a giant mess right now.”

I wave her off because who am I to judge, really? My room looks like a fucking tornado hit it half the time. “You know we don’t mind.”

I don’t know if maybe my words trigger something inside of her not, but in the same moment that I say them, her eyes immediately well up with big tears, her bottom lip quivering as she pulls her arms around her sides. I stare at my brother in alarm, not really sure what to do in an instance like this. I’m not exactly well versed with crying girls.

Jared clears his throat, taking a step closer to her before putting his arm around her shoulder. “Hey, hey. We came over to cheer you up…not to make you cry?”

I take a step closer to her too, my fucking heart hurting for her. Shit. I hate seeing her like this and I hate the way it makes me feel. Powerlessness is not an emotion I’m used to dealing with but I have no idea how to stop the tears flowing from her beautiful eyes.

Sniffling, Abby wipes quickly at her face, obviously embarrassed. “Just ignore me. I’m sorry guys, it’s really sweet of you to stop by and make sure I’m okay. I’ve just been having a…rough day. You guys can totally stay if you want to.” She plops down onto the couch, her arms still wrapped around herself, as if she’s trying to make sure she doesn’t actually fall to pieces.

“Why don’t I get us some glasses?” Jared suggests.

“Or beer. You’ve got a beer, right?” I ask Abby.

She nods and points to the bottle of wine before pulling it out of the bag. “I’ll just take this off your hands,” she says and then bursts into shaky sounding laughter. If wine is what Abi needs to put a smile back on her face, I’ll buy her a whole damn case.

It only takes a minute for Jared’s return from her little kitchen with a corkscrew for Abi and a beer for both of us. Abby wastes no time taking a huge swig from the bottle herself.

I crack open my beer, figuring there’s no better way to forget the shittiness in life than to drown it out with some good ol’ booze, although I can see Jared’s fighting his inner conscience. I can almost hear the little angel and devil sitting on his shoulders, trying to give him advice on how to deal with Abi.

“Maybe we should put something on to watch?” Abby suggests, already searching for the remote to the TV.

“I think there’s a good new standup comedy special we could check out,” I say. On the other side of Abby, Jared snorts. “Unless you have some lame, boring suggestion, bro.”

Jared rolls his eyes at me. “There’s this really interesting docudrama about — “

“Docudrama?”

Abi snorts at our banter.

“It’s about the world of MMA fighting, Jamie.”

I’m just about to interject again when smacks us both on the knees. “You know you guys fight like an old married couple.”

I snort back at her this time. “Jared is a bit like an old man, I guess.”

“That must make you the old woman then.”

Abi’s in the middle of taking a swig from the wine bottle and almost spurts out a mouthful.

“Nothing feminine about me,” I laugh.

“Me and Cody had been fighting a lot too,” Abi says thoughtfully. “I guess I thought it was because of the pressure of organizing the engagement…I guess I missed all the signs.”

This isn’t exactly the kind of territory I had in mind when I was thinking of cheering our stepsister up. “Better get the docudrama on, Jared,” I say and we settle in to watch the exciting world of MMA. It doesn’t take long for before everything is reminding Abigail of her former douche bag fiancée in some way. One guy had a haircut exactly like Cody’s, while one of the coach’s name was actually Cody. It’s like she can’t get away from the mother fucker. It’s one thing for Abi to be upset over the situation, but not when she starts blaming herself for that scumbag’s problems.

After more than half the bottle is gone, Abi’s freckled cheeks are as red as tomatoes, and she speaks more confidently, sounding surer of the situation and herself. “I’ve just been so stupid, you know? I mean I knew it was a bit of a stretch when Cody first wanted to start dating. He was the captain of the school’s lacrosse team, and I was just some nerdy English major.” She gets louder. “I mean really, just take the two of us and compare us side-by-side. Why would someone like Cody want me, anyway?”

I twist to look at her, thinking that maybe she’s gonna laugh at the joke she just told but she’s starting at the floor morosely. Is she being serious? For fuck sake. I don’t want to hear her talk about herself like this. She’s beautiful and it just makes me even more fucking angry at Cody for making her feel this way.

“Abi, now you’re talking stupid,” Jared says in an unusually stern voice for him. “Cody has shit for brains and you need to stop talking badly about yourself.”

Abi shakes her head, seemingly having none of it, and tries to stand up, swaying on her feet.

“Yeah, I know you feel like you have to say that…but the reality of the situation is that Cody was out of my league. Simple as that. I’m carrying too much weight, right around here,” she says, gesturing to her waist, which I don’t understand at all. “And all this mess?” she says, pulling at a thick lock of hair, “it’s all coppery and just way too red. I’m nowhere near his usual level of hotness, or whatever you want to call it. He’s dated sorority girls in the past. I don’t really know how I got him to date me, let alone propose.”

I’m just about to say something, my fist balling against my leg when Jared steps in again. “None of that is true, Abi. Like we’ve told you, and Shay’s told you, hell, like everyone’s told you… Cody is an idiot. He’s a total idiot for leaving you the way he did. And a coward. If he felt like things weren’t working out, he should have told you in person instead of letting his friend be the messenger boy. He acted like some kid in middle school, not a grown ass man.”

I quickly nod.

“And you know—you know damn well all the rest of it is just in your head. You’re beautiful, Abi, and you can have your pick of any guy you want. I guarantee it.”

Jared looks at me, something stirring in his eyes that mirror mine, before adding, “…and any of those guys would be totally lucky to have you.”

Maybe it’s just the fact that I’m on my third beer and it’s just starting to kick in, but I sense an interesting shift in the atmosphere of the room. Abi’s face flushes hard.

Clearing my throat, I lean forward. “Yeah, I mean you didn’t even hear about half the crap we’ve heard about Cody. Right, Jared?”

My brother nods in agreement, finishing off his third bottle. “Oh yeah. I remember one time we were hanging out at the college bar a couple years ago, I think you guys had been dating for like six months or something maybe, but we saw him at the bar. He was hitting on some of the younger freshmen girls, acting like he wasn’t with anyone. When we went over to confront him, he said he was just talking and we were jumping to conclusions but I know what I saw. What an asshole.” It takes a lot for Jared to call anyone an asshole, so his feelings on Cody are pretty obvious.

“You think he was cheating?” she asks

Jared glances at me, his eyes wary. “I don’t have any evidence of that, hon. If I did, we’d have come and told you what he was doing. There’s no way we would have let you marry him. But there were rumors. We thought you would have heard about this from your friends.”

Abi shakes her head. “Maybe we could have told you,” I say. “But we didn’t know anything for sure. I’m not sure what you would have thought or done on the basis of he said, she said.”

“And I guess none of it matters now. You see Cody for who he is now, and we know it feels shitty, but time will heal,” Jared says. Bloody hell, the guy sounds like Dr. Phil. I want to laugh but it’s definitely not an appropriate time. All of this just makes me wonder if I’m ever going to want to get married. It’s too much bloody drama. “We just didn’t want to ruin anything between you guys. And I mean, look at it this way… You never really know if you’re going to piss someone off by telling them something like that, you know what I mean?”

Abi takes a moment, looking as though she’s really considering it. “Yeah… I guess you’re right. I probably wouldn’t have believed you guys if you told me back then. It’s still hard to believe, and that’s after knowing how crappy he treated me now. I mean I even have my own friends telling me how they didn’t trust Cody, like Bailey and Shay, and I still didn’t listen to them. So I probably wouldn’t have listened to either of you, either. When my friends tried to tell me that they didn’t trust him I went without speaking to either of them for a whole week. That was on me…that was really stupid.”

“We’re all human. We all make dumbass mistakes, it’s just kind of part of life, I think. Take it from someone who makes a shit-ton of mistakes on the daily,” I say with a grin, popping open the next beer, and clinking it against the wine bottle in Abi’s hands.

Abi smiles at me, taking another swig of her drink. “But you know what? Fuck Cody,” she says with added emphasis on the fuck. I let out a low whistle, almost wanting to joke on the fact that she never swears.

“Yeah, fuck him,” Jared adds, the alcohol obviously getting to him, too.

An immediate grin spreads across Abi’s face as she holds up the bottle of wine in the air. “I’m officially starting a new chapter in my life. You’re looking at the new and improved Abigail! No more pathetic people-pleaser Abi, No. I’ll do what I want when I want. I need to appreciate the things I have in this life, you know? I mean I’ve got this awesome apartment…” she says, gesturing around the room. “I’ve got this delicious bottle of wine.” She takes another sip, relishing it slowly. “I’ve got great friends and family…”

At this, Abi leans against Jared’s shoulder, squeezing him, looking dazed but still bubbly at the same time. Jared shoots me a curious look as if to say what’s going on? I shrug my shoulder at him. She’s just drunk. That’s all it is.

I no sooner think this to myself than Abi leans closer into Jared, nuzzling against his chest before tilting her face upward, and positioning her mouth over his, kissing him full on the mouth as if it’s no big deal.

I shake my head, snapping to reality. What the hell just happened? Jared’s surprise expression tells me he’s just as shocked as I am, but his eyes flutter shut the next time her lips hover over his, and I can tell that he’s no longer shocked and maybe enjoying himself just a bit too much. Fucking hell. I want to shove him out of the way and take his place as her hands grasp at Jared’s biceps. I’m not sure what to do but what I do know is that Abi must be wasted and I don’t want her to do anything she’ll regret in the morning.

“Whoa, whoa. I think maybe the wine got to you, Abi,” I say with a chuckle, trying to smooth it over as I break them apart gently.

“Not the wine,” she murmurs gently, her eyes moving lazily from Jared’s to mine.

I don’t believe her, though. My stepsister Abi has never given me any indication that she has feelings for Jared. Well, I mean, I have noticed the way she stared when we were all at the beach. Her complexion doesn’t exactly hide when she’s flushing either, but I just figured she’s a little nervous around us still. Now she’s kissing my brother and looking at me as though she wants to lick me like a lollipop on a hot summers day.

Damn.

Ever since that first day I saw her in the restaurant our parents had arranged for us to meet at for the first time, I’ve always had a thing for pretty little Abi. She doesn’t know how gorgeous she is. All those sweet freckles over her nose and her creamy skin that looks so soft. And those curves. I like my women to be women; wide hips and round asses. Thinking about her thighs and what it would be like to be held between them has kept me awake at night.

“Jamie,” she sighs, leaning towards me, her gaze trained on my lips.

Fuck. I know I know this is fucked up. This is rebound sex for sure, spurred on by a little too much of what’s in that bottle still clutched in her hand. I know I shouldn’t be letting her brush her soft lips against mine. I shouldn’t be savoring her warmth and the taste of sweet wine that’s still fresh on her lips.

But I am.

I’m an asshole for this. I know it but my brain’s already fuzzy from the booze, and my conscience is silenced by the pounding of my heart and the raging of my hormones. My hands don’t feel like my own as they trail up her shoulders, holding Abi in place as I kiss her back, coaxing open her mouth to taste more of her. The smell of her soft, coppery hair around the both of us is enough to do me in, and as I close my eyes I can hear the couch squeak as Jared moves behind her

I think he’s going to pull her away from me as I did before but she keeps on kissing me and when Abi eventually draws back it’s not because of my brother.  Abi tips the bottle in my direction, waving it around with a grin. I look over her shoulder at Jared and his eyebrows have practically hit the ceiling.

You’re probably thinking that we should be offended by Abi’s behavior. First, she kisses one of us, then the other. That’s not normal behavior. Except it’s not a first for me and Jared. It’s not a second or a third either.

What can I tell you? There is just something so fucking raw and real about sharing a girl with my brother. I guess we just got used to playing together when we were kids and it carried on into adulthood.

But this isn’t just any girl. This is Abi. This is our stepsister. And as much as I want to just let her carry on with what she started, I can’t be that guy. Even if I could, I know for sure that Jared couldn’t.

“Abi,” I say softly. “We can’t do this, honey.”

But when all the light and happiness leaves her face, I know I’ve made a terrible mistake.