Page 1 of All for Love

1

KODY

“Stood up,” I muttered under my breath, my head shaking as I stared out at the crowded dance floor. “I can’t believe I got stood up.”

Kaden, my asshole brother, smirked at me. “Well, maybe it’s for the best. Dad wanted us on our best behavior, and you wouldn’t have been if you’d bailed early to go get it on with some stranger. It’s better for everyone this way.”

“Some hot stranger.” I scoffed, glancing at my twin and pointing a finger at my chest as I lowered my chin. I gave him a look filled with disbelief and doubt. “Better for everyone but me, you mean.”

Brooke, his girlfriend, smiled at me sympathetically. “It’s just one night, and it’s not like you got your heart broken. You only met her an hour ago.”

“My heart isn’t the body part I’m worried about.” I sighed, setting my sights back on the dance floor and spotting a girl in a pretty pink dress. She was with a couple of other people, but there was no guy anywhere near her and she wasn’t wearing a wedding ring. Perfect.

“Do either of you know who that is?” I inclined my head toward the girl, and Kaden and Brooke both shrugged. I grinned. “Guess that means she’s from the bride’s side of the family. That’s fair game, right?”

“Women don’t really like being referred to as game.” Brooke lifted her eyebrows at me. “You know that, don’t you?”

“Sure, but I didn’t say it to her.” I winked and rose to my feet, straightening my tie before looking back at them. “If you’ll excuse me, it’s time I moved on.”

“He says it like he’s been mourning the loss of his previous conquest for years instead of minutes.” Kaden’s brows drew together in a slight frown, and he made large, puppy-dog eyes at me. “Reconsider? For Dad’s sake? It’s his wedding, Kody. Is it really going to kill you to go home alone just this one night?”

“Kill me? No. Annoy me? Very much so.” I reached out and patted his shoulder. “You and Dad are both taking someone home tonight. Why should I be the only one who doesn’t? Besides, relax. You never know. She could turn me down. Or stand me up just like the last one did. Either way, I owe it to myself to try.”

He groaned, and Brooke slid her arm around his shoulders, chuckling as she pulled him closer and stroked her fingers through his hair. “He’s right, you know. She could turn him down or stand him up. We could have fun watching it happen. Let him go.”

Kaden’s gaze rose up to mine again, and the fake puppy-dog pleading look was gone as he rolled his eyes. “You try and succeed just about every night. Personally, I think you owe it to Dad to just give it up for tonight, but fine. Go. Just, uh, when Dad chews you out about leaving early, tell him I tried, okay?”

“You got it.” I raked my fingers through my hair, playfully smoothing down my eyebrows before pumping them at my brother and Brooke in a cocky, watch this sort of way, and then I strode out onto the dance floor.

The girl in the pink dress was blonde with nice-ish curves and a cute smile. She wasn’t as hot as the one who got away—okay, the one who left when she should’ve been right back—but she was still pretty. Young, but pretty.

I spun in a full circle on my heels once I was on the dance floor, grinning and clapping my hands along with everyone else. Shaking my ass, I made my way across the floor, catching the girl’s eye as I approached.

She smiled, turning to face me while she danced, her eyes never leaving mine after she gave me a quick onceover. Oh, it’s so on.

I was right there, only a few feet away from her and about to lay on the charm, when the very last person I wanted to see appeared in my path—Mercedes Helton. My new stepsister. Bleh.

Her deep, forest greens narrowed on mine, her eyebrows snapping together as she crossed her arms tightly over her chest. That irritating mouth of hers set in a hard line, and then she cocked her head before she shook it.

“No.” She held her eyes firmly on mine, giving her head another shake. “You better not be doing what I think you’re doing.”

I rolled my eyes, trying to move around her, but she sidestepped with me, scowling as she pointed a white-tipped finger in my face. “No.”

“Why not?” I scrunched up my nose before folding my own arms, facing off with her. “You don’t even know what I’m doing.”

“Well, I was hoping you weren’t doing what I thought you were doing, but clearly, that’s exactly what you’re doing.” She jerked a thumb over her shoulder toward the girl who had now stopped making eyes at me and was watching us with mild interest on her features. “That girl you were eye-fucking is my twenty-one-year-old cousin, and the only way you’re using one of your disgusting pick-up lines on her is over my dead body.”

I groaned. This chick was everywhere I turned, and she hated me at least half as much as she annoyed me. My polar opposite, we’d gotten stuck together too often during the wedding planning. Now that was finally over, and here I was, just trying to celebrate in my own way, and she was meddling again.

Always with the meddling.

“So she’s twenty-one, then?” I smiled sweetly. “Good to know. Thanks, sis.”

She took her turn to groan, then put her palm flat on my chest when I tried to move forward. “I said no, Kody. My mom told me to keep an eye on her tonight, and that’s what I’m doing.”

“But she’s twenty-one,” I reiterated. “That makes her a real life grownup. In the eyes of the law, anyway. Why don’t you go make yourself useful? Go clean the tables or something, and I’ll keep an eye on her for you.”

“Seriously?” Her nose wrinkled. “Pick a mark your own age. How old are you anyway? Forty-two?”