Stepbrother HOT! (The Stepbrother Romance Series - Book #3) Read Online Free PDF Page A

do
anything about it, the whole situation was just incredibly fucked up. I
couldn’t wait for the nightmare to be over. I headed to the half-pipe and tried
to gain my bearings—but I kept slipping. I decided to just stick to going down
the slope, gaining speed and landing things right. I wasn’t about to give up on
my progress just because my whole life was getting fucked up by my mom making a
stupid impulsive decision.
    At the end of the day, Mom and Bob waited for Jaxon
and me to finish our last run down the slopes, and suggested we all head over to the lodge to grab dinner and get warm. “How you two aren’t
freezing is beyond me,” Bob said, shaking his head.
    “Young blood is always hot,” my mom said; her voice
was level, playful even, but when she looked at me I knew she was still
remembering the morning before, when she’d walked in on us.
    “I could stand to eat something,” I said, to take
the subject off of young blood and being freezing. “And I saw the fireplace in
there before. It’s pretty epic.” We headed off to the lodge and I tried to
pretend like all I wanted was some food and a fire.
That everything would be okay.

 
    Chapter
Five
    The lodge was amazing; if it weren’t for how
incredibly awkward and stressful the situation was, I probably would have
enjoyed it a lot more than I did. Through some weird quirk, the four of us were
the only ones there other than the staff. The lodge was made to hold at least a
couple dozen people; there was a giant fireplace in the middle, with low
couches and chairs and soft rugs on the hearth in front of it. There was a full
kitchen in the back, and a menu with everything ranging from burgers and fries
to venison steaks. We sat around the coffee table near the fire, warming up,
all of us exhausted from the long day on the slopes; it wasn’t quite dark
outside, but it was definitely getting to be night time. I wondered at the fact
that no one was around. I guessed that everyone was either in
their rooms if they were staying there, or they were back to whatever
hotel or home they lived in. It would have been so much easier if there were
more people around.
    I wanted more than anything to just get through the dinner and get back home. The day had been so long, and
while we sat around the fire, warming up, my bones started to ache. I could
feel every last bruise I’d managed to get during the day, falling on my face
and landing on my ass on the slopes.
    The waiter took our order and we sat around with hot
chocolates while we waited for our food to get there. Bob was once more working
on trying to get everyone talking, even though everyone was exhausted. I tried
to put forth an effort for my mom’s sake, to make everything seem all right,
but Jaxon wasn’t doing anything other than looking at the fire or sometimes
looking at me. “Didn’t seem to be your usual smooth self on the slopes today, Jax ,” Bob said, giving his son a playful shove to the
shoulder.
    “Yeah,” Jaxon said, shrugging his father’s hand
away. “Just bad timing I guess.” Mom went on about the skiing, about what they
had been up to that day.
    “Mia loves snowboarding,” Mom said, blathering on and on and on . “She’s always gone at it as hard as she
could. She’s great.”
    “I’m okay,” I said, shrugging and glancing at Jaxon.
He was poking at the fire with a metal rod, frowning and staying quiet. “I
wasn’t on top of my game today.” I shrugged again. “You should’ve seen me
falling all over the place.”
    I was relieved when the food got there. I didn’t
like being so close to Jaxon without being able to really talk to him. Maybe if
we could just get dinner over with and head back to the house, everything would
be okay. I could go to my room, get a shower, and watch some TV and go to
sleep. I could count off another day of this ridiculous holiday and be one day
closer to going back to school. I dreaded another silent meal like breakfast
had been; for lunch I