Push the Envelope (2 page)

chapter
2

Damn. Aubrey wasn’t kidding when she’d said that the
Sigma Chi party was supposed to be epic. The house was packed with people,
music was blaring, and drinks were flowing. Our IDs had been checked out the
door, so we were stuck with lame under-21 hand stamps for the night. Not that
it really mattered once we made it through the door, since Aubrey talked the
first guy she saw into grabbing us two beers from the keg.

As we wandered through the downstairs area with our
red Solo cups in hand, I had to admit that she was right when she’d said that
we wouldn’t be overdressed tonight. I could swear that I had the longest dress
on, and that was with a hem a good two inches shorter than what I was normally
comfortable in whenever Aubrey talked me into wearing a dress. Some of the
outfits tonight showed more skin than bikinis with cover-ups did at the beach.
And you’d think we were on the set of a music video with the way the girls were
grinding against each other on the dance floor. I was so out of my element it
wasn’t even funny.

Aubrey was busy chatting up a totally hot redheaded
guy when I noticed Jackson across the room. I tapped her on the shoulder and
nodded my head in his direction so she would know where I was heading. I barely
got a glance from her as she was busy flirting. That girl went through boys
like water, with no particular type that appealed to her. She flitted from
boyfriend to boyfriend, breaking hearts wherever we went.

Speaking of broken hearts, Jackson had a flock of girls
around him tonight. I hated to interrupt, but his was the only other familiar
face at the party I had seen so far. Faith and Natalie were nowhere to be
found, and I highly doubted any of the friends I had made in class had been
invited to this party.

Jackson glanced up as I approached the group of girls
surrounding him. A wide smile broke across his face. With his curly blond hair
tousled from running his hands through it and his eyes twinkling at me, I could
understand why I was receiving death glares from his fan club. I had drawn his
attention away from them.

“Alexa, you made it!” Jackson reached out to pull me
over to him, wrapping me up in a bear hug. “Fuck, you clean up nicely. I think
the last time I saw you in a dress was at graduation. And your dress then left
a little more to the imagination. Did Aubrey have to tackle you to the floor
and wrestle you into this one?”

Yup, those death stares were now hitting my back like
laser beams. Add in the snarky little laughs and I was starting to get pissed
off. Could they not tell that we were practically brother and sister? Geesh,
catty bitches were guaranteed to drive me crazy. I kissed him on the cheek and
kept an arm wrapped around his side just to put them in their place.

“Nah. She worked her guilt magic on me just like she
did you to get the invites to the party. You know how she is.”

“That I do, Lex. That I do. But she didn’t really have
to guilt me into making sure you guys got into the party. You know that I
wasn’t letting you go to your first official college party without being
there.” Jackson took a sip from his beer, glanced at the girls around us, and
carried on the conversation like they weren’t there. “Where did my sis run off
to?”

“Oh, she’s around here somewhere. She can’t get into
too much trouble since everyone knows she’s your sister, right?”

“Ha! You know better than that. Aubrey doesn’t need to
find trouble—it finds her. Lucky for me, I planned ahead and asked a few of the
guys to keep an eye on her tonight. Figured I would need reinforcements to make
sure we make it through the night without my having to beat the shit out of
anyone.”

I couldn’t deny that there was a real possibility that
Jackson might get into a fight tonight, even if it wasn’t because he was
pulling Aubrey out of a situation she couldn’t handle. He had a very short fuse
and was quick to jump down someone’s throat if he thought they’d fucked up.
Over the years, Aubrey had certainly offered up several guys who got the shit
kicked out of them by Jackson when they wouldn’t leave her alone after she’d
dumped them. It wasn’t that she got into trouble often. It was just that her
ex-boyfriends never seemed willing to let go.

“Aubrey doesn’t have any ex-boyfriends that go to
school here yet, so she shouldn’t get into too much trouble,” I reminded
Jackson.

“But I am sure she is working on meeting her next ex,
right?”

“Well, there was a guy that she was flirting with over
there. He seemed nice enough. He had an under-twenty-one stamp, too, so I would
guess he’s a freshman or sophomore.” I pointed over to Aubrey so he could see
where she was at across the room.

“Good. I don’t recognize him, and if he had a hand
stamp then he isn’t one of my frat brothers. I’d hate to have to kick a
brother’s ass later if things go south.” Jackson finished off his beer. “Want
another one?” he asked as he tapped his empty cup against mine.

I nodded, so we headed over to the keg to grab another
drink. As we walked away, I could hear one of the girls whining Jackson’s name.
He just shook his head at her as he held on to my hand so he wouldn’t lose me
in the crowd.

“So Aubrey isn’t the only one working on their next ex
around here?” I asked Jackson.

“It wasn’t like that with her. You know how girls can
be. Sometimes they think things are more serious than they really are.”

Aubrey wasn’t the only one in her family who’d left a
trail of broken hearts in their wake. The big difference between the two was
that Aubrey jumped into relationships and then bailed when she got bored.
Jackson never let it get that serious. There were always girls around—he just
never called them his girlfriends. It had always surprised me how he treated
the girls he’d slept with when he would kill a guy if he treated Aubrey or me
the same way, but Jackson always told me that the girls he was with had known
the score and had nobody to blame but themselves if they thought he’d been
willing to give them something more.

When we made it over to the keg to grab another beer,
my attention was drawn to the kitchen door. Just outside, an argument was
taking place between a screaming girl and a super hot guy who stood staring at
her with his arms crossed in front of his chest. The girl was gorgeous and
dressed to the hilt. Her platinum blond hair was perfectly straight and her makeup
expertly applied while her outfit had clearly set her back big bucks. Too bad
for her that the attitude didn’t appear to match the wrapping.

Holy crap. I could only see the guy she was yelling at
from the side, but what I could see made me want more. There was something
about him that pulled me like a magnet. He was a couple inches over six feet
with dark brown hair that was spiked up a bit. His jeans clung to his tight ass
and tapered down his long, muscular legs. He wore a bright blue polo shirt that
stretched across his back each time he moved. He definitely worked out, but he
was lean instead of bulky. Even with the girl yelling at him, he seemed so
relaxed, like he didn’t have a care in the world.

Jackson turned to hand me my cup and noticed where my
attention was focused. “Shit! Who told Sasha about the party? Hold on a second
while I make sure Drake doesn’t need any help getting her to leave. Then we can
check on Aubrey and head upstairs to my room to hang out. That way you can
relax without pissing my sis off by heading back to the dorm this soon.”

“Okay, sounds like a plan to me,” I responded. It had
been a long day between classes and my charter flight. I could use some extra
rest. Besides, I didn’t need to ogle one of Jackson’s frat brothers who already
had his hands full with women issues. That was just asking for trouble, even if
he was smoking hot.

The girl stopped her tirade when she saw Jackson
walking up. He could be very intimidating when he wanted to be. Jackson looked
between the two of them, Drake shaking his head no and the girl taking a couple
steps back. Dark, smoldering eyes met mine as Jackson talked to Drake. His gaze
was so intense as he did a quick scan down my body, his eyes turning even
darker as they lingered on my legs, which only served to piss off the blonde he
had been arguing with moments before even more. She stomped off in a huff,
leaving Drake and Jackson standing at the door.

They talked for a few more minutes while I waited. I
couldn’t hear what was being said as they spoke in hushed tones. Drake turned
so he was facing me while they talked. He kept glancing my way as though he was
having a hard time concentrating on his conversation with Jackson. He had a
strong face with high cheekbones and full lips that made me think of kissing.
Every once in a while, a dimple peeped out on the left side of his face, making
him even more adorable.

He looked back at me again and smiled a sexy grin with
one side of his mouth tilted up. Jackson shook his head, and Drake’s body language
changed completely. He wasn’t the relaxed frat brother chatting with a friend
anymore, but a man who looked like he was ready to strike out in anger. His
fists clenched at his sides, and the cords of his neck stood out. Jackson
reached out to him, but Drake took a step back and glared at me.

When Jackson came back over, he didn’t offer to
introduce us. I figured that meant he didn’t trust Drake around me.
 
With the death stare Drake was aiming my way,
I didn’t want him near me anyway. Then again, Jackson didn’t really trust
anyone around me since he seemed to think I wasn’t capable of handling guys
after the debacle with my ex-boyfriend in high school. As grateful as I was for
him stepping in and ending the problem with Brad, I really wished he would get
over the idea that I wasn’t ready to date again. Sometimes it seemed like he
felt so bad about introducing me to Brad that he would never be ready to see me
with someone in my life again.

“Ready to hang out? Or do you want to join Aubrey?”
Jackson asked.

“Ha, ha! Like that’s even a question you need to ask
me. You know I’d rather escape upstairs to hang out and get away from the
madness of the party for a while without having Aubrey jump all over me for
never going out. But don’t you need to stay down here longer since it’s your
fraternity party?”

“Nope, the party’s covered. My bros have everything
under control. They knew I would bail early tonight,” Jackson replied.

“And how many girls are going to want to kill me when
they realize you left the party early because of me?” I asked, only half
joking. I hadn’t been on campus that much over the last two years other than to
be at class or in the library, but the time I had spent hanging out with
Jackson and Aubrey had shown me that most girls who were into Jackson liked
hating me for my relationship with him. Nobody seemed to understand that we
were like brother and sister, sometimes even more so than he and Aubrey
appeared to be.

“If anyone has a problem with you, come to me. Nobody
here has any say over what I do with my time—certainly not any of the chicks,”
Jackson said as we walked up the stairs after waving to Aubrey from across the
room. “The only thing you need to worry about tonight is what movie you want to
watch with me. I grabbed a few of your favorite action flicks. You can pick one
and show me why you and your dad watch these so often.”

chapter
3

“Ugh, my head,” I heard Aubrey moan from under the
covers. Jackson and I had hauled her home around three o’clock in the morning.
“Why did you let me drink so much last night? I don’t think I am going to be
able to make it out of our room all day today.”

“Let you? When have I ever let you do anything? You
were on a roll last night. There was no stopping you and Mr. Hot Pants from
chugging away. Not sure he’s going to be the best boyfriend material for you if
he’s trying to get you drunk all the time.”

“Why do you think every guy I hang out with has to
be boyfriend material? Can’t I just have a little fun every once in a while
without getting too serious?” Aubrey snapped back at me.

“Well—” I started to reply before she quickly
interrupted me.

“Okay, I know, I know. Odds are he’ll end up being
my next boyfriend. I get it. I date a lot. Nothing wrong with that. This is the
age where we are supposed to date around, experiment a little. Besides, one of
us has to do the boyfriend thing. When are you going to stop using my brother
as a shield from every opportunity for you to meet guys? Don’t think I didn’t
notice that you two escaped the party for hours last night to hang out.”

Ouch. I thought I had gotten that one past her with
all the drinking last night. “Hey, you wanted me to go to a party with you. I
went. Just because I spent part of the night hanging out with Jackson doesn’t
mean I didn’t have a good time. I did. The party was a little too much for me.”

“You can totally make it up to me if you make the
famous Hewett Hangover cure for me. I could really use some help this morning.”

“I’ve got you covered. Let me run out to grab a few
things from the store, and I will wake you back up as soon as it’s ready. Get
some more rest. I wouldn’t want you to ruin a perfectly good day with a
hangover,” I said as I walked towards the door, snagging my keys off the
dresser on my way.

“Love you, Lex,” I heard Aubrey mumble tiredly.

****

I found a parking spot for my beloved car, a cherry
red Mini Cooper with a white racing stripe. My dad surprised me with it on my
sixteenth birthday. The car seemed like an odd match for my personality since
it was so girly, but nobody knew the inside story. We used to do movie night at
least once a week, usually action movies since my dad couldn’t stomach chick
flicks. One of our favorites was The Italian Job, and I loved the part where
they modified the Mini Coopers for a robbery. We must have watched that movie a
dozen times together, and I always giggled at the thought of those tiny cars
hauling gold bars away at top speeds. Now, whenever I drive my car, I am
reminded of movie nights with him.

Damn, the grocery store was packed for a Saturday
morning. I only needed to grab a couple things, but it looked like this wasn’t
going to be quick. I really hated shopping, even at the grocery store. It was
just my luck that it would be so busy. And here I was, in my old ratty sweats I
had worn to bed last night. At least I didn’t have to worry about impressing
anybody here. One advantage to growing up in a college town is that all us
townies knew each other pretty well. Everyone had seen me looking a lot worse
than this at least once in my life.

I grabbed a basket off the stack by the carts and
darted towards the produce section to grab some bananas, strawberries,
raspberries, and blueberries for the smoothies. My dad’s famous hangover cure
was pretty simple, but they seemed to work wonders. He always said that the
almonds helped settle your stomach and the berries aided in detoxing the
liver.
 
Throw in a banana for extra
potassium and you were good to go. I had made my fair share for him over the
years when he’d hosted poker nights for his friends. He needed to be
bright-eyed the morning after so he’d be safe to fly.

Once I had grabbed the fruit and almonds I needed,
I headed over to the spices aisle to pick up some vanilla extract and cinnamon.
I wasn’t sure what all was stocked in the kitchen on our floor, so I needed to
buy some just in case. As I rounded the corner of the aisle, I glanced into my
basket, trying to decide if I should get some more ingredients so I could make
smoothies for Faith and Natalie too. It would be a nice gesture and a chance to
try to connect with them.

“Oomph!” I grunted as I walked into someone’s back.
“I am so sorry,” I started to apologize. I lifted my gaze from my basket to the
person I had knocked into and realized it was the guy from the party the night
before. And then I quickly discovered that he was even hotter close up. It sure
didn’t hurt that he was dressed in pressed khakis and another polo shirt—dark
green this time. And here I was, dressed like a homeless person.

He had turned towards me while I was lost in
thought and his hands wrapped around my arms to help steady me. His dark brown
eyes twinkled at me as he smiled in response to my apology. He smirked at me
with a half-grin that showed off the dimple in his left cheek.

“No problem. I was kind of hogging the aisle while
I figured out which way to go to find greeting cards,” he said.

“Oh, you can find those across the aisle a few rows
that way,” I offered while pointing in the direction of the card aisle. His
hands felt like they were burning through my clothes as they gripped my arms. I
stared at his full lips as I spoke. It was so hard to pull my gaze away from
his lips—they just seemed to be begging for a kiss.

“Thanks. I know this sounds like a bad pick-up
line, but don’t I know you from somewhere? I’m Drake Bennett,” he asked.

“What? Um, yeah, you do. I was at the Sig Chi party
last night. I think you know Jackson? He’s
—
” I started to
respond, stopping when his hands dropped from my arms abruptly and his eyes
lost the warmth they had only moments ago. What the hell was up with that? He
and Jackson had looked friendly enough last night.

“Right. I remember. Better grab that card. See you
around,” Drake offered as he walked away. Well, so much for chatting up the hot
guy at the grocery store. Funny, right? Like he would ever even flirt back. He
was way out of my league, even when I looked my best like last night. Looking
like I did today, I was surprised he even spoke to me at all. I could be such
an idiot sometimes.

I grabbed the rest of the supplies I need and
headed to the checkout. My phone rang, and my dad’s photo flashed across the
screen.

“Hey, Dad. What’s up?” I answered.

“Honey, I was wondering if you wanted to grab some
extra hours co-piloting the Lear this weekend. I booked a last-minute charter
to the Greenwich, Connecticut. Want to meet me at the airport?” he asked.

“Absolutely! I need more hours on the Lear. And I’d
love to see you, too. I can only do it if I make it back in time for my first
class on Monday morning.” I handed some cash over to the cashier as I spoke
with my dad. I needed to run back to the dorm to clean up and change clothes,
whip up the smoothies for the girls, and head over to meet my dad.

“I wouldn’t ask you to join me if I thought it
meant you would have to skip classes. School comes first, not flying. You know
the rules, sweetie. We don’t take off for another two hours. Meet me in ninety
minutes?”

“I’ll be there, Dad. Thanks for asking me to join
you,” I answered before climbing into my car to go back home.

Aubrey was passed out in bed when I got back to the
dorm. I hadn’t heard a peep from the other side of the suite, so I decided that
Faith and Natalie must still be sleeping also. I figured I should have enough
time to get ready before I made the smoothies and woke everyone up.

I loved having the bathroom all to myself, so
weekend mornings were my favorite. I could linger in the shower without
worrying about anyone else barging in on me. As I washed my hair with my
favorite coconut lime shampoo, I couldn’t help but think of Drake. I had bumped
into him twice in less than twelve hours, and both times I’d felt a chemistry
like I had never experienced before. The way he had first looked at me at the
party and held on to my arms when I bumped into him at the grocery store made
me think he might have felt it, too. But then he’d been so cold to me. It was
just so confusing. He didn’t even really know me. Why would he be angry with
me?

I just didn’t understand the male mind. Brad had
been my only boyfriend, and I thought I knew him until things had gone south.
We had dated for three years, and everyone thought we would end up getting
married and having kids. Including me. When Jackson walked in on Brad cheating
on me at a college party his freshman year, things got ugly fast. Jackson
kicked his ass then and there and told him to never speak to me again. He was
the one who’d told me what had happened, with Aubrey by my side through the
whole ordeal.

I was so hurt and didn’t know how to react. Everyone
heard about what had happened because of the fight. The pitying looks at school
were tough enough to bear. Then when Brad decided that he wanted me back and
didn’t care if he had to fight Jackson to accomplish his goal, things got even
worse. Flowers showed up on my doorstep regularly. Text messages and missed
calls came all the time. I tried to avoid Brad and was pretty successful at it
until he started showing up everywhere I went. I wasn’t sure how he knew where
I would be, and it freaked me out. My dad talked to the chief of police about
getting a restraining order, but I worried that it would push him over the
edge. The boy I had fallen in love with had disappeared, and Brad became
someone I hardly recognized.

Jackson and Brad had been friends throughout high
school and had pledged Sigma Chi together. Their fight had caused some issues
at the frat house, with most of the guys siding with Jackson since he was a
legacy. When they found out that Brad had resorted to stalking me, Jackson
pushed for him to be kicked out of the fraternity and had the support of a lot
of influential alumni due to his family connections behind him.

When the chief of police went to his parents,
they’d refused to believe that things had gotten that bad. They wouldn’t
intervene, so Aubrey and Jackson’s dad did. He owned the local bank, which held
the mortgage on their house. I wasn’t supposed to know that he’d visited Brad’s
parents and told them that they needed to fix this or he was going to call in
their loan. I’d heard my dad talking about it on the phone after Brad had
transferred to a school out West. He didn’t want to go, but his parents knew
that they had to act fast or things were going to get bad for them. The Silvers
had a lot of influence in town and had made it clear that they wouldn’t mind
using it on my behalf.

Brad’s leaving was a godsend to me. I’d been able
to finish high school without worrying about seeing him in town and move on
with my life without him in it. What I hadn’t been able to do was feel
comfortable enough to date other guys. What happened with Brad had added some
serious trust issues to my abandonment issues. Not a good mixture for teenage
dating. I focused on school and flying and forgot about boys for a while. And
when the time came for me to pick a college, it made sense for me to attend
Blythe but stay at home with my dad. Until he’d decided that I needed to spread
my wings and could only do that while living on campus. Brad hadn’t been a
problem for more than two years, and I didn’t have an excuse to stay home any
longer.

Did that mean I was ready to date again, too? If my
reaction to meeting Drake was any indication, then the answer was a resounding
yes. With his hands on my arms and his gorgeous brown eyes gazing into mine,
all I had wanted to do was kiss his delectable lips. His little smirk had made
me want to bite down on his lower lip to punish him for being so damn cocky.
But then he’d seemed icy to me. I was better off not fantasizing about some guy
who’d managed to tie me up in knots inside after a few sentences of
conversation. My taste in guys sucked!

The bathroom door flew open, interrupting my line
of thought. “Lex, I thought you were going to fix me up a Hewett Hangover
Smoothie?” Aubrey whined at me.

“I am. Just give me a second to finish up in here.
Dad called and wants me to join him on a quick charter to the East Coast this
weekend. Can you throw a change of clothes and my Econ book into a bag for me?”
I asked.

“As long as you promise to fix me up as soon as you
are out of the shower. My head is killing me, and I need to get some studying
done so I can party with Faith and Natalie tonight since you are abandoning me
again!”