My blood approves

I suddenly remembered to breathe and tried desperately not to gulp down air the way my lungs requested. My heart was pounding wildly, and I could feel the blood burning my cheeks. I was being the same ridiculous fool that Jane had been, the one that I had been terrified of becoming, and I felt like sobbing in shame.

“I think we’ve seen all the main points,” Mae looped her arm through mine, and the combination of her soft voice and reassuring touch calmed me down enough where I didn’t burst into tears. “Would you care to join us, Peter?”

“I’ve seen the house.” He lifted the book again, hiding his exquisite features from me.

“Peter’s always a grump,” Mae explained, but she sounded a tad disappointed when she started leading me away from Peter’s room. “Come on, love. There’s still more for us to see.”

“Well?” Jack appeared at the bottom stairs, looking up expectantly at us.

There was something anxious and almost protective about him. Mae and I walked slowly down towards him, and I couldn’t meet his gaze, afraid he would see what an idiot I had become.

“Well what?” I mumbled.

“What do you think?” He waited until I was at the bottom of the stairs, then I felt him inspecting me. The dog came over and licked my hand, and I absently started petting her.

“The house is amazing.” I tried to force a smile to prove how spectacular I thought everything was, and I hated that that sudden random confrontation with his brother had distracted me from all my other pleasant feelings about the house and Mae.

“Peter’s upstairs being a crab,” Mae told Jack dramatically, then put her arm around me, squeezing me to her.

“Oh,” Jack replied knowingly, then exchanged a look with Mae that I couldn’t read. She just bit her lip and shrugged, then hugged me a little tighter.

“Peter is such a jackass.”

“Oh, he is not.” Mae had taken to stroking my hair gently, and that actually seemed to alleviate all the tension and shame I had been harboring.

“Peter!” Jack shouted up at the stairs at him.

“I am reading a book!” Peter growled down.

“Peter!” Jack shouted again, growing more irritated.

“I am reading, Jack!” Peter responded, and I winced at the anger in his words.

“Jack.” Mae shot him a look telling him to knock it off. “Let him be.”

“Whatever.” He relented, but he didn’t look happy about it. Then he turned his attention to me and smiled. “So, Alice, wanna have some fun?”

“Sure?” I replied hesitantly. His eyes had started to have a mischievous glint, and I hadn’t decided whether or not I should trust it.

“Hot tub!” Jack exclaimed, and I wanted to protest, but somehow, soaking out in a pool of hot water seemed like the perfect cure for this awful feeling I had building inside me.

“I don’t have a suit.” This was true, but I was sure they would have a solution for it. I had a feeling that Mae and Jack would have a solution for nearly everything.

“Oh, I have the perfect one for you!” Mae smiled, her earlier excitement returning. She started ushering me down the hall towards her room, but she lowered her voice to talk to Jack, who was apparently following us. “He’s reading Wuthering Heights.”

“Is he really?” Jack laughed. “Priceless.”

We went into Mae’s room, where Jack proceeded to flop back on the overstuffed bed. She opened the doors to her closet, and it was larger than my entire bedroom. She started searching through her multitudes of bathing suits and bikinis, making me nervous. Once she found one she liked (a pale blue two piece with a ruffled skirt around the bottoms) she insisted that I go into their adjoining bathroom to try it on. It fit, and it was really more flattering then I had expected it to be, but it also felt incredibly revealing. When I came out, she gushed over how amazing I looked. She had already changed into her own bikini in the closest, and I looked like nothing compared to her. Jack didn’t say anything, but the approving way he looked at me made me blush.

Jack was a typical guy and decided that wearing just his black boxers would suffice. I took a moment to admire the perfection of Jack shirtless, but I did it as discreetly as possible. We went outside through the French doors, and the cold night air stung against my skin. Mae and Jack didn’t appear to notice it, but that didn’t surprise me. I climbed into the hot tub, relishing the way it instantly warmed my entire body, reminding me of the way that I had felt when I looked at Peter. Then I remembered the ice in his voice and tried to push thoughts of him out of my mind.

We spent quite a bit of time in the hot tub, and when I finally let myself relax and enjoy it, I did. Matilda lay sprawled on the patio next to the hot tub, and Jack tried to splash her until Mae made him stop. I just sunk in the water, trying to forget about all the stuff about Jack that didn’t make sense, and the fact that my brother hated me, and Peter’s piercing green eyes.