My brother’s best friend is trouble

~Mia~

“This place is… insane,” I breathed, the words slipping out before I could stop them.

The front door had barely clicked shut behind us, and already I felt like I’d stepped into someone else’s life. Floor-to-ceiling windows wrapped around the entire living area like glass arms hugging the view. Beyond them, the ocean stretched forever—turquoise bleeding into deeper blue, waves folding over themselves in slow, lazy rolls. A massive stone fireplace dominated one wall even though we were in Florida in August and no one in their right mind would light a fire. The furniture was all clean lines and expensive neutrals: cream linen sofas, teak coffee tables, abstract art that probably cost more than my tuition this semester. It smelled faintly of cedar and salt air, like money had its own perfume.

I dropped my duffel bag right there in the entryway because my hands suddenly forgot how to function.

Noah was already striding through like he owned the place, arms wide. “Told you it was worth the drive,” he called over his shoulder. “Wait till you see the pool deck. Infinity edge. Straight into the goddamn Gulf.”

Lena trailed after him, phone out, already filming vertical stories for her followers. “This lighting is chef’s kiss,” she muttered to no one in particular.

Jax barreled past me next, cooler in one hand, six-pack swinging from the other. “Dibs on the biggest bedroom!” he yelled, disappearing up the floating staircase like a man on a mission.

And then there was Ethan.

He came in last, slower, quieter. He set his bag down beside mine—deliberate, like he wanted them touching—and leaned one shoulder against the doorframe, arms crossed, watching me take it all in.

“You okay there, squirt?” His voice was low, amused, the nickname he’d used since I was twelve and still wore braces.

I shot him a look. “Call me that again and I’ll push you off that infinity pool.”

His mouth curved—just one side, the way it always did when he knew he’d gotten under my skin. “Noted.”

I turned away before he could see the heat crawling up my neck. Ethan Kane had always had that effect: one lazy grin and suddenly I was thirteen again, heart racing because he’d ruffled my hair and called me cute. Except now I was twenty-one, and the way he looked at me wasn’t cute anymore. It was something else entirely.

I wandered toward the windows, drawn like a moth. The view really was obscene. White sand, private stretch of beach, not another house in sight for what looked like miles. Palm fronds clicked softly in the breeze outside. Paradise. The kind people posted about with crying emojis and “living my best life” captions.

“So…” I said, keeping my voice casual as I pressed my palm to the cool glass. “How exactly did you score this place again, Noah?”

He appeared beside me, beer already in hand—where had he even found that so fast?—and slung an arm around my shoulders. “Friend of a friend. Some guy he knows from college owns a bunch of vacation rentals down here. Got us the friends-and-family rate. Practically free.”

I nodded slowly. “Practically free,” I echoed.

Something niggled at the back of my mind. Noah wasn’t exactly the “friends-and-family discount” type. He was more the “I’ll Venmo you my half later, promise” type.

Ethan pushed off the doorframe and walked over, hands in his pockets. He stopped just behind me—close enough that I could feel the warmth coming off him, smell that stupid woodsy cologne he always wore. “It’s Aaron’s,” he said quietly, like he was letting me in on a secret.

My stomach did a slow, sick flip.

“Aaron?” I repeated, turning just enough to look at him. “As in… your Aaron? The one who moved to Barcelona last year?”

Ethan’s eyes flicked to Noah, then back to me. Something unreadable passed over his face. “Yeah. That Aaron.”

Noah laughed, oblivious, cracking open another beer. “Dude’s got like five properties scattered around the world. He’s never here. Ethan still has the spare key from when they roomed together. Figured what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”

My mouth went dry.

“You’re telling me,” I said slowly, “that we just broke into your old roommate’s million-dollar beach house?”

“Not broke in,” Ethan corrected, voice calm. Too calm. “Borrowed. Temporarily. He’s in Spain for the next three months shooting that documentary. House sits empty. We’re just… house-sitting.”

“Without telling him,” I pointed out.

Noah shrugged. “He’d say yes if he was around to ask. Probably. Anyway, we’re here now. No point crying over un-sent texts.”

I stared at my brother like he’d grown a second head. Noah had always been reckless—jumping off roofs into pools, sneaking into concerts, the whole cliché—but this felt different. This felt like actual trespassing. With consequences.

Ethan must’ve seen the panic starting to bloom on my face because he stepped closer, voice dropping so only I could hear. “Relax, Mia. It’s fine. I’ve done this before. He’s never once cared.”

“You’ve done this before?” I hissed.

He gave me that half-smirk again. “Once or twice. Never got caught.”

“Yet,” I muttered.

He leaned in just a fraction more. His breath brushed my ear. “You gonna rat us out, trouble?”

The nickname hit different this time—no teasing, just heat. My pulse kicked hard against my ribs.

Before I could answer, Jax came thundering back down the stairs. “Yo! Master bedroom has a jacuzzi tub the size of a small car. And there’s a whole wine fridge. We’re living like kings, boys!”

Lena squealed from somewhere in the kitchen. “There’s a rooftop deck too! With a hot tub!”

Noah raised his beer in a mock toast. “To Aaron, the best friend we never asked permission from.”

Everyone laughed.

I didn’t.

I turned back to the window, staring at the perfect, impossible view, trying to ignore the way Ethan was still standing too close. The way his arm brushed mine when he shifted. The way my skin prickled like it remembered last summer—when he’d carried me into the lake after I pretended to trip, when his hands had lingered on my waist just a second too long, when I’d told myself it was nothing.

It had been nothing.

Right?

But now we were here, in a house that didn’t belong to us, for a whole week, and something about the air felt charged. Like the universe had lined everything up just to see what would happen when you put two people who’d been circling each other for years in a place with too many locked doors and too few rules.

I swallowed hard.

Wrong time.

Wrong place.

Wrong everything.

And yet here we were.