It was Friday night and I was sitting on my bed studying when my mother came into my room, a large smile on her face and her eyes puffy and red.
"Mom? Are you okay? What's wrong?" I asked concerned as I jumped from the bed and walked over to her. "Why do you look like you've been crying?"
"Well..." Came a deep and familiar voice. "I might be the cause of it..."
"LUC!" I screamed, running over to my brother and hugging him fiercely, beginning to cry.
"Oh jeez... I come home, expecting you all to be happy to see me and you all start to cry! Maybe I'll go back-"
"No!" I said through my tears as he tried to pull away from me. "I'm so happy to see you!" His chest vibrated under my cheek as he laughed and hugged me tighter, one hand on my back and the other holding my head to him.
"I'm happy to see you too Paige... More than you can imagine"
I should explain. My older brother Lucas, or Luc as he likes to be known, hasn't been home in over a year and me and my family have had next to no contact with him in that time. A year and a half ago, when Luc had just turned 22, he completed his Navy training, earning him the status of a SEAL. He'd had to leave home to go training and we'd all been devastated to see him go, but knew he would be amazing and could achieve anything he set his mind to. He'd sent letters, telling us about the training and how hard it was, unimaginably so and the people he had met and wishing us well, but that had been it for a while. Then we'd heard he'd passed the training and we'd gone to see him.
I'd spotted him first, and, though it might be wrong, I gasped as I saw him standing there in his uniform. He'd looked so... appealing. And then he'd spotted me and smiled and my insides melted. I had never seen my brother as anything more than that, my brother, but I couldn't help see him as more than that. As a man.
A handsome one at that.
Ever since, I'd been unable to think of Luc without getting a little hot under the collar.
But now, with his chest pressed tight against mine and his hands on my body, I was getting more than just hot.
I pulled back and flushed, from embarrassment or my body's reaction, I don't know. I looked up into his eyes, and smiled.
"I'm gonna go downstairs and get dinner on the go, give the two of you time to catch up. I'm glad your home Lucas." She said hugging him before leaving us.
Luc walked into the room and looked around, his hands on his hips. "It's changed... I remember your room was always pink and you had teddies on the bed... Now, its cream and there's books everywhere..." He laughed to himself. "Go figure..." He walked over to my notice board and looked at all the pictures pinned up. "I don't recognise that guy..."
"Which guy?"