Brendan (The Doherty Mafia Book 4) by Kasey Krane (summer reads TXT) 📗

I didn’t want to believe her, but I also wanted to prove her wrong.

Yeah, sure, I wasn’t a big drinker. I never truly enjoyed those parties where everyone just got drunk and high and ended up sleeping with each other. But that didn’t mean I didn’t know how to have fun, right?

So, I put on the most sparkly dress I owned. I grabbed a pair of heels and blow-dried my hair, then we were out of the door. My mom was actually a little excited that I was going to go do ‘normal’ eighteen-year old things.

Mia White’s house was large and lavish. She lived in American suburbia, and even though this was New York, her family still had a pool out at the back of the house. Her folks were away for the weekend, and it was only natural that Mia invited everyone she knew.

Someone handed us a joint the moment we walked in through the door. I’d never smoked weed before but Petra had, and she showed me how. It took a full fifteen minutes for the effects of the weed to show up. In that time, I had already drunk through half a can of beer which I hadn’t enjoyed.

But the weed calmed me. It soothed my nerves and smoothed all the edges. Petra wanted to dance. Everyone was dancing everywhere. On the stairs, on the family dining table, out by the pool.

Petra grabbed my hands and pulled me to the backyard. I wasn’t much of a dancer. Usually, I felt too self conscious to do something like that, but that night I didn’t care who watched. That night was all about letting loose.

Petra and I danced together and I finished the can of beer. It didn’t taste as bad anymore, now that I was enjoying myself. I had to admit—it felt like I’d been missing out by not going to these parties. I was actually having fun.

Then, as Petra and I danced to music I had never heard before, I looked through the doors into the house and saw Brendan walk in.

He walked in looking slicker than any guy had ever looked before. I was eighteen and he looked older, although he couldn’t have been that much older than me. But he had a whole entourage with him.

Brendan walked in with his dusty brown hair styled in a quiff and a leather jacket. All heads turned to him and his gang. But it was pretty obvious that nobody was looking at his friends. All eyes were on the handsome tall guy who smoked a cigarette as he stood there by the front door.

Even the people who had been dancing and chilling out by the pool craned their necks to look.

Petra voiced my thoughts before I could get them out.

“Who is he?” she asked a girl who was standing near us. She was one of Mia’s close friends, so she seemed like a reliable source.

“Brendan Doherty,” the girl said in a zombie-like voice, walking away from us, almost like she was in a daze.

We watched as Mia went running up to Brendan with plastic cups of beers in her hands. They were her offerings to him—she was giddy and giggly like she couldn’t believe her luck that he would grace her home with his presence.

“Looks like an important guy,” I said to Petra. She was transfixed by him too. “Do you know who that is?”

Finally, Petra was able to break away from the spell and she looked at me. Her eyes were all glazed too, which I assumed was from the weed.

“I’ve heard of him.”

“He wasn’t in school with us, was he?” I asked.

“I don’t think he ever had the need for school. He’s a Doherty,” Petra replied. She tracked him with her eyes as he went around the house, shaking hands with people who drooled after him.

“What is that supposed to mean?”

Petra shrugged.

“I’m not sure. I guess his family is into stuff.”

“Stuff?”

“Why do you care?” she snapped. She clearly didn’t know as much as she wished she did.

“I guess I don’t. I was just curious.”

Petra sighed. “I’m going to go in and get us more beers.”

“You’re going to try and talk to him? Get his attention?” I asked with a smirk.

Petra rolled her eyes at that.

“I can bet Brendan Doherty has better things to do than talk to us. All of a sudden, I’m very horny,” she said, breaking into an uncontrollable laugh. I had to smile at that.

Maybe it was just the weed, but seeing Brendan made me feel a certain way too. Like I wanted to be touched. I wanted to feel the strength of a man’s muscular arms around me.

But I also knew no other guy would do. It had to be Brendan, and Petra was right, he had better things to do than spare a moment of his time on me.

By the time I had my third beer of the night, combined with the weed and all the dancing I did with Petra—I had pretty much forgotten about Brendan.

For a while I paid attention to where he went around the house and who he was speaking to, but eventually, I gave up. There was no point fantasizing about him.

Petra disappeared after a while too.

Like she had already stated, she was horny—and there were a few guys she’d been flirting with all night. I didn’t go looking for her as I figured she would have wanted to be left alone.

If there were any guys eyeing me up, I hadn’t noticed. I was too lost in my own world for that. I hung around by the pool even after Petra left. The beer suddenly tasted very good. I asked for a few puffs of the joint being passed around. I pretty much kept to myself though. I had never been much of a talker.

So when I felt a tap on my shoulder, I expected it to be one of