Stepbrother Broken (The Hawthorne Brothers Book 2) by Colleen Masters

screen, a new message appears in my inbox.
My heart leaps into my throat as I hurry to open it, sure that it ’ s Luke checking up on me … But
no dice. The email is from my mother, Robin Porter. I open it up and read a
short message, written in her typical scatterbrained syntax.
     
    Hi
Sophie girl! Happy summer!! Can ’ t wait to see you for family vaca. Did I remember
to give you the address? The lake house is gorg, you ’ re going
to love it. Hmm … Actually need to LOOK UP the address first, but I ’ ll get it
to you eventually. See you in a week baby love you!!1 Mom
     
    I
let my head fall into my hands as my mother ’ s
email jogs my memory. Of course. The family vacation. With all the hustle
around the end of the semester, I nearly forgot that my mom has planned some
big reunion for me and my two sisters in a week ’ s
time.
    Our
mom has been here in Montana for nearly a month already, spending some time in
her hometown of old to “ ground herself ” or something. Really, I think she just needed to get
out of Vermont, and away from the house she used to share with Dad. His death
three years ago totally leveled her, caused her to become even more flighty and
erratic than she had been while we were growing up.
    Mom ’ s a visual artist, and a pretty decent one too. She
was always the fun, unpredictable parent while my father, Archie, was the
source of our stability. They really did balance each other well. Neither was
perfect, but they were perfect for each other. When we lost Dad, Mom lost that
sense of balance entirely. By the time I headed off to school, she was already
sleeping around again, inviting men back to the house on a whim, taking off on
unannounced “ trips ” despite
the fact that my little sister Annabel was only sixteen.
    This
inconsiderate streak of my mother ’ s is something I ’ ve learned to work around out of necessity. Since Dad
died, I ’ ve gone out of my way to spend as
much time here at school as possible. I even stopped going home for the
summers, claiming that I wanted to take extra classes in order to graduate
early. And while there may be a nugget of truth in that, the real reason I don ’ t go back to Vermont anymore is because it ’ s just too painful. I need to keep distance between me
and my family, for the sake of my own mental health. My older sister Maddie is
doing the same thing by settling down in Seattle, whether she realizes it or
not. Grief may unite some families, but it ’ s flung us Porter women all across
the country.
    Of
course, I couldn ’ t very well say no to a family
vacation when my mom planned for it to take place just a couple hours away. I
begrudgingly agreed to her little adventure, then immediately put it out of
mind. No getting out of it now, though. It looks like I ’ m headed into the backwoods for two weeks of awkward
family bonding.
    Between
the impending reunion and the fiasco that was last night, this summer ’ s really getting off to a good start, huh?
     

 
     
    Chapter Four
    Outside of Kalispell, MT
    One Week Later…
     
    Squinting
in the bright afternoon sun, I trudge along the narrow shoulder of the highway
with my heavy backpack weighing me down. I don ’ t
own a car, so my only way of getting to this middle-of-nowhere lake house my
mother rented was to take a bus from Sheridan. Little did I know that the “ nearby bus stop ” my mom swore existed would be
three miles away from my final destination.
    So
far, this vacation is definitely living up to my expectations.
    My
caramel hair is plastered to my sunburnt forehead, my shoulders aching with
lugging my pack along. If I knew I ’ d be hiking to our vacation spot, I
would have left War and Peace behind in my dorm room. Nothing to be done
now, I guess. If my mom ’ s directions are right (which at
this point is anyone ’ s guess) the house should be just a
ways down the dirt road coming up on my right. I pause to rest before the final
leg of my long walk, letting my