The Boys Next Door (Excerpt)

Chapter 1

The Boys Next Door. Copyright © June 2017. All Rights Reserved.

Shouts and splashes echoed through the late May afternoon, bouncing from the neighbors' backyard pool to Diana's second story bedroom.

She stretched out on her unmade bed, trying to lose herself in Hamlet and ignore the party going on next door. Senior finals were coming up, with graduation two weeks away, and even though she was set to go to Yale in the fall, the grades still mattered to her.

But every time she turned a page, some girl would shriek or some guy would bellow, or another splash would tell her someone had jumped in the pool, and it just reminded her how very hot her room was and how very alone she was this weekend.

Throwing her book aside, she tugged the window open to let in some air, glaring at the O'Brians' landscaped patio and manicured lawn.

Beer bottles littered the grass, thumping bass shook her floor, and sleek bodies in swimsuits dove into the glistening pool. Her eyes swept the yard for the twins: tall, muscled, powerfully built, moving with an easy confidence that made her sick with envy.

Her gaze stopped at a tanned male stretched out on a patio chair, beer in hand, surrounded by laughing girls.

Hard to tell from this distance whether it was Brendan or Ian. Up close, she'd know the difference right away: the cleft in Brendan's chin, the dark freckle below Ian's left eye, were obvious signs to anyone who knew them well.

But she hadn't been up close to them in years, and she couldn't say that she knew them well. Anymore.

The twin on the patio looked up from the bevy of girls, sipping his beer. Suddenly, his eyes met hers.

Shock zinged through Diana. God, she was in her underwear because it was so hot, and spying on her neighbors' party like the social lame-o that she was, and he'd seen her!

She ducked below the window, her heart beating fast. Maybe he hadn't seen her. Maybe he'd seen her, but he hadn't noticed her black lace bra and the creamy cleavage spilling over the top.

Once her heart slowed down, she crawled along the floor and maneuvered back onto her bed. No way would her hand slide into her panties just because a pair of hazel eyes had turned her insides to jelly.

Tossing aside her black-rimmed glasses — oversized enough to be hip, if you embraced the hipness in being a complete nerd — she squinted at her laptop, trying to motivate herself to bang out another 500 words before she took a break.

But she couldn't forget the eyes that had just met hers. Heat curled through her body that had nothing to do with embarrassment.

Shaking her head, she closed her laptop. How pathetic could she get? Saturday afternoon, sunshine so gorgeous it hurt, and she was alone in the house with Hamlet and her half-written paper for company, ignoring her friends' texts because schoolwork came first.

Meanwhile, her parents were spending the weekend at the beach with Mr. and Mrs. O'Brian, and the twins, home from UConn for the summer, took advantage of having the house to themselves. Themselves, and thirty other people.

Diana could hear her mother's excited voice in her head: "When you go to Yale, the twins will practically be your neighbors again! It'll be almost as good as having them next door. You can go cheer for them at their basketball games, and they can get you settled into campus life."

Diana didn't have the heart to remind her mother that their schools were an hour apart, and no one would be cheering or helping anyone get settled — except in their parents' imaginations.