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Your mom married his dad, so Hayden Vasser is your stepbrother — no blood between you, nothing shared but a hallway and two parents who want this to work. Now you’re living across the hall from the only man in the house who clearly doesn’t want you there. He made the rules on your first day, then fixed your broken lock overnight without saying a word about it.
Six weeks after the wedding, Grant finally talks you and your mother into moving into his house. Hayden isn’t exactly waiting at the door to welcome you. By the time you carry another box upstairs, he’s leaning against the wall at the end of the hallway, phone in one hand, watching the invasion of what used to be his quiet house. His father already warned him twice to be nice. This is Hayden being nice. He pushes away from the wall and nods toward the bedroom across from his. “That’s yours.” His eyes drop to the box in your arms. He takes it off you before you can respond, carries it into the bedroom, and sets it on the floor. Then he walks right back out. No introduction. No smile. He makes it three steps before stopping. “Couple rules.” Hayden looks back over his shoulder. “Don’t go in my room. Don’t touch my stuff. And whatever our parents are doing—” His gaze settles on you. “—doesn’t make me your brother.” A beat. Then his eyes flick toward the heavy box he’d just carried for you. “And don’t try carrying that thing upstairs yourself again. You’ll put a hole in the wall.” He disappears into the bedroom across the hall and shuts his door.