Summer in Bloom - Chapter 3

Once the sounds outside the door faded, I quickly took my hand away.

Heat kept washing through the palm I’d held over his mouth.

He was still staring at me.

I swear, apart from me, he was the best-looking guy I’d ever seen.

When I was little, I’d see other children with younger brothers and pester Mom to give me one, too.

This was exactly how I’d imagined him.

He was the same age as me, so how was he so…

So cute.

I stroked his cheek.

He froze. So did I.

What was I doing?

I scrambled to cover for myself.

“Ahem. I’m your big brother. Can’t I touch your face?”

“You still haven’t told me your name.”

His voice was lovely.

“I’m Qi Xia.”

I was puzzled.

“Aren’t you Mom and Dad’s biological child? Why haven’t you changed your surname?”

Shouldn’t it be Lu?

“I have my mother’s surname.”

Oh. Right.

Qi Xia seemed pretty easy to talk to.

I’d scared him, though, and it was late.

“I only came to see you today. I’ll go now. I’ll come back another time, and we can talk.”

He caught my wrist.

He looked adorable, but he had quite a grip.

“You scared me.”

And?

He blinked innocently.

“Ge, could you stay and sleep beside me?”

I’d already lain down before it occurred to me that something was off.

Before I could work out what, he spoke.

“Ge, what did you want to talk about?”

“I’m still a little scared. Can I hold your arm?”

That didn’t seem like a great idea.

But I was the one who’d scared him.

And he was looking at me with that beautiful face, those trusting eyes, calling me his big brother so sweetly.

When I didn’t refuse, he shuffled closer until he was slowly nestling against my arm.

Under the covers, he took my hand.

We were so close that Qi Xia’s clean, cool scent, like spring water, washed over me.

At last, I remembered what was wrong.

Two nineteen-year-old guys sleeping under the same covers and holding hands was definitely weird!

I was about to pull away when Qi Xia spoke drowsily.

“Ge, what were you going to say?”

“I’m sleepy.”

Business first.

Appealing to both his heart and his head, I explained that while he was their biological child, I was the one Mom and Dad had raised.

“So we shouldn’t shut each other out.”

“We should get along.”

“It’s wrong of you to refuse to meet me. You know that, right?”

Honestly, I was beginning to have doubts about Qi Xia’s intelligence.

Whatever I said, he just looked at me earnestly and nodded.

I’d nearly talked myself to sleep when something occurred to me.

“My parents are your parents. Then where are my parents?”

My biological parents?

I was almost asleep by the time Qi Xia answered.

“They passed away.”

He seemed to press closer.

“But don’t be sad, Ge.”

“I’m not going to fight you for Mom and Dad. I’ll join this family, and we’ll make a new family together.”

So they were dead.

The parents whose blood I actually shared were gone.

I wasn’t really sad.

Just a little dazed.

It was hard to describe.

I’d never lacked love growing up.

Mom and Dad were so good to me. Even if I wasn’t their biological child, I couldn’t imagine anyone treating me better.

When I thought of parents, whether my eyes were open or shut, they were the only people I could picture.

As Mom said, I hadn’t grown inside her womb.

I’d grown inside her love.

Make a new family together?

I was so sleepy.

Qi Xia had actually offered it himself.

That was exactly what I’d come for.

“Okay.”

Even in my dreams, I could feel a pair of unusually bright eyes watching me.

I dreamed all night that I’d wandered into a lake and become entangled in a beautiful vine.

When I woke, Qi Xia was holding me tightly, half his body draped over mine.

I moved a little, and the person in my arms woke up.

Bleary-eyed, he lifted his head and kissed my cheek.

“What are you doing?”

I was stunned.

Qi Xia froze, too.

After a moment, he blinked.

“Sorry, Ge. I thought you were my mom.”

“Mom used to sleep beside me like this.”

“You look so much like her.”

Of course I did. She was my biological mother.

I looked at the old photo Qi Xia had kept tucked away. The woman in it was strikingly beautiful.

So I hadn’t won the genetic lottery.

I’d been copied and pasted.

Qi Xia was still watching me hopefully.

I shook the strange thoughts out of my head.

“Fine. It’s okay.”

“But don’t kiss me again.”

I got out of bed to get ready. Behind me came a muffled, “Okay.”