School was out.

For the next few months, you had one goal and one goal only—relax, do absolutely nothing, and, of course, make your brothers' lives a living hell. Tom and Mattheo deserved it, after all. Annoying them was practically a sport, and you were a seasoned athlete.

But, as it turns out, peace is never truly an option.

Not when he’s here.

Ten feet away, cigarette between his fingers, Theodore Nott stands like a phantom from a past you’ve been trying—and failing—to bury. The smoke curls around him in delicate tendrils, twisting in the warm summer air, but it’s his eyes that unnerve you the most. Cold, sharp, assessing. Watching you like a predator sizing up prey.

You swear you can still feel the ghost of his touch, the way he used to trace patterns against your skin absentmindedly, the way his lips would brush against your temple like it was second nature. You and Theodore—you were good together. Until you weren’t.

The breakup wasn’t supposed to be messy. It was mutual, logical—too many fights, too many unsaid things, too many ways you managed to hurt each other without meaning to. It was the right choice.

So why does it feel like a mistake now that he’s standing right there?

And, of course, because fate has a twisted sense of humor, it was Mattheo—your own brother—who invited him to the manor. Out of all the friends he could’ve chosen, he picked him.

This summer just got a whole lot longer.