The Other Brother

By Elle Fielding

Breanna Webber and Lawson St. James have been enemies since Christmas Day fifteen years ago. Sure they spent one hot night together not too long ago, but that was a mistake. Or was it? Forced to work together over the holiday period, they must decide whether a repeat is in order. Is there more to their antagonistic relationship than either of them has dared to admit, like love?

 

*Originally published as It Started One Christmas, this 15,000 word novella was previously part of the Christmas anthology Wrapped In Romance.* 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Elle Fielding
• Release date: Feb 23, 2023
• ISBN: 9780645585858

Elle Fielding

Elle Fielding is a true-blue Aussie who's as passionate about romance as Melbourne is about its four-seasons-in-one-day weather. Her love affair with romance novels started in her teens, fuelled by a steady diet of Dolly Fiction, Love Stories, Loveswept, and those irresistible Harlequin Mills & Boon tales. With a diary full of her own unrequited crushes, Elle figured it was high time to start creating some love stories of her own. Elle's first crack at writing romance was, let's just say, a learning curve. But she's been honing her skills, swapping out personal misadventures for the sweeping world of fiction. She's now living the dream, writing her own romance novels and loving every minute of it. When she's not busy writing or getting lost in a good book (or audiobook), Elle's living her own fairy tale on the Mornington Peninsula with her very own Mr. Perfect. For Elle, life's all about capturing those happily-ever-afters, both in her stories and beyond the pages.

Book preview

1

December 25th, 15 years earlier...

The summer sun burns my back through my pink cotton tee as I speed towards the dirt park on my new bike. I’ve only just managed to convince my father to let me out for an hour, and I think that’s because he’d had too much of my aunt’s mulled wine. I’ve never been more grateful for her tradition of making that stuff. Every night for the past six months, I’ve gone to sleep thinking about and wishing for the Pink Nitro BMX I laid eyes on at Whitby’s Bike Store back in June. Today is Christmas Day, and it’s finally mine.

The scents of roast turkey and meat on the barbecue and the sound of people shouting and laughing fill the air. Everyone in our neighbourhood has their Christmas lights on. I wave to some of the families I know. The Allens are playing street cricket. The Bourke kids are skateboarding. Jilly Bourke looks to have a new board and her brother Jamie is putting a ramp together out the front of their place. They have my favourite decorations up: a giant inflatable Santa surrounded by snow and reindeer. Normally, I would stop to admire it and talk to Jilly and Jamie, but not today.

After months of imagining myself racing up the dirt hills at the bottom of my street, I’m going to experience the rush and the thrill for myself. I’ve walked past the bike park so many times on my way home from school, and every day I watch the same boy performing the most awe-inspiring jumps. Today, I get to watch him up close. If he’s not away for Christmas, that is.

I spot him as soon as I walk through the gates. He thrusts his bike up the hill right in front of me, somersaulting in the air before he hits the ground. After landing gracefully, his gaze flicks to me briefly before he rides off.

Whoa, I whisper.

He could be a movie star—or, even better, a stuntman. I want to do jumps like that. Will he teach me if I ask him nicely? 

I’m so busy being impressed by his speed and agility that I don’t even register there’s someone standing beside me until they tap me on the shoulder. Momentarily, I forget my idol as I turn around.

I find myself staring into the face of the most gorgeous boy I’ve ever seen. His shaggy long brown hair is bleached by the sun, one lock nearly covering his eye. He’s tanned with green eyes the colour of moss.

Hi, I’m Jax. Don’t see a lot of girls here at the bike park.

I check out his wheels. His bike is a really good one. I’ve been begging my dad to buy me this bike for months so I could ride it here.

I don’t want to tell him I even wrote a letter to Father Christmas even though no one in class thinks he’s real.

Jax looks down at my pride and joy. Your dad caved.

I shrug, as if talking to a cute boy isn’t anything particularly out of the ordinary. Yeah.

Cool, he says. So, what’s your name? You know, so I don’t have to call you Nitro.

The idea of being named after my bike makes me grin, and I tuck a lock of my light brown hair behind my ear. Breanna. Bree for short.

Nice to meet you, Bree. Where do you go to school?

Rosebud East Primary.

Saint and I go to Rosebud Heights Primary, so I guess that explains why I haven’t seen you before.

Saint? I ask.

Jax motions to the superstar currently performing another somersault in the air. ‘Saint’ lands on the ground fifty meters from where I’m talking to Jax, pausing to watch the two of us.

That’s Lawson, my brother, Jax says. People call him Saint.

That’s his brother? Wow, I’m in the midst of bike royalty. Why do they call him Saint?

Our last name is St. James.

I don’t ask why Lawson is known as Saint while Jax is known as Jax. What I really want to know is whether Lawson is as nice as Jax, and whether he’ll teach me to ride the way he does. 

Saint’s really good, I tell Jax as I watch his brother pedal towards where we sit astride our bikes.

Jax chuckles. Don’t tell him that. He already thinks he’s the best.

Saint might be right about being the best, but I keep my mouth closed and my opinion to myself as he