Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 68459 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 342(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68459 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 342(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
He frowned hard. “Hollis lives here, and she’s my sister.”
“Hollis is at work, and if you knew your sister, you would know that,” I returned.
I’d asked Hollis last week about her schedule, and found out that she works every single Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and every other Wednesday.
This being Monday, there was no surprise to her schedule.
Apparently, she’d been working that for her entire career at the hospital.
“Oh,” Tay frowned. “Do you know where she works? I have to apologize.”
He had to apologize…
“You don’t’ even know where she works?” I asked incredulously.
“No,” he shrugged. “I was…”
Selfish? Self-centered? An asshole?
“A jerk,” he finished, going a little light on himself. “Anyway, something happened yesterday, and I felt the immediate pressing need to let her know that we were jerks, and we won’t be playing Mom’s games anymore.”
Mom’s games?
“Your mom is the one who always instigated that?” I asked.
“She thinks it’s funny.” He shrugged. “And since Hollis never reacted how she wanted, she kept doing it. Mom stopped it with us when we got angry, but Hollis never gets angry… and we’re jerks.”
Yeah, they were.
After another fifteen-minute conversation with him standing in the hallway and me blocking his way inside, I said, “I’m going to take her lunch soon. If you go outside, I’ll meet you down there. Gotta get dressed.”
“I can’t come in?” he asked.
I shook my head. “No.”
Then I shut the door in his face.
When I next emerged, he was indeed waiting outside for me.
I gestured toward my truck and said, “Get in.”
He did, his eyes gleaming as he took in the new interior.
“This is a nice truck, how much did it cost you?”
I ignored him, not answering him.
It was none of his business, and he needed to know that.
“Can I ask you a question?” Tay asked, sounding genuinely curious.
Tay was the most assholish nineteen-year-old I’d ever met.
Honestly, if he wasn’t Hollis’s brother, I wouldn’t be able to stand him.
Yet, here I was, trying to play nice.
“Sure,” I said, wanting to answer none of his questions. Absently, I pulled into the closest hamburger joint to the hospital and got out. “Come on.”
Truthfully, I’d rather he leave. I’d rather he not be here, giving the fakest of attempts to repair a relationship with Hollis that I had a feeling was just a way to continue to get his good Christmas and birthday presents.
Yet, Hollis didn’t see that.
And I was going to hope that her family was better than that.
I’d just made my way inside when I saw my brother at the counter ordering his own food.
He must’ve just come from the hospital, because why else would he be here?
“Hey,” I called to him as I sidled up to his side. “Why are you ordering a hamburger so early?”
Auden grinned weakly before saying, “It’s been a long night. Just got done with a nightshift at the hospital.”
Auden picked up the occasional security shift there when his good friend couldn’t take it.
Forgetting about the little asshole at my side, I placed my food order with Auden’s, then said, “To go on that.”
I wasn’t getting a burger this early in the morning, but I knew that Hollis would enjoy it. Maybe she could eat the lunch I packed as a snack.
“Hey, what about my order?” Tay asked when Auden paid.
I pulled out a ten and handed it to Auden before saying, “I’m not paying for your food. What was your question?”
“Do girls actually like being fingered?” Tay asked, momentarily forgetting about food.
I nearly pinched the bridge of my nose as I tried, and failed, to find a good way to answer that.
Then, before I could stop myself, I said, “Well, I guess the question is, do you know the difference between summoning a genie and stuffing a chicken?”
Tay blinked.
My brother was now wheezing in the corner next to the drink machine. The lady behind the counter made a high-pitched gasping noise as she tried to control herself.
“What’s that got to do with anything?” Tay asked.
Auden choked.
The lady waiting for her food next to the drink machine managed to collect herself before saying, “Honey, he’s trying to teach you. Listen.”
“Okay,” Tay said as he followed us to the waiting area beside the drink fountain. “What does that mean?”
“It means that you’re too young to be doing this if you don’t know how to do it right. Do your research,” I said as I tried not to flick him in the forehead.
Why was I dealing with this?
Oh yeah, because Hollis was deep under my skin.
So that was how I spent the next ten minutes. Auden gave lessons, and I stayed still with my hips against the wall, trying not to add in my two cents.
“There’s this inner demon inside of each man,” Auden said as he stared at Tay. “On one hand, there’s this good guy who’s saying, ‘stop licking, her legs are shaking.’ And then there’s the bad guy who says, ‘keep going. Put her in a coma.’”