Total pages in book: 155
Estimated words: 152045 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 760(@200wpm)___ 608(@250wpm)___ 507(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 152045 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 760(@200wpm)___ 608(@250wpm)___ 507(@300wpm)
“Sent her home,” Kade replies, still holding me in his lap. “I’d rather hang out with Dylan.”
The hair on my arms rises. Kade is like this sometimes. He’s not usually affectionate or playful like Hunter is, but when he does show this side of himself, it’s like he’s jealous.
Is he jealous?
After a few moments, Hunter tosses his controller toward me. It lands on the couch. “Here, you can both play,” he says to me, not looking at either of us.
Then he leaves the basement.
There were lots of instances like that, now that I think about it. It seemed, for years, like Kade just wanted me to go away. Later, I chalked it up to boys against girls and kids’ stuff, and I tried not to be hurt by it, but when we grew up, things changed. He started showing me more attention. Wanting me around. Including me. Even insisting I sit next to him at a movie or in the car.
And that’s about the time his and Hunter’s relationship deteriorated to the point where everyone could feel how thick the air was whenever they were in a room together. All the energy shifted, and I just wanted to be with them. I didn’t—and still don’t—understand what was wrong.
Sometimes I felt things for Hunter—like longing—but he never brought it up, and I was too embarrassed to think about it. Kade would touch me, hold me, and serve me lots of attention, and then other times, he would ignore me.
I’ve missed them both.
I throw off my covers and head into the hallway, looking left to right, and only hesitating a moment before I walk to the attic door. Opening it, I lift my eyes up the staircase, lit by the gray morning light coming in through the windows up there.
I don’t hear the rocking chair now.
I ponder going up, but almost immediately, I slam the door shut again, shaking off the chills.
The ghosts are leaving me alone. I’ll leave them alone.
I grab a pile of clothes and carry them downstairs to the washer. Dumping everything in, I find some powder on the shelf above and scatter it in the machine, starting the cycle.
The washer vibrates against my thighs as it starts, and I remember Weston’s obsession with exhibitionism. Reaching over, I turn on the empty dryer and move in front of it, slowly resting my hips against the machine.
The tremors shake through me, the ancient dryer rocking more than it probably should. But I tingle between my legs, and it’s not entirely unpleasant. I turn one of my legs out, pressing myself a little harder into it, and I close my eyes, letting it quake through my sleep shorts. My clit throbs, and I break out in a sudden smile.
My phone rings upstairs, and I jump, opening my eyes. Shit.
I turn off the dryer and run back upstairs. I race into my room and grab my phone, seeing it’s my dad.
I answer it. “Dad?”
“Can you tell me why I woke up to a half-naked photo of you online this morning?” he snaps.
The smile I didn’t know I was wearing falls. Photo… Calvin grabbed a pic of Hunter and me the night before last coming out of the shower.
And my dad’s just seeing it now. I’m guessing my uncles and Hawke worked very hard to hide it from him this long.
I blow out a breath and grab the towel I left at the bottom of the bed. “Because someone took an unauthorized picture of me coming out of the shower in my house?” I explain, making no effort to disguise the sarcasm from my tone. “Dad, you know where I am. These people are going to mess with me.”
“That’s not what I’m talking about!”
His growl is like a needle in my ear. I flinch.
“You need to calm down.” I hear my mom in the background.
But my dad doesn’t seem to hear anything she’s saying. “You were in a towel, and Hunter was in a towel!”
“Right now, babe,” my mom warns.
“You sit tight,” his voice pulls away from the phone slightly, like he’s covering the speaker. “I’m not happy with you, either. Who are these people she’s staying with that just let this go on under their roof?”
“Do you expect them to do it in the car like we always did?”
I press my lips together to stifle my laugh.
“I can still hear you when you cover my ears,” James says loudly, to Mom, I assume.
I head to the shower. “Nobody’s doing anything,” I assure him.
But my dad just gripes, “Goddammit,” and I hear a door slam shut.
He probably went into his den for privacy.
He hasn’t said happy birthday. He’s definitely not concerned with the other pictures of me breaking into the school.
“What do you want from me?” I ask.
“I want you to find a new hobby.” His reply comes quickly. “I’m glad you’re ambitious and excited, but you don’t know the world yet. Trust that I do, and there are a dozen other things you’ll love just as much, if you open your mind.”