Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 87155 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 436(@200wpm)___ 349(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87155 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 436(@200wpm)___ 349(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
She drove me to work each morning, usually wearing a fucking skirt so unlike her that I couldn’t decide if I wanted to bunch it at her hips as I spread her legs wide or rip it off and burn it.
Her office was next door, so she came over periodically to check in and talk to her dad. She was always smiling and laughing. It was fucking torture because I became Pavlov’s dog, my mouth watering each time the bell on the door would ring.
Nora had started back at work, so Thea drove me home too. She’d talk and tell me about her day, groaning as she vented about her crazy clients and giggling as she made jokes about her clients who weren’t crazy enough.
Each night, she’d settle into her corner on the couch, wearing one of her many pairs of baggy pajama pants. Most of them had a ridiculous pattern like dueling bacon and eggs or Bill Murray’s face. It pissed me off how much they made me want to laugh. Worst of all though, she paired the damn things with a tank top that hugged her breasts and left me holding my cock every time I got a minute alone.
It was hell. Absolute hell. My PO had a lead on a room for rent in a privately-run halfway house of sorts. But not living with Thea only solved a few of my problems. I was still working for Joe. He’d blackmailed me into taking the job, so I assumed that leverage extended to me keeping the job as well. My sister was still living with her, which meant she’d still be a part of the equation no matter where I rested my head at night.
And there was Thea. Stubborn, determined, and hell-bent Thea.
Cutting her out of my life hadn’t dissuaded her. Neither had being a dick. It seemed prison walls were the only thing that could keep her away.
I needed to step it up a notch. Though I had no fucking clue what that entailed.
Opting out of another shower when I remembered the way she’d looked on her knees in my fantasies the night before, I used a washcloth to clean up, and then I got dressed.
When I opened my bedroom door, I was hit with the sound of Thea’s laughter ringing down the hallway. Like an emotional masochist, I froze, hidden out of sight, and allowed myself a second to absorb it.
“She called it pot roast.” Thea laughed. “But it tasted like that mystery meat they used to serve in the school cafeteria.”
“Oh, come on now. It wasn’t that bad,” Nora replied.
“Yes. It was. I haven’t had to hide food in my napkin since I was six.”
“She caught you, didn’t she? Oh, God, please tell me she caught you.”
“Would it be my life if she hadn’t?”
Together they burst into a fit of laughter that washed over me like a cool summer breeze. That made it worth it. All twelve years and listening to them make jokes and tell stories, breathing free and easy, made it absolutely worth it.
I was still grinning when a woman appeared at the mouth of the hall.
“Shit!” she yelled when she saw me. She clutched her pearls and blew out a ragged breath. “Jesus, you scared me.”
She was familiar, but my brain couldn’t pinpoint who she was or why she was standing in our house at seven thirty in the morning.
Pink, glossy lips.
Long, blonde hair.
A flowy dress and towering high heels.
It clicked. Tiffany Martin. Thea’s once archnemesis-turned-stepsister.
It was odd, running into people from my past. A few of our old classmates had been into the shop. Jeremy Dantis had greeted me with a handshake. Mike Shriver had turned around and walked right back out, slamming the door to his car before peeling out of the parking lot.
I waited to see which type Tiffany was.
A row of white teeth nearly blinded me as she smiled. “I brought some donuts. You want one?”
I wedged a hand inside my front pocket. “I’m good.”
“He won’t eat if I’m here,” Thea called out. “Sometimes I sit at the kitchen table and read just so he has to go hungry.”
Tiffany’s smile grew. “You’re like that deer repellent my mom sprays in the garden to keep the does off her tomatoes.”
“Pretty much.” Thea laughed. “Come on, Ramsey. I’m going to be late if we don’t leave soon.”
Like my own personal superhero, Nora rounded the corner to save me, holding a chocolate donut no less. “Here. I saved you the custard-filled one.”
“Thanks,” I mumbled, taking the donut. My stomach rejoiced that it wouldn’t have to settle for a banana for the seventh morning in a row.
“I packed you a lunch for today too. Misty called and ratted you out about not eating the takeout Thea brought over yesterday.”
“See? Deer repellent,” Thea said from the kitchen.