Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 67465 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 337(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67465 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 337(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
“But if it’s in the will, what can you do?”
“Stage a damn revolt. That’s what I can do.”
“That sounds like a horrible way to tear apart the company.” The priority should be keeping it together and making sure everyone has a job, not going to war with her brother. I don’t say that because, yeah, taking his side and all that wouldn’t go over well.
It’s not like my lifelong crush will ever sway my decision or anything. I mean, it’s all just silly, really. What younger sister’s BFF falls hard for the broody, muscular, hunky older brother with a heart of stone? Right. Fuck.
“It’s either you try and talk his intentions out of him, or I mic up Nanny’s house.”
“Kimmy, for the love of…Are you insane?”
“No! It’s the perfect plan. We don’t even have to put the mics inside the house. We can set them on the window ledges or attach them right to the windows at night and listen in. It’ll be fun. We can even tell Nanny. She’ll be up for it. She always did love a bit of espionage.”
“Yeah, in books and on movies, not wiretapping her damn house and phone.”
She shrugs like she isn’t affected by my protests to this at all. And also like she’s not going to go along with me at all in resisting. If she wants a wiretap, she’s getting the damn wiretap, one way or another. “Whatever. I have a way to get us in.”
God, what could be worse than how bad this already is? “I’m scared to ask how.”
“Nanny is having a surprise welcome home party for him.”
“Oh lord.” This just went from bad to the bottom of the freezer level bad.
“First of all, everyone told my brother not to marry Tina straight out of high school. She was pretty and way too popular and blonde. My brother thought he was in love, but he was just being a guy and thinking with his willy. No one thought it would end well, and no one was even surprised when they divorced a few years ago. He didn’t want to come home to a bunch of told-you-so and slices of humble pie, so he freaking stayed in Europe and only bothered to check in—oh, right. Never. That doesn’t entitle him to anything, so you don’t have to feel sorry for him.”
“I’m not feeling sorry for him! I just think this isn’t going to work on any level. And what happened with his marriage was tragic. Tina ran off with two guys—twins. Body builders. Not one guy. Two. That’s just the worst. And the only way anyone found out about it was because she changed her social media and put pictures of herself up with hashtags like freshly divorced, bitches, and moving in style, double time.”
“He’s back because he’s a thieving poop-pants, and he wants this company to prove he’s not a total failure because he bungled things up so badly with the latter part of his life. That’s his redemption plan. I’m sure of it.”
“Well…if we do go to that party—and I’m not saying I’m going to do this—it would be best if you could keep your animosity to a slow burn instead of a bonfire-style blaze that rips through everything. He’s never going to trust any of us if you go at him, attacking and accusing him and calling his ex-wife a hussy.”
“She was a hussy,” Kimmy sniffs.
“Well, yeah, but still.”
“Say you’ll do it,” Kimmy begs. “Or at least try. It’s what you’ve always wanted.”
“Stop bringing my teenage self into this.”
Now Kimmy’s face isn’t just pure evil. It’s ultra evil times a thousand. “Friendships sometimes blossom. Besides, he’s lonely right now, as you said. He doesn’t know anyone, and he could use a sympathetic ear. You could even play the double agent and say you’re taking his side over mine because I’m the big bad baby sister. You could tell him that the company is totally his, and you’ll help him out because he’s a nice guy who had a bad rap in life, so you’re all about it because you have a bleeding heart for him. He’ll eat that shit up.”
“I don’t think you’re giving him any credit. Or me.”
She sighs. “Do you really want to go down in flames? Because seriously, you have an English degree. I told you to do business, but you wouldn’t listen. What are you going to do with that when we’re both fired, and I’m not around to save your bacon?”
Honestly, I’d like to say that I’d get a job wherever and do what it takes, but I have people depending on me—mainly my mom and dad because they never recovered. I have a mortgage, and I also have car payments and other bills. If I lose this job and can’t find something that pays this well—and I know I won’t because Kimmy is kind of right about the whole English degree thing—then my life is screwed. It sucks all around because I had to do something I loved, not something I didn’t love. Even if everyone was kind of right about that, I refuse to admit to it, and I refuse to regret it.