Page 57 of Taken By Storm

“I’m sure there are, but I still need to explore other options first.”

Scottie sniffed. “Don’t take too long.”

She nodded, certain no other ten-minute conversation in her life had ever left her so completely drained, especially when he bent forward and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

Scottie turned and showed himself out. She heard muffled male voices outside, and then the door opened again. For a split second, she was afraid Scottie had changed his mind on giving her time, so she was relieved when Keith walked in. Even if he was scowling at her.

“Why was the mayor here?” The amount of disdain lacing the wordmayorproved her brother felt exactly the same way she did about Scottie.

Kasi blanked for a second, then came up with a lie. A lame one, but it was the best she could do. “His mom wanted a recipe. I copied it down for him.”

Keith stared at her, and she forced herself to hold his gaze because if he didn’t buy that lie, she didn’t have the brain capacity to come up with another.

Mercifully, Keith shrugged, then came at her from a different angle. “Where’s your boyfriend?”

Kasi sighed. “What’s your problem with Levi?”

He scoffed. “I don’t like how he thinks he’s in charge around here, acting like my father. FYI, Kass. I have one of those.”

“At least he’s helping out, contributing something.”

“Are you saying I’m not?” Keith fired back. “I just spent a week fixing the fucking fence.”

“And would you have done that if Levi hadn’t told you to?” She was tired of tiptoeing around Keith’s bad attitude.

“You know what?” he said, storming by her. “Fuck this. And fuckyou.”

He punctuated those words by stomping upstairs then slamming his bedroom door.

Yeah. Fuck her.

Kasi started to drag herself to the kitchen, intent on cleaning up dinner and putting the food away. She’d just lost her appetite in a very big way.

She wasn’t two steps inside the kitchen when there was another knock at the door.

“Grand Central Station tonight,” she grumbled, ready to send whoever was there, packing. She wasn’t in the mood for any more people-ing tonight.

Or so she thought.

Until she saw Remi smiling at her.

“Remi,” she said, opening the door.

“Hey, bestie. I haven’t seen you in ages. Was that Scottie I just passed coming down the driveway?”

“Yeah.”

“That dick really won’t take a hint, will he?” Remi knew about Scottie’s continual requests for dates—as well as her refusals—but she hadn’t mentioned the marriage talk because before tonight, it had been completely absurd.

“No. He won’t,” she replied.

“How’s your head?”

“Much better,” Kasi replied, touching her brow. The stitches were the dissolvable kind, and considering they were right at her hairline, it was easy to forget they were even there.

“So what’s with the weary face?” Remi knew Kasi better than anyone, the two of them closer than sisters.

“Nothing new. Just the same shit, different day.”

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