Page 21 of Unlikely You

The karaoke started up again and I did have a good time watching people sing their hearts out without managing to hit one single note. I could have gotten up to sing, but I only ended up having two drinks over the time I was there. I’d need at least three or more before I’d subject myself to this crowd, not that they were anything but supportive.

Singing with my family was one thing, but singing on my own in front of a bunch of attractive lesbians wasn’t on my agenda tonight. Things were just starting to turn a little wild and the dancing got sloppier and sexier. That was when I knew it was my time to leave. I wished I was the kind of person who could grab someone for a quick and dirty fingerbang in the bathroom, but I had fallen in love with literally everyone I’d ever had sex with.

I was cursed.

I decided against driving my truck home and called for a car instead, wondering how Bren was doing. I realized I’d missed a message from Bibliofile, asking if I’d been doing anything fun.

I went out and had some drinks by myself. Aren’t you proud of me? I left the house.

Her answer came through as I stood outside away from the smokers while I waited.

Going out isn’t always the best. I went out and regretted it. Now I’m home reading.

She sent me the link for the book, and it was one I had preordered but hadn’t read yet. Most of the time, I gravitated more toward low-conflict fluffy romances, but then there were times when all I wanted was to have my heart ripped out and mended, or to let myself have a good cry. There was nothing like letting all those emotions out over a beautiful story, wiping your eyes, sighing, and then putting the book away.

Going home to read is always the best place to be. You know we both agree on that.

It was one of the first conversations we’d had. About how we valued our reading time more than almost everything else.

The car continued to drive out of the city and toward the suburbs. Our farm was so close to the city, but it seemed a thousand miles away.

I rested my head back on the seat and exhaled. Going out was tiring. Tomorrow I was going to be dragging my ass, but I’d made Aunt Eileen happy, so that was something. I knew how much she worried about me. Too much, definitely. At least I wasn’t still hung up on Mila anymore.

I must have blinked and dozed off or something because a second later the car was pulling into the driveway and dropping me off. I made sure to thank the driver, and give the max amount of stars as well as a tip.

The exterior lights had come on, but everyone was already in bed, except for the glow of something electronic in Ember’s room that I could see.

I pulled myself upstairs to my apartment and headed immediately for the shower.

I’d been tired when I got in, but by the time I got out, I was getting a second wind for some reason. My skin tingled with energy and I wanted to do something pointless, like rearranging my furniture or reorganizing my bookshelves.

Instead I opened the book that Bren was reading and decided to start it and go until I passed out.

My alarm came far too earlythe next morning and all I wanted to do was lay in bed and sleep for another three hours at least. I couldn’t, though. It was another day at the marketplace, which meant I had to get all my chores done and feed everyone before we left and I got my truck from where I’d parked it.

I allowed myself to curse as much as I wanted to as I got dressed and pulled my boots on. Robotically, I went through feeding the chickens and the ducks, waving to my dad as he checked the bees, nodded at my mom in the garden, and did all the other random things you had to do every damn day to get a farm and apiary running.

My parents were doing a “meet the beekeepers” weekend, so it was up to me to manage the booth at the marketplace.

Ellie was in the kitchen when I returned from replenishing the little farm stand we had out by the mailbox with our fresh eggs. People would come by and get what eggs they wanted and leave cash. You’d think it would give people encouragement to steal, but that had only happened once. We had a security camera, but it had been broken for months. I kept forgetting to order a replacement.

Just another thing I couldn’t remember to do.

Too many things. I had too many things to juggle and I was so close to dropping a bunch of them.

I cut myself some slack by heating up frozen waffles and making scrambled eggs for breakfast and chucking some blackberries into a bowl. Archer was still at basketball camp, so I had one less mouth to feed, which was nice.

We got to the marketplace later than I wanted to, but it couldn’t be helped. I rushed around and did my best to get everything looking perfect. Bren was already here and was fiddling with her bookmarks. Her table was always pristine and perfect. True, she did it all by herself, but sometimes my siblings were more of a hindrance than a help.

Ellie was in a much better mood and asked if she could get a strawberry lemonade if she got me a matcha. I shouldn’t have said yes, but I couldn’t escape the lure of the matcha, so I sent her off along with an order from Ember for an iced half-caf coffee with a million syrups and nonsense. Ellie sweetly wrote down the order and dashed off to get it for us.

Ember was on her phone again but didn’t grumble too much when I asked her to open a new box of honey and start passing me jars.

“And can you please go fill up the water for tea?” I asked.

“Fine,” she said, which almost made me fall over.

I made sure everything else was ready and we only had a few minutes to spare, but I grabbed the QR code from Bren’s sign and sent her twenty bucks. Immediately, her phone went off and her head snapped over to me after she read the notification.

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