Page 23 of An Unexpected Everything
“Just for once let us keep you safe.”
“Don’t get angry with me,” I snapped back. “I’m trying. I’m letting people take care of me. And you know how much I hate that. The man who attacked me is in jail and I’m fine.” Anotherlie. “But you keep changing the subject to me when I want to knowwhy.”
“I don’t have a reason. But there’s still this.” And then he crushed his mouth to mine, and I groaned into him, flashes of memory of before slamming into me. Of his taste, of his need. He kept his hands on my wrists, my palms on his chest. But his tongue lashed along mine, deepening the kiss. My body tensed, needing him as his rough kiss sent shivers down my spine. And when I pulled away, gasping for breath, he let my hands fall.
“That’s why I needed to leave. And that’s why I can’t stop thinking about you.”
And I just stared at the man who I thought I had known, wondering what the hell I was doing in Cage Lake.
Chapter Seven
WESTON
“I told you,it’s right there.”
“I don’t think so. If it was right there, I’d be able to see it. And I can’t. Therefore it’s not there.”
“That logic doesn’t work because I’m literally pointing to it right now.”
“Whatever. You are totally wrong. And we’re going to be late. How could you do that to me?”
I pinched the bridge of my nose, telling myself that this was almost over. I only had a few more months of twin sisters sniping at each other over something that was probably so ridiculous it didn’t make any sense.
I pushed my hair from my face, annoyed because I had been on my way to take a shower. I needed to wipe off my workout, get the sweat away, and then try to pour the coffee directly into my veins so I could make it to work without damaging something. Mainly myself and my sanity.
“Sam. Sydney. Are you too serious right now? It’s seven in the morning.” I looked at the clock over the stove. “Correction, it’s not even seven in the morning. I thought you two had some form of practice.”
“I don’t know why you’re saying that as if you don’t have our schedules permanently engraved into your head.” Sam grinned at me. “Plus, we already figured it out. Her notebook was just under those papers. Right where I said they would be.”
“No, you said they would be on the table. This is the side table. Totally different thing.”
Then the two little miscreants winked at each other, hugged one another, and proceeded to babble on about some form of gossip that I really didn’t want anything to do with. However, because my life was only about these two twin girls and my other brother, I sadly knew way too much about this information.
“And Candace is seriously stressing. Because Haylee and Kaylee were supposed to go to prom together, but instead they’re going to ask different dates. So now instead of a group of three friends, two of them have dates and one doesn’t.”
I paused in the act of pouring coffee. “I thought Haylee was dating Jason. When did they break up?”
Sydney rolled her eyes. “They broke up ages ago. Seriously. They decided that they were going to go to different colleges so why bother dating now? Plus neither one of them wanted to have sex, since getting pregnant or getting an STD is so last century.” She rolled her eyes and continued her conversation as if I hadn’t interrupted with my pesky question. It’s not like I really wanted to know the answer, but as I had been raising my twin sisters for eight years everything that had to do with the two of them was my life. Whether I liked the information or not.
Then her words caught up with me. “Wait, they’re not having sex?” I asked and then took a very large gulp of my too hot coffee. “I don’t actually want to know these things, but really. Does that mean you two aren’t having sex with your boyfriends?”
Raising teenage girls had already given me my first gray hair. At least, I thought it was a gray hair. I was thirty-five years old and had a single silver hair right at my temple. The girls loved itand thought it made me distinguished. And they thought maybe I would finally catch a wife. Their words, not mine. I blamed them for everything.
Because I loved the two little miscreants.
“We’ve had the sex talk before. I don’t know why you’re harping on it now,” Sydney said, while she put her attention back to her phone. Her fingers moved like the wind, and I wasn’t even sure how she could type that quickly.
“And it was a very descriptive talk. Full of support. You did great.” Sam held up both thumbs, as if I wasn’t ready to scream into the void.
“Do I really want to know what this conversation’s about?” Lance asked as he came down the stairs and shoved me out of the way to get to the coffee.
While the girls were eighteen, Lance was now twenty-six and starting business school. He wanted his MBA, and there was no stopping him. I had been able to get him through college, but the MBA was all on him. Thankfully his internships and scholarships were making it so he wasn’t starting his life off in complete debt. But I hated the fact that I was a mechanic. I might own my own business, but this was a small mountain town. I serviced the cars and trucks and vehicles for five to eight different small towns in the area. Not to mention every tourist that came by and needed help. That didn’t mean I had the type of money to send three kids to colleges of their choice, or grad school and beyond. Mom and Dad had left behind enough of their provisions and life insurance to get us by, but it wasn’t enough to do everything.
“You’re getting that look on your face again. What do you blame yourself for now?” Lance asked, and I flipped him off before draining my coffee and going to pour another one.
“I have a shit ton to do and stop making fun of my face.”
“But it’s such an easy thing,” Lance said as he wrapped his arm around Sam’s shoulder. “I mean, you make it pretty easy, big brother.”
