Page 66 of Recipe For Seduction (Madewood Brothers 3)

She knew she was being hard on him. But he deserved it. Not so much for the party itself as for the bad attitude and the rudeness. He still hadn’t apologized, and despite tasking Mark with the duty of cleaning up the mess on the front lawn, it had been waiting for her when she returned home from the tasting with Jack and Sterling. It was obvious Cal believed he was the innocent victim in all this, and that Veronica had majorly overreacted.

Granted, he had been doing well all week. He went to work and came right home. But he was nowhere close to having learned his lesson.

“Come on, V,” he whined, using the pleading, little-boy voice he used to use on her when he was still little and cute. He knew it almost always melted her resolve. “Give a dude a break, Sis. I may or may not have a date with the alleged high school blow job queen.”

She laughed out loud and rolled her eyes. “Oh, you do not.” She knew Cal wasn’t that kind of guy. While she didn’t expect him to be a virgin, he was no womanizer who took advantage just because he could.

“All right, fine, I don’t. But I still need the car.”

“Sorry. You’re still needed in the kitchen, and then Mark will be taking you right home, where you will be fulfilling the rest of your sentence.”

Cal’s veins started to throb in his neck. “This is all Mark’s fault and you know it. You’ve never grounded me before. It’s all because he’s here.”

Her heart tightened at the sound of the disdain in Cal’s voice. He was hurting about something, but both she and Mark were at a loss to figure out what. She shot him a sympathetic but immovable look. “Yeah, well, you’ve never had a party and trashed my house before.”

His ears must have been ringing because Mark sidled up to where they stood at the back of the barn. “Your voices are getting a little too loud for public consumption. What’s the problem?”

“Our little brother wants the car tonight.”

Mark laughed, but there was no humor in it. “You’re a piece of work. You actually asked to borrow the car? Do you not remember you’re on lockdown?”

“Thanks to you,” Cal muttered, but his words were loud enough to hear.

“What was that?” Mark stepped forward, his shoulders pulling back defensively.

Cal didn’t back down. He straightened and puffed out his own chest. The kid had height and was two inches taller than Mark. “I said, thanks to you I’m stuck in the house. V never grounded me before you came back.”

“Then you’ve had it too easy. If I’d been around for the last few years things would have been different.”

“Yeah? Well, you weren’t around. You fucking left us.”

Veronica shrank away into the shadowed perimeter of the barn. “Guys, people are starting to stare.”

“I don’t even know why you care, anyway,” Cal said fiercely. “You fucked off and never even visited. You left Veronica to take care of us all by herself.”

So the kid picked now to recognize her hard work and dedication to raising him? “Guys—”

Mark stepped backward and composed himself, wagging a finger at Cal. “You’ve had an attitude with me ever since I came home.”

She knew Cal had a chip on his shoulder when it came to Mark. She had thought maybe it was just a guy thing. But it suddenly hit her. Cal was angry because Mark had left them. He felt abandoned.

She knew the feeling well. She’d felt a little abandoned herself since the day Mark told her he was moving out west. But she knew it was for the best. For all their futures.

“Would you have rather we’d left you in foster care?” Mark demanded, lowering his voice. “We’ve done everything for you and your sister, trying to give you a better life than we had. At least Ali appreciates our efforts and is trying to make something of herself. But you, Mr. Ungrateful, are hell-bent on fucking up your life, aren’t you?”

Veronica ground her teeth and breathed out puff of frustration. Cal was a good kid. He was just going through a rough patch and needed more care and attention than Ali did. Veronica felt deep down he was close to a breakthrough. He didn’t need Mark’s guilt trip to set him back.

But before she had the chance to say so, Cal made a choking noise. “You’re both such assholes.” He pointed accusingly at Mark. “You don’t give a shit.” Then he swung around to her. “And you— You’re too busy fucking Finn to care about anything else.”

She gasped. As soon as the words left his mouth Cal’s face froze in consternation, realizing what he’d done.

“What are you talking about?” Mark snapped. “There’s no way Veronica is having sex with Finn. Tel him, V.” He turned to her and waited.

She opened her mouth but her words were big lumps caught in her throat, unable to explain. She could lie. Or she could tell the whole truth and take the opportunity to ensure this situation with Finn didn’t go any further than it had—because Mark would see to it. But she had never been a good liar.

“Tell him, Veronica, you are not fucking my best friend.”

Cal mouthed the agonized words, “I’m sorry.” He obviously knew he’d crossed the line and was in for an epic lecture. If he thought his grounding was going to be short-lived, he had another think coming. Try ten years. Make it twenty.

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