Page 3 of The B!tch List

Austen however, had screwed up his nose at the mention of the other three men using the book, but I’d slapped his back and smiled. “Think about it Aust’. The three biggest studs of Dayton Valley High, now married to really hot women.”

“Ugh, one of them is our sister,” he’d replied. “That’s gross.”

“Yeah.” I’d sighed. “But one is also Ellie Maples.”

He’d gone bright red, snatched the book, and marched away, his hand already down his shorts—he’d had a huge crush on Ellie since he was eleven years old.

“The point is,” Mom said, regaining my attention. “I need to know he’s being safe. One of those girls that called him sounded older, like a college girl, not a high school girl.”

I mentally high-fived my little brother if that were true.

“Mom, he’s good. He’s not stupid and he has condoms.” I knew he was using them because I’d spotted him buying more only the week before. Fair play to my little brother, that’d been a fucking big box I’d bought him.

She gasped and almost fell off her chair. “So, heishaving sex?”

And that was my cue to leave. I could not get into a debate with her about my sixteen-year-old brother having sex, I’d be there all day. That would also potentially move onto my love life where’d she’d question and bully me into admitting the only person I’d had sex with recently was Nancy Andrews, a girl it was common knowledge that I hated.

Well, hated might be a strong word, seeing I was pretty sure I was in lust with her pussy. It was just so damn good. Pity it was attached to Nancy.

“Mom, if you want to know just ask him.” I swallowed back the rest of my coffee, took one more bite of my toast and then stood and kissed her cheek. “But be prepared for him to tell you to mind your own business.”

“I don’t remember being half this worried about you and Bronte,” she replied, looking up at me with worry in her eyes.

“Well, maybe that’s because Bronte and I were sneakier. She taught me everything I know about creeping out of the house when you thought I was studying.”

Mom’s eyes went wide as she gasped and I knew then that it was most definitely time to leave.

* * *

Tate had set up his law firm in the old fire house, right at the end of Main Street. While it was a pretty old building, his mom had given him a huge sum of money to renovate it. That meant while it looked all of its red-bricked one-hundred-and three years old on the outside with huge double doors and two-story arch windows, inside it was pretty state of the art. We had the best of everything. Our meeting room was more like mission control with all the high-tech video conferencing equipment. This all meant that Tate could still run a top law firm in a small town. To be truthful though, he was all about helping those who didn’t have much, and I knew Tate was exactly the kind of attorney that I eventually wanted to be one day.

When I let myself in, Evie our receptionist had her head down and was looking at her phone. She’d worked for the local realtor Bobby Patrick but had got pretty pissed with having to make excuses for him when he let clients down. Kitty, Tate’s mom, had been the one who’d suggested she work for Tate, and she was doing a great job.

“Morning, Evie,” I said, tapping with my knuckles on her desk.

She jumped and slapped a hand to her chest before quickly throwing her phone to one side.

“Oh hey, morning.”

“You okay?” I asked, seeing as she was frowning and looked pale.

She glanced down at her phone and then back up to me. “Yeah, yep. All good. You okay?”

I studied her for a second and then nodded. “Yeah, great thanks. Tate in his office?”

“Yes,” she breathed out. “He’s going over some things with Robyn and then he has Hank Danvers coming in.”

Robyn was the firm’s secretary and she and her husband, Miguel, lived in nearby Middleton Ridge with their three-year-old, Macy.

“Shit,” I replied. “The Danvers thing still going on. I thought Wes had come to an agreement.”

“Apparently not.”

The Danvers brothers had been fighting over their father’s land since he’d died and left everything to Hank. Hank had agreed to give his brother half but that wasn’t enough for Wes. He’d been the one to help his dad work the land in the first place. Hank however, had been the one who’d bailed his dad out of debt ten years before, meaning he still had land to work. He’d never asked for the money back and was just glad the land stayed in the family.

“I’ll leave him to it then,” I replied.

“You want coffee?” Evie asked as I walked along the corridor to the main office. “I’m going to Delphine’s in ten.”

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