Page 103 of Forever Yours

“Your stepsister… I mean, soon to be stepsister.” Her face lit up bright red. “Beverly… I mean, Miss Devoe asked if I could pick you up. She’s busy with wedding stuff.”

Miss Devoe, not Mrs. Barnes. Mom was using her maiden name.

April trailed off when I didn’t say anything. It shouldn’t surprise me that Mom sent someone else to get me. I had half expected the assistant or a driver standing at baggage claim holding a piece of paper with my name written on it.

Because April was acting all awkward, I tried to put her at ease.

“It’s nice to meet you. I didn’t know I was getting a stepsister.”

“Beverly didn’t tell you?” she asked, genuinely surprised.

Mom would have to talk to me in order to tell me stuff.

“We don’t talk much. Are you parked out front?”

She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “No. I parked in the multi-story. You have everything?”

“Yeah. Good to go.”

With the strap of my carry-on over my shoulder and my rolling suitcase in one hand, I walked beside April as she led me to the bay of elevators.

“How are you liking Stanford?”

Unbelievable. Mom was still telling people I was at Stanford? Could she not remember I was at CU now?

She’d have to give a shit.

The doors whooshed open, and we stepped inside.

“I’m not at Stanford. I go to Carolina U.”

April pressed a button, and the lift started rising.

“But Beverly… never mind. My other stepbrother, Justin, goes to Carolina. Small world.” She chuckled.

Other stepbrother?

“How many do you have?”

Her face flushed again when she looked up at me. “Just him, and now you.” She leaned in conspiratorially-like. “But I have three stepmothers. Beverly will be the fourth.”

“Seriously?”

She nodded.

“What kind of lawyer is Brad?”

“Divorce. Ironic, huh?” She snort-laughed, which made me laugh.

April was cute as hell in a sweet, geeky sort of way. She reminded me so much of Jessi when I first met her at camp.

“Justin will arrive tomorrow morning. I guess he’s not my stepbrother anymore since Dad divorced Maura last year, but he’s coming to the wedding. The guy is a major ass licker. Can’t stand him.”

So, April was a TMI chatterer. I also didn’t need the visual she’d just painted.

“Don’t you mean ass kisser?”

“Just wait until you meet him. Total douche. But Brad dotes on him. Justin is the son Dad always wanted but never could procreate himself. He got stuck with me. You’re a guy, so he’s going to love you just because you have a dick between your legs.”

---