Total pages in book: 136
Estimated words: 135847 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 679(@200wpm)___ 543(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 135847 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 679(@200wpm)___ 543(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
Yeah, his mind was one-track. But it had been a while since he’d gotten some, she was sexy as fuck and their makeout sessions on Sunday were just enough for the time, but not near enough for how much he wanted her and how long it was turning out he’d had to wait to have her.
“Hey,” he greeted, and her gaze came to him.
He felt his step falter when he saw the expression on her face.
“Hey,” she said tonelessly.
When he arrived at her, she tilted her head back perfunctorily for him to touch his lips to hers.
This he did then took her bag from her hand.
She wandered in, her tote still hanging off her shoulder, her coat still on, and then she stopped and stared at the view.
“It’s better than I imagined,” she said in that weird voice.
He dropped her bag by the couch and asked, “Everything okay?”
She turned to him and shared, “I need to buy a new couch.”
And then she lost it.
Dropping her head and covering her face with her hands, he heard her wracking sob, and it rocked so deep, he felt it too.
Swiftly, he went to her, pulled her purse off her arm, tossed it on the sofa, then guided her there. He gently tugged her down on it, going with her and tucking her close as he stroked her hair with one hand and held her tight with the other arm, urging, “Get it out.”
He had no idea what she needed to get out, he just knew it was big.
Suddenly, she tore from his arms and stood, snapping, “Christ, I hate my brother.”
Right.
That might explain a few things.
“What happened?” Hale asked warily.
She started pacing. “I don’t know where to start. The fact my dad and mom have split up and they’re getting a divorce. Or she’s already moved out and into her lover’s house. That lover being my Uncle Adam, Dad’s best friend, a man I’ve known my whole life. Or the part where they’ve been carrying on an affair for nearly as long as I’ve been alive. Oh!” she exclaimed, narrowing her eyes on his face, which he knew held shock because he wasn’t hiding it. “That’s not even the best part, Hale. Guess who’s representing her?”
He didn’t have to guess with how she started this.
Still, he couldn’t believe it when she all but shouted, “Oskar!”
“Come here, sit down with me,” he ordered.
She didn’t. She tore her hand through her hair and continued pacing.
“Incidentally, I threw a drama at the restaurant and stormed out when I learned this, called Oskar, and tore into him. Dad had to use a tone he hadn’t used on me since I was seventeen to get me to calm down, go back in and sit down.”
He didn’t blame her for having that reaction.
She carried on sharing.
“At dinner, Dad and I got to a good place. It was hard on him, telling me all that. It was hard on me, hearing it. But we got to a good place. That’s us. We always get to a good place. Then, on the way here, I saw I had a dozen text messages from Oskar telling me to phone him. Telling me I needed to hear Mom’s side of the story. Telling me not to jump to conclusions. Telling me never to call him and shout at him or hang up on him again. And I knew in the meantime he got on the phone with Mom, because she called, twice, and texted to say she wanted some time with me. And if that wasn’t enough, Emilie called and left a voicemail to tell me to keep my nose out of it and let Mom and Dad deal. Good advice, except she shouldn’t be giving it to me, she should be giving it to our brother.”
“Agreed,” Hale said.
“And yes,” she carried on like he didn’t speak, “so you don’t have to do the mental arithmetic to get there, this means all of them knew before me. I’m sure because Mom told Emilie and Oskar and left Dad to tell me.”
“Does that upset you?”
“I don’t really give a shit,” she clipped. “Except Dad’s asked me to try to understand Mom’s point of view, which I promised to do, knowing it’s impossible. Twenty years, Hale. With his best friend.”
“That’s fucked up,” Hale concurred.
“But Oskar, if he does this, we’re done. I told Dad that, and it pained him, so I’m going to have to fake it as best as I can so, as Dad goes through this, he doesn’t worry about the state of Oskar and me. But mark my words, if my brother represents our mother in our parents’ divorce, he’s dead to me.”
“I’m with you, baby, one hundred percent. That shit is jacked.”
She stared at him a beat then plopped into an armchair. “God, I can’t believe I cried in front of you.”