Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 83211 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 416(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83211 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 416(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
“Sara, what are you doing here?” Bethany asks, walking up the driveway. “I thought that was your car.”
She has her mother’s long legs and my plump lips. She has long, blond hair but the same birth mark that our father and I have in the bend of our arms. Unlike her mother, she races toward me with open arms and lets me pull her into a big hug. This is the only thing that feels like coming home.
“Hey, you,” I say, letting her go. “Where have you been?”
She glances at the door to the house. “Don’t tell Mom, okay?”
“Bethany …”
“It’s nothing bad,” she says, the tone of her voice not matching the nonchalance of the words. “I was just at my friend’s house and her parents weren’t home. I know Mom will think the absolute worst and ground me for eternity.”
“That’s not cool, you know.”
She rolls her eyes. “I know you were the black sheep of the family. I’ve heard stories about your wild days. So don’t start lecturing me.”
“Listen, I’m not lecturing you about anything. And, yeah, I’ve had some wild days. But I wasn’t having them at fourteen and neither should you.”
She looks unamused.
“Listen to your mother,” I say, going back to the boxes. What will I need for Banks’s house? A burst of excitement pulses through me. “If you ever get in trouble, you can call me. You know that, right?” I look at her over my shoulder. “You should call me.”
“I’m not going to get in trouble. Relax.”
“So you think …”
I close the box with clothes and then open the bathroom box. I doubt he has appropriate shampoo and conditioner. He probably doesn’t even have a hairdryer. What about towels?
“Did you get your new house?” Bethany asks, sitting on a tote full of kitchen equipment.
“No. Not yet. I’m staying with a friend.”
“A friend that I know?”
I laugh. “I don’t know.”
“Ashley?”
“She’s married now, remember? I told you that,” I say, plucking a few towels out of my stash.
“Okay, so … Becca?”
I shake my head. “No, Becca was going back to Texas and let her lease expire. But then she changed her mind and lives in a one-bedroom cracker box. I’d be sleeping on the floor.”
“So who then?”
I fight a smile as I close the box. “His name is Banks.”
“Oooh. Okay. His name, huh?”
“You’re reading too much into this, Bethany. He’s Ashley’s husband’s brother and he lives right across the street from them. He’s—”
“Frigging hot.”
I spin on my heel to face her. She holds up her phone with the Social app on the screen. Smiling back at me is a picture of Banks, sans shirt, leaning against a car. Wow.
“You are moving in with this guy?” she asks, dipping her chin and raising her brows. “Is that what I just heard you say?”
I can’t help but laugh. “That’s what I said.”
“Can I come over?”
My laughter grows louder. “I don’t know. Maybe, but probably not. His house is a pigsty. You could get tetanus from stubbing your toe.”
She looks at the phone, then back up at me. “Might be worth it.”
“Stop it,” I say, shaking my head. “You’re too little to be looking at men like Banks.”
“Even his name is hot.”
“Help me gather this stuff and take it to my car,” I say. “Stop thinking about bad boys who are way too old for you.”
“Of course, he’s a bad boy. Darn it, Sara. He’s perfect.”
I burst out laughing again. “I’m never letting you around him. His ego can’t handle it.”
I grab the towels and toiletries. Bethany gathers the clothes I pulled out of the boxes.
“What’s your deal with this guy?” she asks. “Are you friends? More than friends? Are you engaging in activities that could lead to reproduction?”
My jaw drops. “Where do you get this stuff?”
“Health class.” She opens the back door of my car. “That’s how the teacher talks about sex. She makes it so weird. Like, just say sex. We all know what it is. Half my class has done it.”
“Have you?”
She sighs. “No.” She hands me the clothes. “I haven’t met the right guy yet.”
“I’m not making light of your teenage romances, but I assure you that you won’t meet the right guy for many years, and if someone tries to convince you that they are the right guy—he’s really not the right guy.”
I shut my door, and we start the walk back to the garage.
“But how do you know?” she asks. “How do you know a guy is the right guy?”
Didn’t see this coming.
I try to remember who I talked to about this kind of stuff because it definitely wasn’t Sabrina. She would lose her cool. It would destroy her image of the perfect little family, and she would avoid that at all costs.
Gretchen. I smile. I talked to Ashley’s mom about this. Now I need to be this person for my sister.