Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 69847 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69847 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
“No comment,” Banner walked up to Slone and hugged him tight, slapping him hard on the bare skin of his back, causing me to wince.
“Ow, you shit.” Slone shoved him away with a grin.
Briley walked up to Banner and circled her lanky arms around his midsection, pressing her face into his gut.
Banner picked her up and hugged her tight. “Have fun with my parents, girly. And if you want, I’ll tell you where my dad hides all the good snacks.”
Briley beamed at him and leaned back so that she could see Banner’s face.
“Where?” she asked. “And are these good snacks? Or old people snacks?”
Banner burst out laughing. “I don’t think there’s much of a difference between young and old people snacks, unless you’re talking about toddlers, and in that case, they’re normal snacks. Little Debbies, powdered donuts, candy. It’s all in a black box on the counter that says ‘Flour’ on it.”
“Okay, good.” Briley pressed her hands to both sides of Banner’s cheeks then said, “Be safe, Soldier.”
Banner choked and turned to Slone with a narrowed gaze. “You put her up to that, didn’t you?”
Briley squirmed out of Banner’s hold before saying, “Actually, Aunt Perry did.”
“I’ll kill her.” Banner shook his head and reached for Annabelle next.
Annabelle hadn’t been paying attention, but she didn’t protest the different position. All she did was lean into his chest and continue playing with her tablet.
“I’ll miss you, Anna Banana,” Banner cooed into her soft curls.
Titus grinned like the proud father he was, then took his kid when she said, “Bye, Ban.”
Ban.
That was sweet.
“See you when we see you,” Titus offered his hand to Banner, who pulled him into his chest in one of those man hugs that had a lot of back slapping and chest bumping. “Be safe.”
“I will. I have way too much to come home to to ever stray too far from safety,” Banner said.
After he let Titus go, he turned to me. “All right, Sleepy Head. I hope you have an excellent vacation with these two knuckleheads…and just know that Martina, Slone’s mom, loves Titus, but she likely won’t ever want him as a son-in-law in a throuple.”
I blinked at him as he said this, then turned to Titus before saying, “I hope with all that’s inside of me that I never gave you the impression that I wanted that.”
Titus grinned. “I know.”
I turned back to Banner with a narrowed look that clearly relayed my thoughts on that issue.
Not that I had a problem with people that chose to have more than one person in their life, that just wasn’t for me. I was selfish and had done enough sharing in my life with my twin. I wasn’t going to share with my significant other.
“I notice that you didn’t tell Slone you weren’t interested,” Banner teased.
I opened my mouth and then closed it, unsure of what to say.
In the end, I settled on nothing as my phone started to ring in the other room.
And seeing as I would rather do anything but talk to my sisters right now—I knew it was Hades—I just couldn’t stay in this room one more second longer. I didn’t do well with pressure, eyes on me, or discomfort of any kind.
Yes, Hades was definitely the lesser of two evils.
I raced into my room and answered just in time to hear her cursing at me for not answering.
“I answered,” I told her with a roll of my eyes. “What did you want?”
Hades blew out a breath. “I’m sorry.”
Then she hung up.
If there was one person in this world that did discomfort worse than I did, it was my twin sister.
She wasn’t sorry in the least, of course, but it was the thought that counted, right?
I started packing up what little I’d taken out of my bag last night, then made the bed.
Once I was done, I tucked everything where it belonged and started to drag it all out into the hallway.
Thank God for rolling wheels.
I arrived in the long hallway to find it lined with a sparkly pink one, a dark purple one with kittens wearing spacesuits, and two non-descript black ones.
The girls came pouring out of the kitchen with waters in their hands, and Slone followed behind now fully dressed.
I tried to hide my disappointment, and failed miserably.
He caught me looking at his t-shirt-covered chest and winked.
I felt my face flush and decided to go ahead and turn away in time to see Titus walking out in bright pink pants that looked great against his lightly browned skin.
“Wow,” I said as I looked at the fuschia shorts in wonder. “Those look amazing with your skin tone.”
I should get some.
“I know, right?” Titus patted them. “And they dry like super-duper quick.”
I looked away from his pants and noticed out of the corner of my eye that Slone was scowling.