I Could Never Read Online Penelope Ward

Categories Genre: Angst, Contemporary, Forbidden Tags Authors:
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Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 88317 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 442(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
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“No! Let go of my dick!”

I shut the dishwasher door and rushed over to see what was going on. The bathroom door was open. Through the frosted glass of the shower, I could see the silhouettes of two naked bodies. Scottie’s clothes were on the floor next to Josh’s.

“Why did he go in there?” I cried, stifling my laughter.

“Fuck if I know! Weren’t you watching him?”

“He was quiet in his room. I thought things were under control while I was finishing up the dishes.”

“One second I had my eyes closed, rubbing shampoo into my hair. The next thing I knew, the door slid open and he was standing in front of me, yanking on my crank.”

I cracked up harder, unable to hide it now.

“When you’re done laughing, do you mind taking him out of here and drying him off? I’m naked, so I can’t exactly leave right now.” He slid the door open just enough to let Scottie out. “Go on, Scottie.”

“Come on, Scottie. Leave Uncle Josh alone,” I said, trying not to stare at Josh’s body through the glass. “We’ll give you a bath after.”

Finally able to get him out, I dried Scottie off and led him back into his bedroom to get dressed. Maybe he prefers showers?

When Josh finally came back out into the living room, he wore a black T-shirt and gray sweatpants that were a bit tapered at the bottom. He smelled amazing, like soap and cologne. I tried not to admire how attractive he was, the way the shirt hugged his chest, the way his wet hair fell over his forehead. His big feet. The bulge straining through those fitted pants. Noticing such things had happened more times than I wanted to admit, and I hated myself for it. I chalked it up to the fact that I was a lonely, dried-up person right now who hadn’t had sex in more than two years and couldn’t help what my body reacted to.

I cleared my throat. “I’m sorry about that whole thing.”

Josh ran a hand through his hair. “Not like you could’ve anticipated he would do that, I guess.”

“How did Wayne handle showering? I hadn’t even thought about all of the trouble Scottie could get into while unattended.”

Josh knelt to rummage through his suitcase. “Wayne must have taken damn quick showers.”

“Yeah. Or wait…” I snapped my fingers. “I just thought of something.”

He looked up. “What?”

“Maybe he showered with Scottie, so he didn’t have to worry about that. That’s why Scottie jumped in the shower with you. He thought he was supposed to.”

Josh ran his teeth along his bottom lip. “Actually, that makes a lot of sense.”

“I know. So much we have to learn, huh?”

“Yeah.” He sighed as he stood and massaged his lower back. “One day at a time.”

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“Eh, that couch isn’t the most comfortable. Fucked up my back a little.”

“Why don’t we switch off?” I suggested. “You sleep in the bed tonight.”

“No. I don’t want you having the same problem. No one should be sleeping on this couch. I’ll go to the store tomorrow and find one of those inflatable air mattresses. We don’t have room for much else around here.”

“That’ll be a pain in the ass having to blow it up every night, won’t it?”

“That’s the least of my worries these days, Pumpkin.”

I chuckled. “I guess.”

He looked down at a DVD I was holding. “What’s that?”

“I found a box of DVDs in Wayne’s room. Most of them aren’t labeled. Any idea what they are?”

“No.” He pointed over to the television. “But there’s a DVD player right there. Pop that one in.”

I slipped the DVD into the machine and pressed play before sitting on the sofa next to Josh. After some initial interference on the screen, a home movie of the boys when they were younger came on. Brad must have been about eight, and Scottie was a baby who’d just started to walk. Their mom, Yvonne, sat on the ground, playing with them. She was so beautiful, with short blonde hair and large eyes. She kind of reminded me of a younger version of Carol Brady from The Brady Bunch. You could hear Wayne in the background, complimenting her. Yvonne blushed at one point. I’d never actually seen footage of her before—never realized how much Brad and Scottie looked like her, either.

“This house looks the same now as it did then, doesn’t it?” I said.

“Yeah, you ain’t kidding.”

Josh and I continued to peer into this heartwarming family moment. Scottie looked like he’d made more eye contact as a baby. It made me wonder how his autism came about, and whether he was born with it or something changed inside of him one day.

The camera returned to Yvonne again. Her face reddened every time Wayne focused on her. She didn’t seem to love being the center of attention.


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