Total pages in book: 50
Estimated words: 47521 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 238(@200wpm)___ 190(@250wpm)___ 158(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 47521 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 238(@200wpm)___ 190(@250wpm)___ 158(@300wpm)
She nods, holding her breath. She looks worried and tense, and that’s not how I want her to feel when she’s with me. I want her to feel safe above all else.
“This you?” I ask, pointing at her door.
She nods, and I put my hand on her lower back. “Yeah, let’s talk about last night's misunderstandings.”
We walk into my classroom, and she stops abruptly. “Colby! What are you doing in here?”
He jumps out of his seat and stands facing us. His face goes white when he sees me standing next to Cassie. “Miss Waters! I thought you left already.”
Cassie pulls away from me and walks toward him. “What are you doing here, Colby?”
He shrugs. “My mom was late picking me up, so I thought I’d sleep a little until she got here.” He pulls his phone from his pocket. “I’m sorry. I know I shouldn’t be in here. I’ll go… my mom… She should be here soon. I’ll go wait by the front doors.”
Cassie stops him from leaving. I’m watching them closely, trying to figure out the situation. I know Colby. For the most part, he’s a good kid. But there are issues at home. Cassie is speaking to him softly. “Colby, it’s okay. I’m fine if you’re in here, you just have to let me know. You can wait here.”
The kid looks at me again and shakes his head. “No, that’s okay. I’m going to go. I’ll see you in the morning.”
Something is not right. I know Colby’s been having trouble at home, but there’s obviously more to it. Cassie must realize it too. “I’m going to leave soon, and if you’re still here, I’ll run you home, okay?”
He nods his head. “Okay, bye, Miss Waters. Bye, Officer Johnson.”
“See you, Colby,” I call after him.
Cassie looks worried, and I ask her, “You’re worried about him, aren’t you?”
She nods immediately. “Yeah, I understand it’s just him and his mom, but there’s more to it. I just don’t know what I can do to help him.”
I can’t tell her everything I know about the mom. If Cassie is worried now, she’d be even more worried then. I try to reassure her. “I’ll check on him when I leave here before I go to the station.”
“Okay, thank you.” She moves to the other side of her classroom and leans against her desk. I hate that she’s putting distance between us, and that’s obviously what she’s trying to do. She tilts her head to the side. “Can I ask you something?”
I tell myself I should stay where I’m at, but I can’t help it. I walk over to her, stopping just a couple of feet away. “You can ask me anything.”
She nods, crossing her arms over her chest. “When did you realize I was your stepsister? Is this some kind of game? You want to mess with your dad or my mom or something?”
My jaw tightens. “You think I’m messing with you?”
She shrugs, but her eyes remain on me. “I don’t know what to think.”
I take a step toward her and then another. When I’m standing right in front of her, I reach for her arms and gently unwrap them from across her chest. I let my hand trail down her arms and then thread our fingers together so I’m holding her hands between us. “I knew the first moment you saw me. Do you remember it?”
She laughs with a little snort and then stops suddenly, embarrassed. “Yes, I remember. I wasn’t drinking, and it was just last night.”
“Did your heart start to race?”
She rolls her eyes. “I just got body-slammed to the floor. My heart was racing.”
I smile knowingly. “Did you feel a tremble start at your neck and then it rolled through your whole body?”
Her eyes widen, but she shrugs. “I was holding ice to my head. Of course I was trembling.”
I’m not stopping. “Did your nipples pebble? Was there a tug in your lower belly that you didn’t quite know how to deal with? When you were sitting in front of me, your knees between mine, were you thinking about having my hands on you?”
She gasps, and her voice trembles when she asks me, “How did you? I mean—”
She doesn’t finish her sentence, so I lean down and am so close it’s a fight within myself to not just kiss her. “How did I know what you were feeling? Because I was feeling it too. Every bit of it and probably more graphic than you imagined.”
I pause and take a deep breath. “Cass, when I first saw you, I didn’t know who you were. I just knew that I wanted to know more. When Chloe called you Cassie, I put two and two together and knew that you were my dad’s new wife’s daughter.”
She laughs at my wording. “Your stepsister… I’m your stepsister.”