Total pages in book: 32
Estimated words: 30980 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 155(@200wpm)___ 124(@250wpm)___ 103(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 30980 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 155(@200wpm)___ 124(@250wpm)___ 103(@300wpm)
His jaw muscles clench as he grits his teeth, the anger burning in his eyes impossible to miss. My brother is usually passive. He’s not an emotional person, preferring calm, cold logic to passionate outbursts. Seeing him standing there, his face almost purple with rage as he stares at me, is as foreign as it is disturbing to me. This just isn’t like him. It’s beyond strange to see, sort of like watching a dog driving a car. It’s just something that doesn’t happen.
“How can you say this has nothing to do with me? You’re my sister and he’s my best friend,” Derek says, a strained calm in his voice.
“We’re also our own people. We’re both adults, free to see whoever we want to see,” I hiss. “How many times have I heard you tell me to find somebody? To find love? How many times have you told me you hate seeing me alone?”
“I never meant for you to hook up with Slater!”
“Derek, we can’t control who we love—”
I bite off my words the moment the word “love” passes my lips and clamp my hands over my mouth. I hadn’t meant to utter it. Especially not to my brother. It’s not even something I’ve said to Slater yet. I feel it. I feel it deeply. But I’m not sure where he’s at, emotionally speaking, so we haven’t discussed what this thing between us is.
Derek looks like I just dumped a bucket of ice-cold water over his head. His expression cycles through a wide range of emotions, finally seeming to settle on one that is somewhere between rage and nausea. It’s all I can do to keep from rolling my eyes.
“Love?” he asks. “You’re telling me that you love him?”
There is no putting the genie back in the bottle, so I let out a heavy sigh. “Yes. I do. I love him, Derek. He’s a good man, and he treats me like a queen. He’s good to me.”
“Wow, Sierra. Just … wow.”
His indignation over all of this is really pissing me off. “Why can’t you just be happy for us?”
“What is there to be happy about? You’re fucking a man ten years older than you,” he seethes. “A man you’ve known since you were a child—a literal child. It’s creepy as fuck, Sierra.”
“Need I remind you that Dad was eight years older than mom?”
He scoffs. “I guess I don’t need to ask where you got your daddy issues then, do I?”
I recoil like Derek had just slapped me because, truthfully, that’s what it felt like. He stares at me, a cruel little curl to his lips, as if he knows he just scored a direct hit and is relishing it.
“I can’t believe you just said that to me,” I say.
His expression softens slightly, and a glimmer of regret enters his eyes. Derek and I have always been very close. Closer than most brothers and sisters I know. The deaths of our parents meant all we had was each other, and rather than let it split us apart, it brought us closer together. We had our fights over the years, what brother and sister haven’t? But never in all our years and all our fights has he ever said something designed to hurt like that.
“Sierra—”
“How dare you?” I hiss.
“I didn’t mean—”
“Yeah, you obviously did mean it.”
He takes a step toward me with his hand outstretched. I pull back from him, keeping as much physical distance between us as possible. My eyes are narrowed to slits, and my lips are curled back, my teeth bared, a sneer on my face.
“Don’t touch me,” I spit.
“Sierra—”
He takes another step toward me, and with my hands raised to keep from touching him, I back up again, determined to keep him away from me. He doesn’t even seem to understand just how badly he’s hurt me. Shaking my head, I step around him and head for the door. Before I get there, I turn and fix him with the iciest glare I can manage.
“You know, I knew this might cause a bump in the road, but I thought you were mature enough to accept it,” I say. “I just thought maybe you’d be happy for me. That maybe, all you wanted for me was somebody who treated me well and brought joy to my life. I was dumb enough to believe you’d want the best for me. My bad.”
“Sierra—”
“No,” I snap. “Stay away from me and stay out of my life.”
And with that, I yank the door open and walk away from my brother, not bothering to slam the door behind me since I know it won’t stay closed, anyway. As I rush out of the building and to the parking lot, tears spill down my face. I should be overjoyed right now, but my relationship with Derek has been shattered into a million pieces, and all I can feel is the pain of a loss that hurts every bit as much as when I lost my parents.