Total pages in book: 200
Estimated words: 189898 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 949(@200wpm)___ 760(@250wpm)___ 633(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 189898 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 949(@200wpm)___ 760(@250wpm)___ 633(@300wpm)
This was so fucking fucked.
Braxton should have warned us. I’d get in her ass later, but right now…
Rosalie’s cheery voice, despite the palpable tension around her, brought my attention right back to her. “Hi, I’m Braxton’s sister, Rosalie,” she introduced. She never lost that sweet smile on her face despite my feeling and probably looking like I needed a drink.
“Loren.” I forced a smile as I held out my hand, which she eagerly shook as she jumped up and down. She didn’t appear to be someone who’d spent the night in the hospital, though I still didn’t know the reason why.
“I can’t believe it’s really you! Braxton talks about you all the time, except she mostly calls you names I can’t repeat, or I’ll be grounded until I’m thirty.”
Jesus.
I didn’t know how much more I could take of this shit. I couldn’t believe I’d ever mistaken Braxton for innocent when her sister really took the cake. Thankfully, she moved on to Houston, who was better at hiding his chaotic thoughts.
Rosalie talked his ear off about her going into labor early—the reason for her short hospital stay and our visit—and was too excited to notice his short responses. Meanwhile, I studied Braxton’s parents, who had pulled her aside. Braxton was the spitting image of her mother, a stone-cold fox even with her mouth’s rigid set and the added years. I knew I had the coldness right, at least as I witnessed the way Mrs. Fawn regarded her own daughter.
I recognized that look a mile away.
It was the same disdain my father had shown me many times, and my mother was too weak to tell him any different.
When it looked like they started to argue, I made up my mind to come to Braxton’s rescue when she caught my gaze at that exact moment and subtly shook her head.
Blowing out air, I forced myself to stay put as I shifted my attention to the trio hovering near Rosalie. I dismissed the older couple, and I narrowed my eyes on the pimple-faced shit standing next to them. I knew he was the one responsible for knocking up baby sis. His blond hair covered his eyes as he stood there slouched in black slacks and a tie like he was bored out of his mind and uninterested in anything—including his new wife.
When he noticed me staring, he hesitated for only a moment or two before inching away from his parents.
“I’m Pete,” he said excitedly as if I gave a shit. “I’m a huge fan, man.”
As I pulled a stick of gum from my pocket, unwrapped it, and slipped the stick between my lips, I did some soul searching and reminded myself that he was just a kid too. I seriously doubted the marriage and baby carriage were his doing any more than Rosalie’s.
I knew what had been his bright idea, though.
“Not of wrapping up, apparently.”
Stupid shit frowned before realizing what I meant. He looked a little older than Rosalie, maybe a year or two, so I knew who was the predator and who had been the prey.
It was always the same shit, just a different generation.
“Oh. Yeah,” he said, his gaze turning shifty as he chuckled nervously. “It’s cool though because Rosalie and I…um…oh, we’re in love. Hey, do you think I could get an autograph?”
I kept my expression blank as I stared at him. I couldn’t believe Braxton’s parents allowed a precious thing like Rosalie to marry someone who sounded like he ate paint chips for an afterschool snack.
I turned to Rich, who’d been watching and listening the entire time. Rosalie was still talking Houston’s ear off, so she hadn’t gotten to him yet. Now that she wasn’t fangirling anymore, it sounded like she was ripping him a new one for being mean to her big sister. I laughed to myself at the fire in her already before getting pissed all over again.
What a waste.
“I’ll be outside,” I told Jericho, ignoring Peter the Skeeter’s request for an autograph. One of the others could hook him up.
I was outside for maybe ten minutes before Braxton found me. Houston and Rich were right behind her, and the three of us watched her stare off in the distance at nothing in particular before turning to us. “Can we go now?”
I was nodding before I could even form words. “Hell yeah.”
We started for the rental before the sound of Rosalie’s voice stopped Braxton in her tracks. I almost groaned out loud when she turned around. I needed to get her the hell out of here and sooner rather than later. If I could get away with it, I’d take baby sis with me too.
Rosalie was timid now as she slowly approached with a blush staining her cheeks when she noticed she had more than just her sister’s attention. Brushing her hair behind her ear, she stared at the ground while she spoke, and I almost snapped at her to pick her damn head up. Braxton would have castrated me, even if she did agree because it wasn’t my place and never would be.