Total pages in book: 145
Estimated words: 140184 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 701(@200wpm)___ 561(@250wpm)___ 467(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 140184 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 701(@200wpm)___ 561(@250wpm)___ 467(@300wpm)
I have to break his gaze, afraid he can see my naughty imaginings reflected in my eyes somehow.
“Dad, you’re being weird,” Jet informs him, his focus now entirely on his phone. “We’re just taking pictures. It’s not like I’m feeling her up over here.”
Pointing at me and then the other end of the couch, Milo says, “You, over there.”
Jet rolls his eyes at his dad’s overreaction, but given he has already gotten what he wanted from me, he doesn’t bother arguing, either.
He’s being ridiculous, and I shoot him a look to let him know I think so. Sighing heavily, I scoot down the couch until I’m curled up on the other side all by myself. “There. Better?”
“Much,” he says, some of the tension in his broad shoulders seeming to ease.
Since apparently we have to keep a couch cushion between us or else face Milo’s wrath, Jet and I have to pass the popcorn bowl back and forth while we watch the movie. Toward the end I start to get sleepy. I was up early today for school and I went to bed late last night.
Jet and Milo apparently aren’t tired. When Jet suggests we watch the second one, too, Milo glances at me. “Can you stay a little later?”
My body is so relaxed, my head resting on the soft pillow I’m hugging against the arm of the couch. I don’t even bother lifting my head as I murmur my assent.
I don’t actually see much of the second movie. There’s a flash of cool guy Mel Gibson, John Cena on a motorcycle, and a bunch of people singing; I’m sure much more happened, but that is my take away from the whole movie.
I’m jostled awake when someone shakes my shoulder. I look up blearily and see Jet standing in front of me, a lock of dark hair covering one eye. He’s hunched a bit so he can meet my gaze on my level. “Wake up, sleepyhead.”
I grumble and squeeze my eyes closed, hugging the pillow tighter.
I hear Milo’s voice, his tone thoroughly amused. “Which movie was your favorite, Kennedy?”
“Mm. First one,” I mutter, still not opening my eyes.
“The one she actually watched,” Jet says lightly.
“Rawr,” I say, making no sense whatsoever.
Milo’s deep chuckle warms my insides as Jet moves out of the way and his dad stops in front of me. “I think you need to go to sleep.”
Logically, I know the drive home isn’t that long, but oh, how I dread it. “Why don’t you drive me home and then you can walk back?” I only half joke.
“Why don’t you just stay here?” Milo counters.
My eyes open. “What?”
“You’re too tired to drive,” he says reasonably. “It wouldn’t be safe. Just text your mom and tell her you’re staying the night wherever you told her you’d be tonight.”
I didn’t bother, but I don’t say that.
I sit up, still exhausted, but a little less asleep.
I could drive home. If I got up and got my blood circulating, if I walked out into the chilly night air and left the warm coziness of this house, I know I could stay awake long enough to get home and pass out in bed.
But thinking of going home, I have to think of what’s waiting for me there. Mom and her boyfriend, maybe still awake in the living room so I’d have to walk past them, maybe already passed out in bed. Mom would be snide or obnoxious about something, Larry… I still don’t know him well yet, but he makes me uneasy. The nights he sleeps over won’t be nights I can relax and sleep easily. They’ll be the nights I spend trying to sleep while also keeping my ears open to make sure my bedroom door doesn’t creak open.
Not to mention, what if I have to hear them fucking through the thin wall that separates our bedrooms? God, the visuals alone…
Our apartment is cold in more ways than one, and Milo’s house is exactly the opposite.
I probably shouldn’t stay here, but…
“Where would I sleep?” I ask tentatively.
“My bed’s a queen,” Jet says immediately.
“I don’t think so, pal.” Milo side-eyes his son. “Nice try, though.”
I crack a smile. Even I found Jet’s response a bit too enthusiastic considering he has his sights firmly set on Brylee, but knowing him, he’s just thinking about some way he could use the experience on social media to get her attention.
Of course, that’s not where Milo’s mind goes.
“I guess she could sleep in Jonathan’s room, but if he actually comes home tonight…”
“No,” Milo says firmly.
I imagine curling up and going to sleep in a bed that smells like Jonathan Granville and being a hell of a surprise when he stumbled through his room in the middle of the night and found me asleep in his bed.
“Yeah, no,” I agree, my face heating at the mere thought of it.