Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 47615 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 238(@200wpm)___ 190(@250wpm)___ 159(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 47615 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 238(@200wpm)___ 190(@250wpm)___ 159(@300wpm)
Every question in her mind is instantly answered in one snapshot, but her face screws up in anger, and she shouts at her dad, telling him not to try and change the subject.
“…If you must know, I sprained my ankle getting out of the cab for my first rehearsal,” she adds quickly.
Unable to stop herself from telling us at least part of her story so far.
But she doesn’t let the news linger long.
Catching me and her dad buck naked in the tub needs way more explaining in her mind than a sprained ankle.
But the show’s not over yet.
Another voice is calling from the front door and gets louder before it joins Abby.
It’s my Mom.
Holy moly, is someone selling tickets to this or something?
She’s halfway through telling Abby to wait so she can help her.
Frozen with sudden shock and horror, the same way Abby was when she sees us both.
But her eyes narrow, and her mouth crimps shut instead of shouting.
She only shakes her head. A lot.
And after staring in silence for as long as she can stomach it, she turns away, brushing off Abby’s hand as it reaches for her.
Even though the poor girl’s only trying to keep herself upright.
“I suppose we’ve all got a few things to talk about,” Kane’s deep voice echoes through the bathroom.
But Abby’s eyes are fixed on mine.
I wince and grimace, wanting the tub to swallow me up, so I don’t have to deal with this right now.
But Kane’s steady voice and firm hands resting on me really do make me feel like the worst is already over.
They know now.
And really, so what?
If anything, maybe I should be screeching back at her to shut the door and give us some privacy.
But she is my best friend, and the sounds of my mom finally finding her voice in the kitchen remind me that it’s best to handle this as adults.
“Abby. I need you to go wait in the kitchen. I’ll be there in a minute,” Kane says firmly.
She opens her mouth to protest, but glancing again at our predicament, she narrows her eyes and turns to go. She drags her foot like a lump of dead wood and uses the walls to hold herself up.
“I told you I heard something,” I murmur to Kane, sounding like we’re a pair of kids who the principal has caught.
The slapping sound of the water against my chest as he laughs quietly has me turning to playfully slap his chest for real until I can’t help but see how funny it all is.
He shrugs and widens his eyes, taking a second to kiss my lips.
“That’s the worst of it,” he says. “Not so bad, was it?” he smiles.
I couldn’t stop myself if I wanted to, and we laughed maybe a little too hard for a couple in our situation.
But Kane’s right.
The worst is over, and the best is yet to come with him.
“Best sleepover ever,” I murmur, returning his kiss before he helps me out of the tub, covering me up from head to toe with towels.
Making me decent enough to face even my own mother.
He slips into his robe and gives me a knowing look before we go face the firing squad.
“I love you, Jen,” he tells me. “And I’d do all that a hundred times over if it meant keeping you.” He smiles, melting my heart in a single second.
I tear up when I tell him I love him too. Telling him that I am his, for keeps.
“And yeah,” he rasps.
“Best sleepover ever.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
ONE WEEK LATER
Kane
It could be argued who had the greater shock, but once Jen and I were decent, we sat down with her mom and Abby to talk.
Not shouting or screaming. We actually talked the whole time.
Abby’s only real shock was that she hadn’t figured it out sooner. Confessing, she actually never thought I’d go for a girl like Jen.
Whatever that means.
I think she means a younger girl hooking up with an older guy.
Her mom’s a different story, though. She explains that she just ‘knew’ something was going on, but seeing how happy Jen is and how comfortable she is with her new surroundings, it would be dumb of her to ignore true love when it’s staring her right in the face.
My biggest concern is Abby’s ankle. I mean, she’s physically hurt.
But it’s only a light sprain, she assures me. Admitting it’s why she was pretty much ghosting us.
She was so ashamed that her big break, her first real break, ended badly before it started.
“I picked Abs up from the airport,” Jen’s mom Sage added. “But I had to come here and just see for myself. To prove I wasn’t imagining things. Boy, was I wrong!” she’d exclaimed.
Don’t misunderstand me. She’s not exactly over the moon about Jen and me. Not by a long shot.
But once we all sat down and shared our good and bad feelings about it all, it would’ve been useless to keep droning on about everything she doesn’t like about me being with her only daughter.