Total pages in book: 24
Estimated words: 22588 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 113(@200wpm)___ 90(@250wpm)___ 75(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 22588 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 113(@200wpm)___ 90(@250wpm)___ 75(@300wpm)
This was why she avoided shows with cliffhanger endings. She couldn’t stand not knowing what was going to happen next, and it drove her crazy.
She shoved her blankets off and put on some slippers, before leaving her room to head downstairs to the kitchen.
Opening the fridge, she looked inside to see milk, and nothing else tickled her fancy. So, she opened the freezer, and there were several cartons of ice cream. This would help. She tried to avoid ice cream to snack. She’d never had a sweet tooth, but when it came to ice cream, she couldn’t resist. Mint chocolate was her favorite, and taking the lid off, she dug a spoon inside and began to eat. She’d taken several scoops when the light turned on. Spinning around, she saw George standing in the doorway of the kitchen.
“You know, it’s not ideal to sneak around.”
She rolled her eyes. “I wasn’t sneaking around,” she said.
“Ice cream?”
Anna-Beth held out the carton. “Want some?”
She saw him hesitate and shoving the spoon into her mouth, she grabbed a second spoon. There was no way she was sharing her spoon. George took the spoon, and they sat on each end of the counter.
“Do you want to tell me what has kept you up?” he asked.
She thought about it and then shook her head. “I don’t know if you can help me or not.”
“A problem shared is a problem halved, right?”
“I guess. It’s about Malcolm.” It was subtle, but she saw him tense up. Also, it was kind of easy to see, as he wasn’t wearing a shirt, and she was doing her best not to ogle his body.
“What about him?”
“He was acting strange, so normally when he acts like that, it means he has to do something he doesn’t want to do.”
“You know your brother well,” George said.
“Yeah, but normally that means it has to do with me, which also means Dad has come to a decision and I’m not going to like it. Boarding school is out of the question, and I don’t know if they would send me back to school for business.”
He wasn’t meeting her eyes.
“George, do you know why my brother was uncomfortable this afternoon?”
He shoved some chocolate ice cream into his mouth and then looked at her. She loved his dark-brown eyes. “No, but I am curious, what would you do if your dad … was, uh … thinking about finding you a husband?”
At first, his words didn’t register, but when they did, Anna-Beth’s mouth opened and then closed. “Oh. I don’t know, I guess I’d have to consider who he wanted me to marry.”
She couldn’t look at George. So that was what they were going to do with her, or at least, that’s what they were hinting at. They had threatened many times to find her a husband, but they never actually did it. Looking at her empty spoon, she felt sick to her stomach. This couldn’t be happening. This was unfair, and she didn’t even know for certain if that was what they were going to do.
“Anna-Beth?” George asked.
“It’s fine. Of course it’s going to be fine.” She felt tears spring to her eyes. She got to her feet.
There was no way she was going to marry a husband that they chose. This was horrible. This was worse than what she thought they might do.
She should have seen this coming. Sending her to a friend’s house to work was one thing, but she must have really pissed them off for them to consider marrying her off, for real this time.
Anna-Beth didn’t know when she had stood, or that she was freaking out, but all too soon, strong arms grabbed her hard. She stared into George’s brown eyes. They were strong, confident, and she knew no one was going to mess with him. Those hands that had grabbed her arms suddenly cupped her face.
“Look at me, breathe. That’s it, breathe.”
In freaking out, she had forgotten to breathe, and now, watching George, she followed his movements, taking several deep breaths, and slowly expelling them. She breathed in and out, and then George pulled her into his arms and held onto her tightly.
“I don’t want to get married,” Anna-Beth said.
“I’ve got you.”
Did he have her? She didn’t belong to George. Her family was going to marry her off, to become someone else’s problem, because they could no longer stand for her to be their problem.
Tears prickled at her eyes, and were ready to fall again. She loved her family, but this wasn’t fair, which made her feel like a child.
George tilted her head back and he looked into her eyes. “I’m not going to let them do anything to you, okay?”
She nodded her head, but she didn’t quite believe it. They were her parents, and she knew they didn’t know the meaning of failing. They always got what they wanted. Always. No one had been able to win against them.