Total pages in book: 34
Estimated words: 32770 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 164(@200wpm)___ 131(@250wpm)___ 109(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 32770 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 164(@200wpm)___ 131(@250wpm)___ 109(@300wpm)
I owe it to him to take over the business. He was barely a kid himself when my parents died in that wreck. I remember people telling him that he should give me up for adoption. That he wasn’t equipped to raise a kid, but he refused. I’m not paying him back by running away from everything he built to protect me.
I should go and rescue him.
I reach Ms. Cotton’s room, but the doorway is already full. The hair on the back of my neck rises as the guy in front of me shifts, and I see Sadie’s small form right behind him. I hear her gasp and him curse and then the two run away. Sadie’s words run through my mind. “He looks like you.” She wasn’t talking about me. She didn’t even see me. She was talking about her boyfriend. Or the dude.
Dad walks out looking sheet white.
“You look like you saw a ghost,” I say, wanting to know what he knows.
He merely dips his head toward the exit. “Hungry?”
Not really. My appetite has suddenly disappeared, but I know if I say no, it will give rise to way too many questions.
“Yeah.”
We make a short detour to pick up some burgers and fries. While we wait, I get on social media and start scrolling through the school hashtag looking for pictures of Sadie and that boy. Dad drones on in the background about college and shit. Since I’ve heard this discussion before, I can give the appropriate response without paying attention. No, I’m not going to college. No, being an architect sounds boring as hell. My internet search comes up blank. I sigh and drag my hands through my hair.
I want to ask him if that kid is related to me. I can tell something is going on. He never gave any hint that he had another kid. Did he not know? But once Sadie said the two of them looked alike, I can’t get it out of my head.
That has to be it because there’s no way he wouldn’t have raised his own son. God, his own son. Those words sit like a rock in my stomach. Does that make Sadie my sister if they’re related and not dating? I wait for bile to climb up my throat in response to my thirsting over my own sister or wait, my cousin, and yet the only thing I feel moving is my dick in my pants. I’m discovering all sorts of terrible things about myself today.
I should’ve taken Rose up on her offers—whatever they were. Maybe if I’d slept with someone before meeting Sadie, I wouldn’t have these sick thoughts. Ironically, the thought of bedding Rose makes all my desire wane. Instant boner loss.
At home, I shove the food in my mouth, thinking more about Sadie. The bells I heard, the rush of blood in my dick, all of that is normal guy stuff. Okay, maybe not the bells, but having a woody? I wake up every morning hard. That’s normal. The bells, well, easy explanation is that I’m at a school. I hear bells all fucking day long. I was probably having residual hearing memory function, if that’s a thing. Besides, love at first sight is not a thing. Maybe lust at first sight I could buy but not love.
I cave and ask Dad one question I know he’d be able to answer. “The girl you left to take care of me, how long had you known her?”
“One look. It was like a bell went off in my head.”
I stare at him, angry all of a sudden. Why’d he have to say that? Why does she have to be the one?
CHAPTER 4
SADIE
I smile when I see Dunc exiting the school as I head inside. Maybe he forgot something in his car. My mom dropped me off today because Van went in early and I’m lame and still won’t drive. I’ve had my permit so long I had to renew it.
Dunc is staring down at his phone as he passes me.
“Hey, Dunc.”
“What part of I’m not interested are you not fucking getting.” His words stun me so hard I stop walking. What the heck?
“I’m ah,” I stumble over my words. “I’m sorry.” I clearly am terrible at reading people. Van is always right. I should have listened when he told me Dunc was a dick. Even the teacher tried to warn me, and I didn’t want to hear it.
I should know better. At my last school, I got myself shitty friends that used me because I took what people gave me at face value. Van says I give everyone the benefit of the doubt and can never see them for what they truly are: assholes. Sorry, it’s not like I was born with a built-in asshole detector. The two men in my life I love treated me like gold.