Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 60309 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 302(@200wpm)___ 241(@250wpm)___ 201(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 60309 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 302(@200wpm)___ 241(@250wpm)___ 201(@300wpm)
Akara Kitsuwon - 27 Omega Lead (Current Client: Sullivan Meadows)
Quinn Oliveira - 21 Omega (Current Client: Luna Hale)
OSCAR OLIVEIRA
“COME ON THE TRIP, Joana. You can be my plus-one, Joana. You’ve never been to Scotland before, Joana. Don’t you want to spend time with your big bros, Joana? It’ll only be a week, Joana,” my baby sis mimics me with a deep, nasally voice. “Twenty snowed-in days later…” She tightens hand-wraps around her wrist with forceful frustration.
I lean on the banister while she’s seated on the carpeted staircase, stuck inside the chilly Mackintosh House. It’s early morning, and I went to her room to check on her—and I found her here. White boxing gloves at her side while she wraps her hands.
I tell my sister, “If you want to imitate me, you can go less hard on the Kermit the Frog voice.” Jo almost laughs, but I power on. “And let’s not forget that you accepted the invite in two seconds.” I touch the Yale letters of my sweatshirt. “I didn’t need to grovel or use handcuffs to drag your ass here.”
Her lips rise into a fleeting smile.
She knows I’m referring to Beckett Cobalt, who was legitimately handcuffed on the plane to Scotland. But I don’t want to breathe out his name in front of my sister. Alluding to him is already way too much.
Beckett has been staring at her enough this trip, and I’d rather not push Joana into the New York scene that he’s a part of.
She can find a different friend group. Something less…that.
Jo loops the wrap between her fingers, then looks at me pointedly. “I actually wanted to come, so yeah, you didn’t have to drag me here.”
Before the trip, I FaceTimed Joana and told her that Maximoff Hale was letting all of us bring plus-ones, and I wanted to know if she’d like to go to Scotland with us.
Jo sounded shocked. “Really? With you and Quinn? To Scotland? What should I pack, big bro?” I saw her fling a suitcase on the bed. “This is like a work thing for you, so Maximoff Hale is going?—what other family members are going? How many Cobalts? Hales? Is Sullivan Meadows going? When is it?”
She wanted all the details, but only after she already accepted the invite.
Underneath all the teenage attitude this morning, I understand why she’s been disgruntled.
She missed her fight in London. That wasn’t part of the plan, and our dad will no doubt have something to say to me when we return home.
Why’d she go with you?
I knew she shouldn’t have gone to Scotland.
You should’ve left her here, Oscar.
She already missed training days, for what? Just to be stuck there?
He’ll ramble off in Portuguese, muttering frustrations, and I’ll try to reason with him. I just hope he’s not hard on Jo. He’s way too hard on her already. It’s not like Rodrigo gifted us the power to control the motherfucking weather.
“Just so you know, I wouldn’t take back extending a plus-one to my baby sis”—I hold her gaze that softens—“I wanted you here. Quinn wanted you here.”
She considers this, pushing curly pieces of hair off her shoulder. “Don’t tell Dad because he’ll be all like priorities, Joana Raquel Sousa Oliveira,” she mimics our dad’s deeper voice, “but I wouldn’t take back joining you guys. Even if I regret missing the fight, I’m not going to regret being here.”
Her words alleviate a great weight I didn’t realize I’d been feeling. Thought that pressure was just from hunger. I inhale deeper, and I bend down a little to squeeze her shoulder.
She smiles more up at me.
I tell her, “It’s possible Dad might not even give you a five-minute lecture.” Probably just two-minutes. “You know that he wants us all together.” Which is why he ended up relenting when Joana said she was joining me and Quinn.
His sons and his daughter, all together.
“Dad wants us all together doing the family trade,” she says as I take my hand off her shoulder. “There’s a difference, you know, Oscar.”
Boxing.
I made the first steps in another direction, and my baby bro followed me. For sure, it’s not the future our dad saw or wanted.
She works on her left hand-wrap. “If I can get over it, then he should too. There’ll always be another fight. I don’t know if I’ll ever get this much time with you and Quinn again.”
I begin to grin. I feel the same as Joana. This is the most time I’ve spent with my sister in…what might be years, and that’s mostly my doing.
I don’t go back home often.
“You should have this,” Jo says, reaching around her waist to something she placed on the stair. She shows off a Snickers bar.
Hunger annihilates the shock, and my stomach clenches and growls. Good God I want to eat everything under the sun.