Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 86158 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86158 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Reb wrinkled her nose at the nickname and threw her arms around me in a tight hug. “Me and mom just got here. We had to park on the next street over.”
“Oh,” I said, looking up to meet her mom Molly’s eyes. “You’re here.”
“I’m always an afterthought with you guys,” she joked. “You know, I was popular once.”
“Were you, though?” I asked dubiously.
“Like a hundred years ago,” Rebel said at the same time, rolling her eyes. I laughed and grabbed her hand, wrapping my fingers firmly around hers.
“You two are the absolute worst,” Molly complained with a smile.
“Show me your house,” Rebel said, squeezing my hand. “Do you have your own room?”
“Of course,” I replied. “I have one of the biggest rooms. Draco and Kara have the other one.”
“Because they’re in love,” Rebel said simply.
“Yep. Gross.”
Rebel giggled. “When I get married, I’m still going to have my own room.”
“Interesting choice,” I said, looking over my shoulder to meet Molly’s eyes for just a second. “Don’t you want to share with your husband?”
“I’ll sleep with my husband,” Rebel replied with a grin. “But all my stuff is going to be in my own room so nobody touches it.”
“You know, you may be onto something,” I said. “You thinking about getting married soon?”
Reb scoffed. “No way. I like to keep my options open.”
“Oh, Jesus,” Molly muttered behind me.
“That’s what my dad said to do. He said not to even think about getting married until I’m thirty because there are tons of fish in the sea and I need to keep fishing.”
“I’m going to kill Will,” Molly said with a grimace.
We paused in the front yard and looked at the house, letting Molly pass us as she headed inside.
“It looks like all the other houses,” Reb said evenly.
“I know, right,” I replied. “Hopefully I don’t forget which one is ours.” Now that I was thinking about it, I couldn’t deny that the possibility of coming home from a night out might be a problem if I couldn’t tell which house was mine.
“I’ll get you a flag.”
“A flag?” I asked curiously, turning to look at her.
“Yeah,” she said, pointing at the bracket to the right of the garage door. “You’re supposed to put a flag right there.”
“Huh. Good eye.”
“I’ll get you a rainbow flag,” she said, giving my hand a squeeze. “Since you find men and women sexually attractive.”
I stared at her for a moment. “You’re the best, Reb. You know that?”
“You told me that before,” she said with a smile.
“And I’m going to keep saying it.”
“I’m going to marry Wes,” she said conspiratorially, her smile growing wider. “But my dad starts to breathe really heavy whenever he comes over and he’s always coming into the living room when we’re watching TV or playing a game.”
“Oh yeah?” Wesley was Reb’s boyfriend, and I really liked the dude, but I had no idea that they’d been talking about marriage. I tried to hide the fact that it felt a little like I’d been hit with a sledgehammer.
“I don’t think dad wants me to get married.”
“No dad wants their little girl to get married,” I replied.
“I don’t think he’s ready.”
“They never are,” I said dryly.
“That’s okay,” she said with a shrug. “I’m not ready either.”
“Good,” I said grinning. “We can be single girls together.”
“Okay. But someday I’m going to marry him and then you’ll have to be single alone,” she replied simply as she started toward the house. Ouch.
“Does he know you want separate bedrooms?” I asked, following her.
I trailed Rebel around the inside of the house, pointing out where everyone was going to sleep and showing off the rooms like a game show host. No one bothered us or hassled me for not helping move the boxes. They knew how important those few minutes of showing Rebel around were.
There were five of us that were close in age and had grown up together. My nephews Draco and Curtis, my cousin’s stepdaughter Kara, me, and Rebel. We’d done almost everything together until we’d reached an age that things had started to change. Rebel had Down syndrome and while we’d moved out and started our adult lives, she wasn’t ready for that. She was still at home, and she was just getting to the part where she dated and started to venture out more on her own.
It was important to all of us that Reb felt comfortable in our new place. She was putting on a brave face about it all, but she’d liked our old apartments and she hated change. The fact that we were clear across town, not to mention that Curtis was gone God knows where, was throwing her for a loop. The longer I showed her around, the more tense she became.
“This is my room,” I said, throwing my arms out wide.
“It’s bigger than my parents’ room,” she said, walking around. She peeked into the closet and ran her hand across the windowsills.