Total pages in book: 144
Estimated words: 134830 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 674(@200wpm)___ 539(@250wpm)___ 449(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 134830 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 674(@200wpm)___ 539(@250wpm)___ 449(@300wpm)
“Oh!” I exclaim, looking to Cameron. “Sorry. That’s probably not a great word for you, Grace. Sorry.”
“What’s it mean?” she asks, plopping to an ottoman with her legs hanging on either side of the big cube.
I furrow my brow, looking at Cameron to see if I should tell her, but it’s Kyle who answers her. “Asshole. Dani thought I was an annoying asshole at first, but she likes me now. We’re friends.” He gives me a triumphant smirk, amusement dancing in his eyes.
“She’s right, you are an annoying… pen-day-ho,” Grace tells Kyle, who frowns dramatically, putting his hand on his chest, right over his apparently wounded heart. A blink later, he takes my hand again and smiles.
“So I’ve been told.”
Mrs. Harrington has been watching the exchanges between her children with delight and now gestures to a small loveseat. “Well, I’m glad you started talking to Kyle instead of flipping him off.” Her eyes widen like she’s surprised she actually repeated that.
Kyle and I sit down, his hip next to mine as he lays an ankle on his knee and throws his arm along the back of the loveseat to surround me. It feels like ‘us against them’, which it shouldn’t be, but after what Kyle told me earlier, it unfortunately seems accurate.
The questions aren’t unsurprising, starting with how we met, so I tell them about my lunch business and yelling at him because of his parking job. Everyone laughs, agreeing that he deserved it. I tell them about blocking him with Nessa’s car, which I thought was pretty creative, and Kayla holds her hand up for long-distance high-five across the room. But Kyle interjects that it worked out for him in the long run because that was our first ride.
“You let her ride on Lucille?” Kayla asks in surprise.
“Yeah, I’ve ridden with him a few times now,” I say, worried that’s unusual, but Janey is grinning wide like if it is, it’s not a bad thing. “For pancakes, to his place for dinner, and here tonight.”
“You went to his house?” Luna asks, her hands clasped beneath her chin and hearts nearly popping from her eyes.
“He cooked for you?” Samantha asks at the same time.
I nod slowly, looking at Kyle for some context of why everyone’s staring at me like I sprouted a second head, but he’s no help, just smiling as he clocks everyone’s shock. “Yeah, chicken pasta.” I intentionally don’t say the name of the recipe because I feel like they might overreact the way Kyle thought I would. “It was good.”
“Only the best for my woman. That’s why I exist,” Kyle jokes, puffing up his chest and lifting his chin proudly.
“Your woman?” I snort, and he points a faux-accusatory finger at me.
“You said you like me.”
That shuts me up because I did, in fact, say that and a whole lot more. And I meant every word, too.
Everyone is ping-ponging, watching our exchange like it’s a tennis match with varying degrees of smiles on their faces. And for the monsters Kyle warned me about, they’re all really… nice. He did caution that they’d be slick about their interrogation, but still, I don’t feel attacked in any way. They’re curious, which is understandable, but not prying too deep or being unwelcoming.
“I was promised some embarrassing pictures and stories about that guy?” I remind Kayla after a while, pointing at Kyle. She thawed pretty fast after I met her challenge head-on, and I’ve felt her watching me while everyone’s been talking. I think we’ve silently turned a corner in our brand-new friendship, and I’m glad because I think Kyle needs someone in his corner and the siblings seem to pivot around her.
In fact, I feel like I’m getting a bit of a read on all of them.
Cameron is quiet, watchful over not only his daughter, but everyone. Carter is a bit of an instigator but charms his way out of it after setting a trap. Chance seems formal and if you told me he reads a book a week, I’d believe you because he seems like the book-smart type. Cole is laser-focused on Janey, and I’m not sure if that’s only because of the pregnancy or if that’s his norm. And Kayla is the second mother, somehow keeping them all in line.
“Oh! I’ve got that,” Carter says, pulling his phone from his pocket. He scrolls around on it for a second before holding it up. “Look at this from Mom’s Facebook.”
It’s a picture of Kyle and Kayla, taken when they’re very young. Kayla is a full head taller than Kyle, has her hair pulled up in pigtails, and is grinning a gap-toothed smile with her arm wrapped around Kyle’s shoulders. Kyle is wearing khaki shorts, a Polo shirt tucked in behind a braided leather belt, socks that reach up his calves, and pristine white tennis shoes. He looks extra tanned, like he’d been playing outside all summer, and his hair is short and side-parted. He looks preppy, which is a far cry from his current rough style.