Total pages in book: 57
Estimated words: 53605 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 268(@200wpm)___ 214(@250wpm)___ 179(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 53605 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 268(@200wpm)___ 214(@250wpm)___ 179(@300wpm)
Clothes, black hoodie, white men’s t-shirt under, gray stretch pants and pink slippers because Sheila doesn’t allow you to wear shoes in the house.
Perfect for a wedding celebration.
I hop down the stairs. I’ve been around Sheila a few times before when she came home with Dad six months ago for a visit. She’s nice. Well put together. Has probably never worn a hoodie in her life. Her style is an odd but surprisingly workable Brooks Brothers meets Betsy Johnson.
She’s a tad uptight but her house is modern and warm, and sort of upscale suburban. Reminds me a little of that house in the Brady Bunch with open spaces and vaulted ceilings. Mason loved the Brady Bunch. He had every episode on DVD from high school and in his streaming library on Amazon Prime.
With a sigh, I bound into the kitchen where my dad’s laughing and Sheila’s talking. As I push through the swinging door separating the sunken living room into the gleaming white kitchen, I run headlong into James who catches me in those oak solid arms mid free fall.
Outside of the brushes of his hand on my hair or my arm and the little ass grab he gave me as I tried to climb into this truck, this is the first real full on contact I’ve had with him.
It stutters my heart and makes heat climb from my toes upward in a blaze of molten need.
God, what is happening here?
I went from the solid side of never feeling a flutter of sexual attraction to wanting to mount him like I’ve made a deal with the devil. Does he have some magical pheromones?
I was perfectly happy to not deal with the chaos and roller coaster ride of the romantic human experience. From my experience, living life as an asexual, aromantic was a win.
As James tugs me upright and I feel more of that solid oak he’s made out of pressing into my side, all the years of nothingness fall away; replaced with a mating force so strong sparks dance in my eyes and my ovaries spasm, primed and ready for some good old fashioned, non-Petrie dish sort of baby making.
Hold up there, cowgirls, I gotta give birth to this baby first.
“You okay?”
No, not even close. I’m knocked up by an unknown sperm donor, no one knows I’m pregnant. I have no job, no place to live and suddenly, I have a stepbrother I want to teach me all the things I never thought much about before him.
“Fine,” I mouth in a hasty breath because his face is next to mine. Our breaths mingle hot between us as panic ignites in my belly.
I’ve got so much to hide. What am I thinking?
“I’ll always make sure you’re okay. Sis.” He rasps against my ear before settling me upright on my wobbly legs, holding onto my shoulders until I regain the executive functioning in my frontal lobe.
“So, you two sure met under unusual circumstances.” My dad chuckles, stepping my way for a side hug. “Nothing like a big strong brother to come riding to the rescue, huh, sweetie?”
Dad squeezes my shoulder as I force a tight smile, my brain cells feel like they’ve been scrambled, and I have to pee.
The peeing is nothing new, but still, it needs to be addressed before I wet my pants in a completely different way.
“Hello…” Sheila smiles, standing there like she’s just come from the salon adorned in a cool mint green blazer paired with black faux leather pleated shorts. Wow. Who cold pull that off? “I know this has probably come as a pretty big surprise to you both.” She nods toward James who is staring at me like I’m a roasted turkey leg at the RenFair, then back to me, resting her fingertips on my forearm. “I hope you both will forgive us for being impulsive. But it’s felt right for awhile and let’s face it.” My dad sidesteps and plants a kiss on her cheek. “Tanner and I are not getting any younger. And we didn’t want the expense of a big wedding.”
She makes a pish-posh sound, waving her hand in the air and the rather generous pear-shaped diamond on her ring finger tells me they put the wedding money elsewhere. And I really don’t complain. My dad has always been loving, but probably because of his early Marines days, he used to be a bit sharp. His life was full of rules and sharp edges, until Sheila. She seemed to change him. He seems more relaxed now, smiles and laughs much easier. And he definitely doesn’t take kids to corn mazes to give them some life lessons.
I tug at the belly of my hoodie, popping it out then releasing it as James stares at me from his place leaning on the black granite counter. He’s got his hooks on me and I do not like it one bit. We are family now and I’m pretty sure the odds of anything working out between us are zero to nil and we’ve got a whole future together whether we like it or not.