Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 91595 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 458(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91595 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 458(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
He rolls his eyes. “Think you can do something about your sister busting my balls?”
“Not at all.” I laugh a bit, shaking my head. “Hell, I don’t think there is anyone in this world who can do something about my sister.”
Nyle looks stricken. “Do you think it’s gonna be like how it was, now with Kenni coming back?”
Now, I’m fully grinning. “I sure as hell hope time has helped those three grow out of their wild ways, but I’m not holding my breath.”
“Great,” he mutters, and I wave as I head to the truck, my grin still in place. While I have similar sentiments as his since I’m unsure what kind of hell is about to be unleashed by Shenanigans Inc., I can’t help but feel the same kind of excitement I’d feel from hoisting the Beer League Cup above my head.
I don’t feel that way often, but knowing I’m about to see Kenni again…
Yeah, I’m excited.
CHAPTER
SEVEN
The Cousins
Skyye
Pretty sure my dad is about to beat the shit out of my stepdad.
Ash
Ha, yes. Get ’em, Dean!
Flint
Why? What happened?
Flint
did you get video?
Skyye
no, but I did get this.
Skyye
*sends attachment.*
Flint
whoa! Look at you go! That’s incredible.
Flint
for us dumb hockey players, what is that?
Skyye
LOLOL, an axel. I look like a baby giraffe, but I’m doing it.
Ash
better than me. Get it, girl.
Skyye
thanks <3
Flint
yeah, you’re awesome, kiddo.
Skyye
you’re three years older than me, you can’t call me kiddo.
Flint
sure, kiddo.
Ash
So did Dean beat up stepdad?
Skyye
no thankfully, but I don’t think he likes my dad.
Flint
too bad it doesn’t matter.
Flint
he’s your dad.
Ash
I don’t get it. Dean’s cool as hell.
Skyye
exactly, and when stepdad came in, he called my mom and told her not to be going crazy since Aunt Kenni is here.
Ash
hey, tell him to leave them alone. Mom needs Missy and Sadie.
Flint
Yeah, what he said!
Ash
for real, help us, Sky. Mom has been through hell.
Skyye
I know, don’t worry. I’ll watch out for her.
Flint
She deserves to be happy, and I know coming home will do that for her.
Skyye
I hear you, don’t worry.
Flint
but we will.
CHAPTER
EIGHT
Kenni
I’m so lost in the theme song of my trip and my own brain that I almost miss the two hooligans hanging off the Thistlebrook town sign.
Missy is shaking a bottle of champagne, which explodes everywhere, and Sadie is holding a huge boombox over her head as she pelvic-thrusts like one of those Instagram thirst traps. Laughter bubbles out of me when I see they’re wearing their shirts we made when they were sixteen and I was fourteen. We tie-dyed a few of Sadie’s brother’s white tees then painted them with puff paint, SI on the front. Since neither of them has the body they had when we were younger, Missy’s shirt is basically a crop top, and Sadie’s shoulders are cut out to give her boobs some room to breathe.
They look like Bigfoot’s drunk sisters.
But they’re mine.
I pull over instantly and hop out just as Kelsea Ballerini starts the chorus to “If You Go Down.”
Tears burn my eyes just as a shirt is thrown in my face. Before I can even pull it off, two sets of arms wrap around me, and I squeeze my eyes shut as I squeeze them both just as tight.
A sob bubbles out of me, and I swear they squeeze me tighter. I feel each of their hands move into mine where the scar of our “blood” sisters’ oath sits, and the peace I was looking for slides into place. I remember when we’d pick at the scabs on our palms just to make sure we scarred. I smile against someone’s face at the memory of how pissed Sadie’s brother would get when he’d find me bleeding. He’d fuss and clean the wound, only for me to pick at it again to make sure that my palm would forever be marked. Or maybe I did it because I loved how dark his hazel-blue eyes would get as he’d scold me. It was only ever me, never Missy or Sadie. He was wildly protective of me.
I always held the guys I dated to his standard. I knew what it felt and looked like to be cared for, and while I had wished it were Dean Moore doing the caring for me, he’d never looked at me as more than a little sister. Stratford always said he thought Dean was in love with me, but he couldn’t have been. I think he felt that he had to watch out for me because of how much Sadie and Missy loved me. I mean, he had a baby with Missy. I was obviously never on his radar.
But that night in the back of the cop car lives rent-free in my head when I’m lonely. When he almost kissed me without the demands of our sisters.
Darlin’.
I pull back to find Missy and Sadie crying just like me. Missy reaches for me first, cupping my face and running her thumbs along my full cheeks. Like me, she has the brightest blue eyes, but her hair is more of a dark brown than almost black like mine. She has a more angular face and a sharper nose that doesn’t tip up at the end like mine. Her lips are fuller, and her face is covered with freckles. Not just along her nose and cheeks like me, but all over her face. She has always hated that my lashes are longer and thicker than hers, while I’ve always been jealous of the natural arch in her brows. My sister has always been beautiful, but there is something about the laugh lines, and the crinkle of skin around her eyes, that makes her even more stunning.