Total pages in book: 168
Estimated words: 164910 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 825(@200wpm)___ 660(@250wpm)___ 550(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 164910 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 825(@200wpm)___ 660(@250wpm)___ 550(@300wpm)
Slipping the water bottle into the cup holder, I step off the treadmill. “Anna-Katherine, you were brave.” I look down at her as she stares at the ground. “You did exactly what you were supposed to do by running.”
Lifting her eyes, she meets mine.
“You won’t be alone with him again,” I state. “If anyone makes you feel unsafe, you tell me, and I’ll believe you.”
She nods once. “ ’Kay.”
She’s pleasant but curt, telling me she doesn’t want to think about it anymore. She just wants to forget everything, and that’s fine with me. For now. I’ll worry about Milo.
She twirls in the center of the room.
“You better hurry,” I say. “You’re going to be late for work.”
But just then, she stops, her eyes lighting up again. “Oh, I forgot. Mrs. Jaeger is downstairs.”
I grimace. “What?”
Mrs. Jaeger.
Krisjen?
She skips back over to me. “Dallas said it was okay if I skipped school today.” Her teeth flash white, lighting up her face again. “She’s going shopping with Clay and Olivia, and they invited me.”
And they thought asking her to go with them before they even talked to me would make me not want to refuse her? Not only is she not fucking going, but Krisjen needs to be reminded of the manners she was raised with.
I jerk my chin at my stepsister. “Wash your face and brush your teeth.”
She jumps. “I have to change my clothes, too.”
She races out of the room, and I look around for my shirt, but then I remember that I didn’t put one on this morning.
Leaving the gym, I charge down the hallway and find Krisjen in the foyer. She stands in front of a painting, purse slung over her shoulder with her arms crossed over her chest.
I let my gaze scale down her body. Dallas must love having some eye candy under the roof all the time. Tanned, toned legs in black shorts and flip-flops and an oversize linen blouse. Beach hair with streaks of blond from the summer sun. When she dated Milo, we all saw one another every day. Parties, laughter…
Now she gets to see Dallas every day.
I stop within a few feet of her. “How much sugar do you all eat for breakfast over there?” I gripe.
Krisjen turns, lifting her brow.
I gesture up the stairs. “She’s bouncing off the walls.”
Krisjen holds up her hands in defense. “Just waffles.”
I cock my head. Yeah, right.
“With some toppings,” she adds under her breath.
I shake my head. Maybe that’s what they feed their kids, but Sophia gets two proteins, one fruit, and one grain. It would serve Krisjen right to have to deal with her sugar rush for the rest of the day.
We stare at each other, and it occurs to me how different she looks.
Pretty. She was always good-looking, but I don’t know…She’s stunning. Happy.
Drawing in a long breath, I straighten my spine, calming. “I’m surprised your husband let you come here alone,” I point out.
She offers a tight smile but keeps her arms folded over her chest.
“He didn’t,” she says. “Clay’s in the car.”
She is?
Moving to the window, I peel back the curtain. The girl who was almost my girlfriend senior year sits in the driver’s seat of her 1972 baby blue Bronco convertible. She had that in high school.
I falter, realizing that she’s out there because she didn’t want to come in.
And Olivia Jaeger is going with them, Sophia said?
But she’s not in the car.
My mind drifts back to a few days ago at Fox Hill Country Club. I showed her I was still a prick. Looks like she got the message.
I square my shoulders. Good.
Letting the curtain fall closed, I spin around. “What is Sophia talking about?” I ask Krisjen. “Shopping?”
Most of her clothes are tailor-made. It’s not like knickers and suspenders in her size are stocked in most stores.
But Krisjen replies, “To the paint store. We’ve been renovating the lighthouse, and we thought she might like to help us pick out some colors. Maybe get some lunch with the girls.”
“Why?” I stroll into the middle of the foyer, my back to the stairs as I face her. But I don’t wait for an answer. “You’re trying to assimilate her. Which one of them wants her?”
Krisjen’s eyes widen, the bitch looking almost amused, but I’m not stupid. It’s how they operate.
“Who is it?” I press. “Trace?”
Sophia said he smiled at her.
“They know what they’re doing with you girls,” I spit out. “Macon must’ve given you the best dicking of your life. Now you’re his wife.”
She walks up to me, smirking. “Well, they must know what they’re doing with you boys, too.” She turns my chin to see the bruises on my neck. “I recognize Dallas’s handiwork.”
I whip my jaw out of her grasp. “I’ll bet you do.”
She screwed around with Trace after she broke up with Milo back in high school. It wouldn’t be hard to imagine she fucked more of her husband’s brothers.