Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 47615 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 238(@200wpm)___ 190(@250wpm)___ 159(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 47615 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 238(@200wpm)___ 190(@250wpm)___ 159(@300wpm)
“It might not happen anyway. I just wanted to let you know… I thought you’d be excited for me,” she adds, pouting again, knowing just where to punch her old man to make her point.
“I am proud of you, honey. Just some notice would’ve been nice,” I murmur.
“About Jen staying?” she asks me back.
“I mean about New York…about taking off at a moment’s notice,” I remind her.
“And you retiring was just a spur-of-the-moment thing?” she asks, calling my hand and raising the stakes.
“That’s different,” I sigh. “And Jen’s welcome here anytime, you know that.”
“Then why are you acting so…weird?” Abby asks in a near whisper, glancing over her shoulder.
“Whaddaya mean?” I ask innocently.
“C’mon, Dad. I’m not stupid,” Abby hisses. “The way you’ve been acting around Jen, it’s embarrassing,” she says a little coldly, making me feel a stab of guilt.
I guess there’s no hiding it, though. And no, Abby’s no dummy, but I guess blind Freddy could pick up on my feelings for Jen right now.
I just wish there was a way I could find out if she felt the same way.
“I wasn’t expecting to find her in our kitchen when I thought the house was empty,” I tell her in my defense, putting on my fatherly voice. “And I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I added firmly.
“I’m not acting any way around anyone. I just finished my work week as well as my career. How else do you want me to act?” I retort, sounding annoyed because I am.
And only because I didn’t think my feelings for Jen were so transparent.
Abby flattens her mouth, unfazed by anything I’ve said.
“Just… Just don’t give Jen any ideas. Please?” she asks me in a low tone.
“What on earth do you mean?” I ask, feeling my hand pressing flat against my chest, trying hard to look and sound shocked.
Abby sighs bitterly to herself and even glances over her shoulder again as if Jen’s right behind her or something.
“Jen’s had a crush on you since…well, forever. Just don’t broadcast any signals that’ll only end up hurting her, is all I mean,” she says in confidence.
She chews at her lip, and I can tell it’s something she’s probably vowed never to leave them.
I hear her. I know what the words mean, but I have to ask her to repeat what she’s just said.
“Jen’s had a thing for you for ages…,” is the most I can get out of her, but I don’t wanna sound too interested.
Even though inside, I’m doing fucking somersaults.
Jen…A crush on me?
Holy fucking shit, that would be like Christmas in July.
Abby’s not the only actor in the family, and I do a pretty good impression of someone who brushes the idea off.
Shaking my head, I tell Abby how ridiculous she sounds.
“Just don’t let Jen know I told you, okay?” she finally pleads with me before I agree.
“I’ll get that cover off then,” I say.
Somehow managing to act as if the news means nothing to me, and Abby even seems convinced of my performance.
There’s a little hint of self-doubt in her expression as she re-thinks the whole scenario since she’s got home.
“Where is Jen, anyhow?” I ask, moving back into the kitchen as Abby reaches for her bag.
“Upstairs getting changed,” she pipes in before I can even finish.
Just get the pool cover off and go fucking hide someplace. You heard what Abby just told you. How the fuck are you going to handle being around Jen now, crush-boy?
A crush, though. It’s a fucking start.
CHAPTER FIVE
Jen
Abby’s hell-bent on getting me into the pool with her, practically ordering me upstairs to go change while she gets the cover off.
“And where’s your swimsuit?” I challenge her, but knowing Abs, she has it on as her underwear, which she does.
Flashing the strap of her bikini top and stabbing her tongue out at me, she pushes me playfully toward the stairs.
“And no T-shirts!” she commands me. “You need some sunshine, girl. Get some vitamin D into ya.”
I know there’s no point arguing with her, so groaning, I haul myself up the marble staircase.
The gleaming white and black stone is cold under my feet.
But the oversized tees I wear when I’m swimming, or doing anything, are for a reason.
Especially if I’m swimming.
I couldn’t even look at myself in a swimsuit, let alone inflict that sight on anyone else.
Especially Kane….
One look at me in a swimsuit, and he’d probably run a mile.
Would he, though? He didn’t seem too horrified in the kitchen.
I only play with the idea of a swimsuit, but it’s out of habit more than anything else when I slip my oversized tee on once I change.
Only daring to look in Abby’s huge mirrors once I’m covered up.
I make my way downstairs, the house suddenly quiet and empty.
From the kitchen, I can see Abby out on the pool deck.