Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 65444 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 327(@200wpm)___ 262(@250wpm)___ 218(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 65444 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 327(@200wpm)___ 262(@250wpm)___ 218(@300wpm)
“I don’t want spaghetti. We had that two nights ago,” Steven gripes.
Aubrey mutters something back that I don’t quite catch before continuing. “Well I want spaghetti.”
“You’re not the only one eating, Bre.”
“Dad!” Aubrey shouts, glaring at her brother as I walk through the doorway into the kitchen. “Do you want spaghetti?”
“What I want is for you two not to argue over everything under the sun.” I go to the fridge, grab a beer, and twist the top off.
“Okay, but do you want spaghetti?” she asks, and I fight back a smile as I turn to face her.
“Hate to break it to you, but you’re outvoted. Choose something else.”
“We need another girl around here,” she grumbles, looking between her brother and me. “How about baked ziti?”
“Give it up, Bre. We’re not having pasta.”
“Fine.” She hops up on the counter crossing her arms over her chest. “Then you can cook.”
“Fine.” Steven rolls his eyes and goes to the fridge, pulling out a pound of ground beef, but stops when Aubrey asks, “What did Mom say?”
Taking a swig from my beer, I lean back against the counter and look between the two of them. “Nothing for either of you to worry about.”
“Do I have to go over to her house Friday?” Aubrey asks, the same question she’s been asking for the last month whenever her mom’s supposed to have them for the weekend.
“Yes.”
Her shoulders droop. “What if I don’t want to?”
“Bre.” Steven shakes his head, tossing the ground beef on the counter glaring at his sister.
“What? She’s never home when we’re there, so what’s the point of us going?”
“Pardon?” I lower my beer from my lips and study each of them.
“That’s not true, Bre.”
Her hands ball into fist and her face turns red. “Yes, it is, Steven, but you wouldn’t know that, because when we’re at Mom’s, you’re out with your friends and I’m stuck at her house alone.”
“Maybe you should make some friends,” he growls, but I’m done. So fucking done I feel fire course through my veins.
“Steven, is your mom leaving you guys alone on the nights you’re at her house?” His eyes swing to me and he swallows. “Remember our talk outside, bud, before you answer that question.” I warn.
“Sometimes,” he whispers, reading my tone.
“All the time,” Aubrey puts in quietly.
“How long has this been going on?”
“Since the end of the school year,” Steven mutters, dropping his gaze from mine.
“Yeah, since Thomas Kink came back into town.” Aubrey rolls her eyes and my body stills.
“Thomas Kink?” I don’t know the guy well, but I do know of him. He’s always here during the summer and makes trips into town once a month in the winter. “Is your mom seeing him, Steven?” I ask, and his lips go between his teeth.
“I don’t know. I think so.” He shrugs. “Why does it matter?”
“It matters, because you guys are going on fourteen, not eighteen. Your mom knows you shouldn’t be left alone so she can go out with her boyfriend.”
“You leave us when you go to work.”
“When I leave, I ask May or Aaron to keep an eye out for you. I’m two blocks away and can swing by if something happens.”
“Mom always tells us how to get ahold of her,” he defends.
Bre pipes up at this. “Yeah, but remember last weekend when I called her? She didn’t even pick up or call me back after I left a message.”
Jesus. What the fuck?
“That was one time, Bre. Stop being so dramatic.”
“I’ll stop being dramatic when you stop defending her!” she yells, hopping down from the counter. “I hate her.” Her hands ball into fists and her cheeks turn pink.
“Aubrey,” I bark, and her eyes swing to me and light with fire.
“I do, Dad. I hate her.”
“Calm down,” I demand, seeing that she’s working herself up for a teenage tantrum.
“I just don’t understand why I have to be there. Why it’s not my choice who I stay with. I don’t want to go to her house, I hate going to her house.”
“That’s so fucked up, Bre!” Steven yells, and my head swings his way.
“Watch your mouth.”
“Mom lets him curse. Mom lets him do whatever he wants all the time,” Aubrey tattles, staring down her brother.
“Both you, cut it. Now!” I snap, and their eyes come to me. “Until I know that you guys have supervision when you’re at your mothers, you’re not staying the night at her place anymore.”
Slamming his hand down on the counter, Steven growls, “That’s fu—jacked, Dad.”
“No, what’s jacked is your mom leaving you two alone overnight while she’s out.”
“That’s only happened a few times.”
“It only takes once for something bad to happen, Steven.”
“Town’s safe, Dad,” he continues, and I shake my head.
“In the winter, the town is safe. During the summer, we have people from all over the world coming in to work the canneries, and boats dropping anchor for the night so the guys can get off for a few hours and let loose. Which normally means they drink too much and end up doing stupid shit that has them sobering up in a cell.”