Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 96720 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 484(@200wpm)___ 387(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96720 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 484(@200wpm)___ 387(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
“To get away from it all, for free, with much nicer lodgings than any hotel you could afford?”
“That. Exactly that.” He dropped onto the sofa and picked up his controller.
“It’s nice to relax with a game and put my feet on the coffee table,” I said, reaching for one of the controllers on the charger. I tossed it to Scott. “Your battery is nearly dead.”
“Does Charlotte not allow you to play video games?” Scott asked, and the incredulity in his voice probably came from knowing the hard limit I set on my relationships in regard to “me time.”
But it wasn’t that Charlotte had forbidden me or anything. I liked being around her way too much to pay attention to anything else.
Which I wouldn’t mention to Scott, because he would immediately remind me that it was a relationship red flag for me.
So, I shrugged and said, “She doesn’t have a problem with it. We’ve been busy with work.”
“Busy with work.” Scott stared me down as he took another swig of beer.
“Yes. Turns out, your sister is a fucking asset. She’s had two hugely marketable ideas already that we’re going to implement.” Why did I feel like I was defending her?
“That’s what dad said. But I thought he was talking her up to be supportive dad.” Scott turned the controller on and connected it.
“Is that a thing that your parents did?” I asked, dropping onto the other end of the couch.
“Did?” He snorted. “Try present tense. Charlotte could burn down a post office and they would brag about how their daughter was a political activist.”
“Overcompensating, huh?” That wasn’t news to me. Charlotte had mentioned before that her parents were almost toxic with their support, and it was something she discussed often in therapy.
“I’m glad she’s doing something she’s good at,” Scott said, cautiously adding, “at a job she won’t lose if she quits fucking the boss?”
“Hey!” I barked in warning. “That’s my girlfriend you’re talking about. And of course, I won’t fire her if we break up. Did you not hear me say she had amazing ideas?”
“If I didn’t make sure she would be looked after in the event of a worst-case scenario, what kind of brother would I be?” He hit the button to join an online game.
“Shit, I wasn’t ready.” I scrambled for my controller and shot him an, “asshole.”
We happily mowed down enemy combatants over the internet for a long silence broken only by things like, “On your left. Your left!” or “Are you kidding me?”
Until Scott said quietly, “How’s Catherine?”
“How the fuck should I know?” escaped me before I could piece together all the reasons I should probably have been gentler. “I mean—”
“No, it’s cool. I know the two of you aren’t close.” He never took his eyes off the television. “I wondered if she… Hey, there’s a guy behind that shipping crate!”
“On it.” I steered my soldier off into the rail yard. “Cover me.
“I don’t hear much about Catherine. Mother talks about the foundation a lot, but I don’t think she knows half the stuff about Catherine that we know.” For example, the fact that my sister had at least two concurrent extramarital affairs going on.
One now, I supposed. Unless there were other guys like Scott who were inexplicably drawn to her. I personally couldn’t understand how anyone, male or female or otherwise, would willingly spend time with my sister, let alone fall into romantic love with her, but it somehow happened, and more than once.
Scott had hooked up with my sister while I’d been in the hospital, after the blood clot that almost killed me. I didn’t remember either of them visiting; when I hadn’t been briefly comatose, I’d been loaded down with painkillers. Any port in a storm, I guessed, but my sister’s personality seemed like enough of an impediment that any sailor would want to get out of that harbor as soon as the weather cleared up.
“I was just wondering.”
My half of the screen filled with red as the timer on the match ran down. “Damn it.” I set my controller aside and shifted to face Scott. “Look, I’m gonna be completely honest here. I don’t get it.”
“She’s your sister. It would be weird if you did,” he said dryly.
“Yes, it would be weird if I was sexually attracted to my sister,” I agreed. “But from a personality standpoint, she’s mean and she’s cold.”
“To you. To your face,” he amended. “She was worried about you, Scott.”
That was news to me. “She told me that she was worried what effect my dying would have on Mother.”
“And we all know that people say exactly what they mean. Especially rich women raised from birth to not be hysterical or react in an unseemly fashion.”
Hearing my mother’s words coming out of Scott’s mouth shocked me.
And he could tell. “Yeah. She told me all about how you two were raised. You were supposed to be assertive and speak your mind because it made you strong. Catherine was supposed to find a successful husband and take over your mom’s mantle as a society queen.”