“What?”
“You may want to be careful about making a sweeping statement like that,” she said. “You do know Brock and I are serious, right? That we love each other?”
“Love?”
No way. It was far too soon for that. It was…it was…
Sweet but stupid.
Why the hell does she get it first? She doesn’t try like I do!
“You’re out of your damn mind, Tara!”
“Maybe, but it’s more fun being out of my mind than in it. And anyway, the point is that because of our love for each other, he’s going to invite me to club parties. And when those club parties happen, I’m taking you with me.”
“What? You know I hate that scene—”
“You need to get away from this family more,” Tara said. “Now that I’m finally breaking free—”
“No way. You might be able to throw away a future, but no way. Dad has given me too much for me to just say goodbye, tarnish the Rogers name, to…to…ugh!”
To her credit, Tara did not judge me or get angry. She let me finish my words, smiled, and kept talking.
“I felt the same way you did, but you know that you can only live for so long under this roof before you want your own place. You’re not fifteen anymore.”
“Oh, hush, you get laid one time by the man of your dreams and now you’ve turned into Wonder Woman,” I said, rolling my eyes.
“Two years! Two years and then some I’ve known him! Not like we never bonded.”
And then she got a wicked grin on her face. I knew something was coming. God, I hated how she had gotten so much looser and relaxed since she and Brock got together.
Truly, terribly, awfully, them getting together was just…so sweet and cute it pissed me off.
“Didn’t you and Steele ever bond when Brock and I would talk?”
I snorted.
“No. No, we most certainly did not.”
I knew Tara and Brock had a strong friendship for years. I knew that Brock was like a big brother when she and Steele had fights.
I also knew that I had never really had any sort of bonding, any sort of friendship with Steele. One time, early on in their relationship, I had tried to talk to Steele while drunk, but he was so hammered he didn’t remember it the next day. There was no denying that Steele was hot as a model, but I couldn’t pretend that he and I had ever had those “until sunrise” conversations.
Which was funny, considering how what little I knew now about him and what I suspected I knew about him showed we actually had a lot in common.
“Elizabeth!”
My father called for me downstairs. I pursed my lips. Tara raised her eyebrows.
“Just saying, if you had your own place, that would be an email, not a call, and you could ignore—”
“Hush, Judas,” I said with a smirk as I left the room.
Maybe she’s got a point. But I’m at least going to get one promotion out of looking good in comparison.
At least…
I walked past the stairs, past my mother in the living room, and into the office where my father was doing what he always did—answering emails endlessly. I swore, the man needed an assistant to just take over his account, but he cared more about his work than anyone except us.
