I forgot sometimes that he knows my family well, and his sentiment made me chuckle. “And as much as I’d love to tell you to not approve my vacation time, I know they’re expecting me to come home for it.”
“How much time do you need?”
“At least the weekend. But, with travel, I’d need to fly out tonight and then come back in Monday. So, off Friday and Monday.”
He didn’t hesitate. “That’s fine. I figured you’d be gone for a week or something. Fill out the proper paperwork and get it to me. I’ll finish it off and get it approved.”
I flopped into my office chair. “I’d say I appreciate it, but we both know I’d be lying.”
He chuckled. “I could still do it, if you want.”
His offer was tempting, but I didn’t want to risk another surprise visit from my parents. “No, but thanks. I might take you up on it again if they want to try and finagle me home again before the holidays.”
“I’ll be the dick boss when you need it, then.”
I smiled. “Thanks.”
There was a beat of silence where I felt kindred to him, in a way. As if we both had this unspoken understanding regarding how we felt about family get-togethers, in general.
But the moment passed when he cleared his throat. “Get that paperwork to me and quit stalling. You have work to do if you don’t want to take it home with you.”
I nodded. “Will do, Mr. Ryker.”
The day flew by, and I dropped my paperwork off with him by the time lunch rolled around. Then, to my shock, he dismissed me for the rest of the day so I could go pack. Everything passed in a blur, from buying my plane ticket to flying home to hugging my parents the second I showed up on their doorstep.
And immediately, I was thrust into helping them put this last-minute shit together.
I prayed that my parents didn’t oust me about my weird-ass sex toys while family was here. Aunts and uncles showed up in droves and cousins I hadn’t seen in years gave me awkward hugs because they, too, had been forced to attend this farce of a family get-together. What had gotten into my parents, I had no idea. Maybe it was a show they had watched. Maybe someone in the community guilt-tripped them into having a family affair. Whatever the case, though, I was glad we had it at the community center in town.
Because that meant we had a massive swimming pool to help stave off our heat strokes.
I didn’t want to get into the pool mostly because I didn’t own a bathing suit that fit me. But, my sister was no stranger to bikinis and how they flattered her body. Where I was a beached sea elephant resting on the sandy shorelines, she was an elegant mermaid with tits shoved up to her face and a washboard stomach that most women drooled over.
However, something on her back caught my eye.
“Hey, Mags,” I said as I walked up to her.
She poised herself, ready to dive into the water before she looked over at me. “What’s up? Mom and Dad need something again?”
I pointed to the scar on her back. “I didn’t know you had something like that. Where did you get it?”
She blinked. “Get what?”
I ran my finger along it softly and it made her jump. “That. What happened?”
She quickly turned it away from me. “Nothing. Just an accident.”
I tilted my head. “When did you get into a car accident?”
She rolled her eyes. “You’re so damn nosy, you know that?”
She flipped her hair at me before she dove into the pool and a memory I had forgotten a long time ago came rushing back to the forefront of my mind. Back in high school, my sister had been incredibly rebellious. She cursed out my parents at least once a week, she was always sneaking out at odd hours and using my window to get back into her room before she got caught. However, one particular evening I had stayed up late to read a book and she came crawling through my window with disheveled hair and the scent of burnt rubber on her.
I didn’t think anything of it at the time. But what if that night had something to do with the scar on her back?
I’m overthinking things. She probably fell and raked her back against something.
Still, it made me wonder why she had dodged the question so completely if it wasn’t that big of a deal.
