I shot him an evil eye, tears still staining my face. “What the fuck could be so funny rightnow?”
“Have you seen JoeDirt?”
Inodded.
“The scene where he’s fucking that chick that isn’t his sister but he makes her scream ‘I’m your sister’ just popped into myhead.”
I gasped and slammed my fist into this shoulder. “You’re anass.”
“Yeah, probably.” He grabbed my hand. “Look. We’re two freaking adults. An hour ago we were the same two fucking people as we are right now. Just because you’re Rave’s daughter, you think thatchanges?”
I shrugged. “It’s just all sofucked.”
His lips brushed the back of my hand. “Rave married my mom after I was eighteen. I only call him Dad since I don’t have one anymore and it’s less confusing forRaine.”
Abel’s eyes filled with pain and the ice that had built up around my heart in the last thirty minutes started tomelt.
“Is he good toher?”
“The best. I don’t have any family left. I have the club and Rave. That’sit.”
“Daddy!Higher!”
The warm sun beat down on my smiling face as my dad pushed me higher and higher on the swing. It was a beautiful warm summerday.
“How’s thatprincess?”
He shoved me harder and I went flying through the air as fast as thewind.
“Weeee!” Iscreamed.
“Let’s get you home for some lunch.” He grabbed the swing to slow itdown.
“Just a little bit longer?” I pleaded, popping out my lowerlip.
He grabbed me, holding me close to his chest as he kissed my cheek. “Tomorrow’s your first day of school, don’t you want to get your Cinderella backpack allready?”
I gasped with excitement. “Yeah!”
“Ok, well then we better head home. Love youprincess.”
He kissed my hair and walked us over to his white truck. “Love you too,Daddy!”
Tears were streaming down my face as Abel shook my shoulder. “Zone out there for a minute,babe?”
Ugh.Hearing my stepbrother call me babe was weird, but not even an hour before he’d been my beautiful stranger that I was falling hard and fastfor.
This is going to take some getting usedto.
At the end of the day, he was mine and I was his, even though it was wrong. I barely knew him; he was my boss, not to mention my freaking stepbrother. It just felt tooright.
I mumbled, “Yeah. Justremembering.”
“Goodstuff?”
That’s when I realized I was smiling, still looking out the window to Rave, who looked extremelydistraught.
“He lovedme.”
