He looked at me as if I’d grown a second head. “You’re kidding, right? Have you seen how hot the girls are in Oz?Andwe live near the beach. Bikinis, baby! I’m never settling down, ever.”
“Okay, then.”
“You got over my sister?”
I glared. Jasper had no boundaries.
“That’ll be a no. So, whatisnew around here?”
“I can’t keep up with you.”
One minute, he was the protective big brother, ready to rip my head off, and then he was back to normal… if Jasper could ever be described as that.
He shrugged. “Women have that problem, too.”
Raising my hands, I started to walk out of the room.
Screw the popcorn.
“She’s been miserable, you know,” he said.
I stopped and turned around. His words like a bullet. “What?”
“I thought she’d be okay after a while, but she never stopped looking sad. I hated seeing her that unhappyevery single day. Just do me a favour; don’t give her too much of a hard time. She didn’t want to leave. She was going through a lot of… stuff.”
“Yeah, I know she was.” Well, I didn’t know. I would never know what she had gone through. None of us would.
Jasper got the popcorn out of the microwave. “Ouch, popcorn, you bitch!” he hissed when the bag burnt his fingers.
Grinning, I went back in the lounge. “Your brother hasn’t changed one bit,” I said to Oakley as I sat back down. God, being this close to her was as natural as breathing.
“What did he say?”
“Something about bikinis.”
She laughed. “Yeah, he really likes the beach.”
I would have liked it, too. Hanging out in the sun with her all day sounded like a pretty perfect way to live.
“This is getting scary, so don’t go anywhere,” she said.
I’m not the one who went anywhere… but it was good to know that I was still safety to her.
I also wanted to be her home.
Shortly after the film finished, Mia and Leona pulled up outside. Ben, made Kerry and Chelsea leave with him, knowing we needed time.
I watched Mia’s jaw drop to the floor the moment she spotted Oakley. She let Leona’s Peppa Pig bag fall to the floor and ran to her. “Oh, my God!”
“I missed you,” Oakley told her. She hugged Mia, and I couldn’t help a bolt of jealously that zipped through my body. I was desperate to do the same.
“Who’s that?” Leona asked, tugging on my arm.
“A friend,” I told her, still watching how Oakley’s face lit up as Mia spoke. “You’re going to love her.”
Leona took to Oakley straightaway, pulling on her hand the second Mia let her go.
I sat still, my head still reeling, and I watched Oakley move onto the floor and let Leona tell her the names of every doll she had.
