I can’t carry my half-sister’s shit and mine. It’s taken me years to find the shoreline. I won’t let her drag me out to sea. Not when our dad has always chosen her.
“A shower sounds good.”
“Yeah?” Ingrid presses.
I nod. “Yeah.”
Her phone vibrates and she visibly stiffens.
“Just talk to your mom,” I say. “You know you want to.”
“It’s not that,” she replies, chewing on her bottom lip. “Jason and Jill are incapable of standing up to Isla. If I keep telling them how to do it, they’ll never learn.”
“What happens when you come home and your room has been turned into a nursery?” I counter.
Ingrid grins. “I don’t plan on living there much longer. We have that bet going, remember? And I fully intend to win it.”
Trust me, the idea of living alone with her is tempting. Too tempting. But money is the problem. I took the summer off to be with her, and that might have been a mistake.
I could ask my grandpa for a loan. Just for one semester. I could work overtime on the weekends and pay him off in a few months.
“Would you work full-time at Loretta’s?” I blurt out.
Ingrid’s face lights up. “Yes. I was planning on it, anyway. I need out of my house, Wilder. The sooner, the better.” She swallows hard. “I’d just prefer living with you than alone.”
I exhale through my nose. “It’d be hard.”
Her hand snakes down my stomach and she gropes me through my shorts.
“Then again,” she whispers, “you’re always hard, aren’t you?”
I blow out a breath. “You’re a tease, Blondie.”
“You taught me well,” she playfully retorts. “Now, get your clothes off—”
The hotel room phone begins ringing.
Ingrid’s body goes rigid.
“I’ll get it,” I tell her.
The moment I pick it up, I can already hear the shit show going on in the Winthrop house.
“Hello?” I say into the phone.
“Oh, Wilder,” Jill exhales into my ear. “I really need to speak with Ingrid. Is she there?”
“How did you get our hotel room—”
“Cash,” she replies instantly. “I called his cell and he told me what hotel and room you were in.”
Of course she has Cash’s cell number.
“So,” Jill continues. “Is she there?”
Ingrid’s eye twitches when I look at her.
“She’s in the shower,” I lie. “Can I help?”
