“Oh, she has. In passing. He’s the most popular kid in school. Baseball star, prom king, musician. He’s the guy all girls drool over in school.”
“I don’t think that’s Charlotte’s type.”
As much as I hated it, she’d had two somewhat serious boyfriends throughout high school. Both of whom were quiet and somewhat nerdy. Neither had been able to meet my eye when they were around.
She’d never shown any interest in a popular jock who’d probably slept his way through all the popular girls in their grade.
“Oh, please.”
“What? Her boyfriends were book and drama types.”
“Still. That guy is everyone’s type. And he knows it. And while she clearly isn’t interested—yet—he is.”
“She’s just tutoring him.” She’d done it a lot over the years, making a little extra book money doing it.
“Right. And the jock has never fallen for the bookish, quietly gorgeous tutor. That’s not a common trope or anything.”
“This is real life, not a book.” I paused. “And I don’t want her with that kind of guy.”
“She would walk him like a dog, and he would wait happily to be leashed again.”
“I don’t like it.”
“You’re her uncle. I’m pretty sure you’re not supposed to like it.”
“You’re her aunt.”
“Yeah, but I will always root for the love plot. She’s a grown-up now,” Alara reminded me.
“Don’t say that. She’s still twelve years old and begging to go get sweet treats.”
“I’m sure she is still getting sweet treats,” Alara said. “But she’s letting other men buy them now. How come you never care about Liam’s conquests?”
“Because I trust him to be up-front about his intentions and respectful of boundaries. That guy? I can’t say the same about him.”
“You know what wecansay? That Charlotte is smart, savvy, mature, and perfectly capable of making her own decisions. So, let’s take comfort in that. And her black belt,” Alara added.
Like everything else she set her mind to, Alara had thrown herself into martial arts with a fury, taking twice as many classes as the other kids her age, and forcing all the kids in the family to grapple with her for practice. She’d advanced with lightning speed.
An image flashed across my mind of her last competition, where she’d flipped a guy almost twice her size over her shoulder without breaking a sweat.
“That thing was worth its weight in gold.”
“Exactly. So, she totally has this under control,” Alara reminded me. “I think you’re focusing on the wrong thing,” she told me as she came toward me.
“What should I be focusing on then?”
“That we have the apartment all to ourselves. And I have a spicy scene I want to recreate.” She ran her hands up my chest.
“Oh yeah?”
“Yep,” she said, grabbing my tie and dragging me to the bedroom.
Alara - 10 years
The door chimed as I was sticking a creepy old porcelain doll statue in the back of the store, where it couldn’t leer at me anymore.
I turned it so it was nearly staring at the wall, then made my way into the center aisle to see who’d come in.
