Page 100 of Worth of Waste

For the last few weeks that she had been staying at the cabin, Dino had come to visit on a fairly regular basis. Almost always on the weekend, and usually closer to the evening. He didn’t stay much longer than a day, maybe a day and a half, but it was enough to keep their son happy, and Karen was enjoying her time away from the city and life.

Truthfully, she was considering not going back at all.

But that was another thing to deal with at another time.

“Since I decided to get away from the woman in my house driving me crazy,” Dino muttered.

Karen turned into a block of ice in his arms. “I beg your pardon?”

There was a woman in his house?

Jealousy flared to life like a raging inferno determined to devastate Karen’s insides. She never questioned Dino on his fidelity to her, if only because he seemed to have so little interest in others—especially women—and he’d never given her any indication that he was seeing other people.

Why would he give her that indication?

He made damn sure to mention she wasn’t to see anyone else but him.

She expected the same.

“Wow, I can feel you wanting to kill me right now,” Dino said, chuckling.

Karen spun slowly in his arms to face him, and Dino let her, dropping the knife and potato in his hands. She came to a stop, never breaking eye contact once she held his gaze. He reached behind her, turned the tab on, and washed his hands and all the while, she continued to glare at him, silently wishing for him to feel all the anger about to spew from her mouth.

“I beg your pardon?” she repeated.

It came out a heck of a lot calmer the second time around.

Dino didn’t look the least bit fazed. If anything, he looked amused. Karen was two seconds away from smacking that infuriating smirk off of his face.

“My sister—Lily—is at my place until her wedding,” Dino said, his grin growing as Karen’s stiff shoulders began to deflate. “We don’t get along. Think how I’ve mentioned my brother and me to be, but ten times worse. She’s young, stubborn, and spoiled. I did that last one by letting her do whatever the hell she wanted for years, so I have no one to blame but myself.”

Karen took a deep breath. “Your sister.”

“She’s not happy, but she wasn’t ever going to be anyway. Although, I have to say, she is happier.”

Wait, what?

“She’s getting married but she’s not happy?” Karen asked, her brow furrowing. “Why would she get married if—”

“The wedding is coming right up—I’m hoping she gets her shit sorted and whatever issues she’s got with her fiancé put to bed before it gets here.”

Karen just stared at him. “She’s got issues with her fiancé?”

That didn’t sound like a very good relationship.

Dino shrugged. “All women who are told to marry a man they don’t know very well aren’t going to be very pleasant to deal with for a while. At least, that’s what someone told me.”

“What?”

Her remark came out so damned sharp that even Dino froze and glanced down at her.

“Shit, forgot to mention that, huh?”

Karen didn’t quite know how to respond. “You’re making your sister marry someone?”

“To be fair, they’ve got history. It’s just old—like when they were kids, old—history.”

“Is that … normal?”