AllFreeNovel
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Sean rolls his eyes. “Sure he will. When he runs out of money.”
“Yeah.” A flutter of panic rustles in my chest. “I already had to bail him out once.”
“You mean when the roof caved in?”
I don’t want to tell him the whole story, but it’s inevitable—the twins will say something, and I’ll have to explain. Might as well do it now while we have a moment of peace. “He was in deep with some loan shark people in the city, so I went to my boss at my old job. He helped me out.”
Sean covers his eyes with his palm. “This was before the roof?”
“Yeah. Dad took off when that happened. And when my boss found out about our situation, he was worried about it. He had the place redone. That’s why it’s so nice.”
He takes his hand down and levels me with alook. “You’ve got yourself a sugar daddy.”
“I definitely do not.”
“So you didn’t have sex with him?” My face heats. There’s no way to hide it from Sean. “Jesus, Bristol.”
I cross my arms over my chest. “First of all, I can sleep with whoever I want, and you don’t get to judge me for it.”
“I’m not judging you.” He puts both hands up. “I’m just saying, it explains the apartment remodel that looks like it costs fifty thousand dollars, even though this place is a five-dollar complex.”
“Andsecond of all,it’s over.”
“The sugar-daddy situation?”
“Thejob, asshole. He’s not my boss anymore. I’m handling things here.”
“For how long?”
“Here’s the good news. Normally, you’d have to sleep on the couch, but since Dad’s gone, you can use his room. There’s a new bed and everything.”
Sean sighs. “We have to talk about this.”
“There’s not much to talk about. I’ve got a job. The apartment is decent. The twins—”
“Bris, you can’t do this forever. It’s your life, too.” I open my mouth to argue. “But.If we’re going to the zoo, then I should shower and change first. I’m sure the bathroom’s nice.”
I slap his bicep. “It’sreallynice. Come on.”
Sean heads into the bathroom with a low whistle. I get a towel and washcloth and push them into his hands. He runs a palm over the cloth. “Fancy.”
“I should have given you a potholder.” I shut the door on him, then lean against the wall.
The twins’ voices float out from their bedroom. They’re putting together a plan for the visit.
“I don’t care about the lions.” Mia. A drawer opens, then closes.
“I still want to see them. It doesn’t matter as long as we go to the groundhogs first.”
“That’s whatIsaid.”
It’s all okay. Good, even. Sean’s here and the twins are happy.
My heart races anyway. The situation feels out of control. How long can this calm last? Not long, if the rest of our lives has been any indication. I’m so firm with Sean about the twins because on some level, he’s right. If I keep them with me until they’re ready to leave home, it means my life isn’t my own.
I’ll never regret taking care of them. They’re my siblings, and I love them. I know what it meant to lose my mother. I’m not going to put them through that again because I have dreams of my own.
It’s just that I can imagine getting to the other side of this. I can imagine feeling like I’d missed something. Feeling like I’d have to start from scratch, except I’d be years behind schedule.
