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He grinned. "Me too. We’ll definitely do this more often. The possibilities…” Then he slapped my right butt cheek. “Come on, let’s get you cleaned up and then we can work on our homework.”
The smile immediately slipped. “Not the way to keep me in the mood.”
He laughed as I climbed off. Our combined fluid leaked down the inside of my thigh as I froze, hovering over his lap. “That’s new.”
Laughing even harder, he hooked my neck to bring me in for a hard kiss. "I like it.”
I joined him because this was funny in a really awkward way. Story of my life.
“If we study hard enough, we might forget the shit storm swirling around us.” He used his shirt to wipe up the excess fluid between himself and me.
Sighing, I gathered my clothes from the floor. “Yeah,” I agreed with little conviction. No one at school was aware Rhys’ dad had been arrested yet.
With everything that happened today, that was only a matter of time.
I just hoped it didn’t make our lives harder than they already were.
“Ithink you should quit Tippy’s and focus on your music.”
What the hell?
My head whipped around to stare hard at Jonah. He didn’t even humor me with a glance as he kept furiously tapping away at the keyboard on his computer. Whatever he was doing, he was essentially writing a book.
Either that, or he was nervously waiting for me to blow up at him. The kid knew me well. My blood was already rushing straight to my head at the thought of losing the sole income in this sibling relationship.
Rubbing my finger in my ear, I squinted at him. “I’m sorry. Can you repeat that? For a second, I thought you said you’d like to go hungry and check out the comforts inside a cardboard box.”
He snickered. “You act like we’d be kicked out tomorrow if you stopped working for that asshole. Don’t forget, I make a little extra cash too.”
I snorted, earning a glare from Jonah. Sure, he tutored on the side during some breaks at school and in the evenings, and he even made a decent wad of cash doing it. The last time I asked he was making fifty dollars an hour. The problem? He worked less than ten hours a week. Definitely not enough to feed us or to keep us warm during the winter.
“When we figure out what we’re doing after you all graduate, then I’ll consider it. We might not even be staying here after graduation anyway, right?”
One shoulder tipped up to his ear in an awkward shrug. “I hope we do.”
Wait. Hold the fuck up. My kid brother, who hated everything about Silver Ranch, wanted to stay here? Where he felt the good citizens looked down their noses at him all because of who his parents were. Maybe I was dreaming. This entire conversation was weird.
“Not here, dumbass.” He threw a piece of popcorn from the mostly empty bowl next to his laptop. Over the last few weeks, it had become his favorite snack of choice. He ate it so much he was starting to walk around smelling like a movie theater.
“Then where would you like to go?” I kept my tone even, trying not to mock him. Some habits were just hard to break.
“I meant stay in Colorado. Rhys is the only one that’s really got a legitimate option to leave the state. Astrid’s potential art scholarship is for Colorado. Thatcher is getting ready to graduate, and you’re going to do music, but you could do it from anywhere. I’ve been applying my ass off to as many scholarships as possible, but I haven’t been awarded any that would make a huge difference to out of state tuition.” He sighed and slouched back against the seat in a very un-Jonah like gesture.
These were thoughts that had run through my head a million times since I started down this path with Astrid and the guys. But I was realizing that some things just weren’t worth the headspace and stress when there was nothing I could do about it now.
“Don’t work yourself up over what might happen in seven months. Focus on the now and lining up as many options as you can. That way, when it’s time to make a decision, you can make the best one for you. Sound good?” I left the stove where I was watching the chicken sizzle and clapped him on the back.
A smirk flashed before he wiped it away. “So, we’re talking about options?”
All right. He was acting weird, and trying to trap me, I just didn’t know how. “Sure. Your options.”
His eyes sparked as he twisted in his chair to lean forward, clasping his hands. “How about we talk about yours? Tippy’s is doing their damnedest to take up all your free time. True, they’re paying you overtime,” he said as he held up a hand, “but it’s not letting you really focus on your music or building your social media platform. And they pay you shit. You’re only making decent money now because it’s overtime!”
“Are you forgetting this trailer belongs to Tippy’s? If I quit, we have to move out.”
“So, we move out,” he fired back. “We could rent an apartment in Thatcher’s complex. They have some openings, and it would mean less drive time for us to all hang out together.”
Jonah was trying to make it work. I appreciated that, as much as I wanted to peel his eyes open so he could see the truth. He’d never lived on his own before, not like this. He had no idea what it cost to be independent. Hell, I was covering all the expenses for him now. “We can’t lose my income. I carry all our bills.”
