AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I make a vague sound in response, too preoccupied wondering if Laz has been having clandestine quickies with Mom all over this house, just out of sight. He’s never touching me again. Never ever. Who the hell is he, thinking he can screw every woman in this house?
A moment later, the man himself walks out of the kitchen, grease stains on his fingers and muscular forearms. When we arrived, he had the garage door open while he worked on his Camaro.
“Hello, Lazzaro, how are you?” Rieta asks with a polite smile.
I expect him to correct her and tell her to call him Laz, but his expression merely flashes with annoyance before it wanders over to me. He takes in my bare legs and school skirt rucked up around my thighs away from the water. “I’m peachy. You girls look like you’re having fun.”
Rieta swings her legs back and forth in the pool. “Just finding ways to deal with the weight of Mom’s expectations. I hope your baby-making efforts are going better than mine.”
I’m dawdling my little spoon through the ice cream, but my gaze is fixed on Laz, and I see his jaw clench.
He’s annoyed. What does that mean? He hates his private business being talked about? He didn’t want me to know he’s trying to knock my mother up because it will gross me out when he’s trying to fuck me?
I shove my spoon angrily into the ice cream. Too late. I’m grossed out.
“Good luck, or whatever people say,” he tells Rieta flatly. I can feel him staring at me, but I refuse to look up. Awkward silence stretches while I pretend to be absorbed in my ice cream.
Finally, he turns around and goes into the house.
“He’s not the chatty type, is he?” Rieta observes.
“Oh, he talks plenty when he’s causing trouble.”
Rieta pulls a sympathetic face. “Is it really hard living here these days? If you ever need a place to escape, you can always come to mine.”
It’s always hard living under the same roof as Mom. It’s kind of Rieta to offer her place as somewhere I can crash, but living with Nero isn’t a better prospect. He and Mom are cut from the same cloth. Both serious, standoffish people, and they agree about disliking me.
“Thanks. I’ll be okay.” Especially since I have a plan. I wish I could confide in my sister, but I can’t risk anything getting back to Mom.
“I need some water. Want some?” I get up from the pool and head for the kitchen.
“No, thanks, I’m happy with my ice cream,” Rieta calls after me.
I smile to myself as I pad barefoot into the kitchen. With a waffle cone that huge, I bet she is.
The smile dies on my lips as I turn a corner and run straight into Laz.
“Nice chat with your sister?” he asks nonchalantly, leaning against the wall and blocking my way to the refrigerator.
“We haven’t finished, and yes, thank you. Now move.”
But Laz stays right where he is. “Don’t let the gossip flow too freely.”
My expression hardens. “Meaning?”
“You know what it means.”
What does he think I’m going to do? Brag to my sister that my stepdad got me half naked in his car? That’s not girl talk. That’s self-immolation through pure shame.
“I had no idea you were dying to be a family man,” I say.
His eyes flick up and down my body. “Want to help me with that?”
My lip curls. “You’re disgusting.”
Laz’s eyes flash, and he growls. “I don’t like your tone, Bambi. Be polite to your stepfather.”
“Or what?”
