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“She’ll always be my mom. I mean, you said it yourself. Van and I aren’t twins, and we’re only days apart. He came first and never lets me live it down.” I’m trying to explain this, but I don’t think I’m doing a good job of it.
“You’re not related?”
“We are,” I say defensively. Fischl and Van are the only family besides my dad that I know. The fear of losing this all scares the crap out of me. If your own mother can walk away from you, I think anyone can. “You and Van are cousins.”
“No.”
“No?”
“Your egg donor, that’s your mom?” Ouch. That stings. I don’t think he’s trying to be mean, but with him I’m not sure. He’s so blunt. Still, it doesn’t give him the right to be a jerk.
“No, Fischl is my mom.” I stare out the window. I’m not going to give him more if he can’t do the same. Van can be a hardhead. They have that in common, but with me, Van isn’t that way.
Dunc makes a few turns leading us down a heavily wooded street. I want to ask where we are, but I keep my lips sealed shut. It’s not long before my question is answered when he pulls into the gravel parking lot of a beautiful lake nestled back in the woods. If this were a date, this place would be perfect to make out. I bite the inside of my cheek. This is not the time to be having those kinds of ideas.
“My ah, Cooper. He’s held a torch for Fischl forever.” He shakes his head, clearly annoyed about this.
“Then why aren’t they together?”
“Not a fuckin’ clue. I guessed she ran off on him.”
“She would never!” I turn to face him. He does the same.
“My uncle raised me. Why wouldn’t he want to raise his own kid?”
“I don’t know, but my mom would never keep Van from this Cooper if he wanted to be a part of his life.”
“Your cheeks turn a creamy pink when you get worked up.”
“What?” His eyes drop to my mouth. My heart starts to pound. Dunc leans toward me. Without a second thought, my eyes fall closed. His warm breath tickles my lips as he brushes his against mine.
A loud noise chimes through the cab of the truck. I jerk back away from Dunc to find my phone. Van’s name lights up my screen.
“Hey,” I say, answering it.
“Where are you? You need to get home. Shit’s happening.”
“Okay, I’ll meet you there.” I end the call before he can ask me where I am again or how I’m getting home. “Can you take me home?”
“You always jump when he calls?”
“Are you always a jerk?”
“Typically, they call me an asshole.” Right. I need to remember that. Not only because he is one. Trust when people show you who they are.
Hell, this morning when I said hi, he almost bit my head off. Even if I could get past some of his remarks, we could never be anything more than friends.
Things are about to get messy already. I won’t add to that. Not when I could so easily drift away from a family that might not be mine anymore.
CHAPTER7
DUNCAN
She’s not relatedto me,sings the angel on my right shoulder.Shit, that meansVan’s not either so they could still be hooking up.”I’d punch the demon on my left, but Sadie already thinks—I don’t really know what she thinks, but it’s not what I want her to think. I want her to want me, to desire me so much that she tastes it in her mouth. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like it’s working out that way for me. Instead of spending some quality time at the lake in the back of my property, I’m driving her to the dickhead, her so-called brother.
If I was raised with Sadie, I would—I cut off that line of thinking. No good will come of me traveling down that path. I pull into the driveway of a large contemporary home. It’s glass and concrete and steel. I glance at Sadie. She doesn’t seem to be a hard-edges, steel beam kind of girl. I think she’s like her mom and likes flowers and pretty colors and molding. That’s how my dad built our house despite the only people living there being him and me.
“Nice place,” I say because people love their homes and don’t want to hear weird opinions about them.
