Strapless by Leigh Riker

Author:Leigh Riker
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Red Dress Ink
Published: 2002-03-03T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter

Eleven

With a grin Annie Baxter surveyed the clutter in her new bedroom. Because of her position in the family as the younger of two daughters, she had never bothered about neatness—that was Darcie’s responsibility—or, in fact, what other people thought of her.

Darcie, on the other hand, cared too much.

“I’m getting settled,” Annie informed her, wanting to pinch herself. She wasn’t dreaming. Was she? Her room in Cincy was nowhere by comparison, and Annie had plans for this place. She might even paint the walls black.

Darcie stood in the doorway with a frown. “You’ve been settling for the past week. I don’t see any progress.”

Annie dragged open a few drawers in her new pine chest with its fake rusted hardware. Very trendy. She flung the closet door wide, then flipped open an empty suitcase on the floor. “See?”

“Two pairs of jeans on hangers. Three shirts.” Darcie ambled into the room to peer into the dresser drawers. “Your underwear thrown in a clump. Where’s the rest of your stuff?”

“I’ll get to it.”

Darcie planted both hands on her hips (always a bad sign for Annie) and blew a stray strand of hair off her face.

“We need a few rules here.”

“Yours, I suppose.” Sometimes she felt tempted to hate her big sister, but Annie hated even more to waste energy. Most of the time she admired everything about Darcie, which had always been a problem for her. “I don’t like rules.”

“Tough. Number one,” Darcie muttered, holding up a finger. “Your junk stays in this room—neat or not, I guess I won’t worry about that. But the living room, the bathroom, my room especially, I do. Two, you wash your dishes and clean the pots you use. Every time. I do care about the kitchen, and last night you left burned spaghetti sauce in the pan.” Another finger flew up to join the first two. “Number three, you try to be careful about meeting people. Honestly, Annie. This isn’t Cincinnati. You can’t just walk up to someone in a store and strike up a conversation.”

“I worry about you, Darcie.” Annie hesitated, something she normally didn’t bother to do. Life had always been her play yard, from the day as a three-year-old when she’d charged out of the neighborhood park, found the larger world across a busy street, and become family legend. “You go to work—leave the house at precisely eight-oh-five every morning—you come home by six, fix dinner, watch one hour of television—a news show, what fun is that?—then go to bed.”

“Unless I’m seeing Merrick.”

When Darcie’s eyes fell, Annie’s gaze sharpened. “If you’re not happy with him, get another guy.” She grinned again. “Come to think, I heard you on the phone the other night. Is the Australian stud still calling?”

Darcie actually flushed. “Now and then.”

“You’re having phone sex, right?”

“Annie, that’s none of your business.”

“You are. That’s great, Darce. What’s he like?”

“Inventive,” Darcie answered. “Number four…you need to get a job.”

She should have known. Darcie wouldn’t forget the last—Annie hoped it was the last—of her points.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.