Rode Hard: Roadside Attractions Book Five by Knox Abby

Author:Knox, Abby
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Author Abby Knox, LLC
Published: 2021-11-03T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Rebecca

“You’re late.”

My sister has a way of pointing out the obvious.

I’d forgotten that tendency ever since she and her husband moved to Gold Hill. With her being a busy mom and a whole life that looks very different from mine, we both forget many things about each other.

“Happy Thanksgiving to you too.” I half-heartedly hug her, then step inside out of the cold. Donovan follows behind, closing the door and wiping his shoes off on the mat.

“You’re never late.” She tends to persist on a subject until she gets to the bottom of things. My sister makes the perfect investigator for Child Protective Services.

“This is Donovan,” I say, nodding backward at the hulk standing behind me. My sister’s eyes widen, and her jaw slackens.

Donovan takes the dish I’ve brought from me, probably because he knows I’m not going to argue with him over carrying things for me now that we’re in public.

He nods at Rachel. “Nice to meet you.”

“Close your mouth, Rach.”

“This? This is why you’re late?” Her voice sounds oddly husky unless it’s my imagination.

Leave it to my sister to forgo niceties. I do an over-the-top imitation of her voice. “And it’s nice to meet you too, Donovan. My name is Rachel, and this is my husband Rich—wait, where are your husband and kids?”

She looks at me as if I should know better. “We’ve already started Dirty Bingo, so go ahead and grab your cards….”

I try to control the wince.

“Don’t tell me you forgot the gifts?” Rachel’s exasperated expression hasn’t changed since we were children.

“Kitchen this way?” Donovan interjects, gesturing to the hallway opposite the front door.

“Yes, kitchen, follow me.”

My sister rolls her eyes and marches the other way into the big den, where about twenty people are hollering and laughing. Sounds a lot like the gift-stealing portion of Dirty Bingo has already begun.

Donovan sets my dish on the kitchen island, where a menagerie of foil and Tupperware containers are jammed with food. The kitchen smells like deep-fried turkey, roasted ham, sweet potato pie, and red-eye gravy, which gives me both anxiety and makes me feel like a giddy nine-year-old.

“After my sister and me, everyone else is louder and louder in my family. This is your last chance to leave.”

Thankfully nobody is in the kitchen at the moment, as Donovan walks around the island and slides his arms around my waist. “Sweets, I’m not that easy to get rid of,” he says.

I look into his eyes, and he’s serious. I like it. I’m happy he’s not scared away by my loud family. I’m glad my sister’s weirdness doesn’t bother him. I just hope he’s not putting up with all of this just to stay on my good side for today.

My heart tells me to listen to all the things he’s said between last night and this morning. You know he’s not messing around. But my head remembers all the things my heart forgot. My head recalls all the times that men pretended to like me because they wanted something else.

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.