The Suite Life by Melanie Summers

Author:Melanie Summers [Summers, Melanie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance, Contemporary
ISBN: 9781988891248
Goodreads: 46811232
Publisher: Indigo Group
Published: 2019-10-03T00:00:00+00:00

***

An hour later, the fire is roaring and the coals are ‘hot dog’ ready. Leo found two long twigs to use as roasting sticks, and my stomach is growling as my wiener bubbles and hisses. A gentle breeze causes the flames to dance along the logs, and the only sounds are the rustling leaves of the trees and the crackling of the fire. It’s a calm, comfortable moment, but I can’t help being a little sad. I want to ask more about Leo’s childhood, but I don’t think I can. The moment for that passed without me knowing what to say, but his words ring through my head. Cold. Strange. Unrealistic. And lonely.

Suddenly, the grass on the rich side of the tracks doesn’t seem so green. I watch him from the corner of my eye as he cooks his wiener. To look at him, you’d never guess he has a care in the world. He’s the epitome of freedom, but now that I’ve had a glance into what’s under the devil-may-care façade, I feel sorry for him.

He glances at me for a second, then says, “Go ahead. Ask.”

“Ask what?”

“You want to know more about the whole cold-and-lonely comment.”

“How could you tell?”

“Because you’ve been very quiet since I said it,” he answers, carefully turning his stick.

“It’s just that you come off as this fun-loving guy who’s never had a care in the world, and yet…” I stop, not sure how to finish my comment.

“That’s because I don’t have a care in the world. I learned at a very early age that if you don’t care about things like impressing your impossible father, you can get by much easier. Especially when you have two highly impressive older brothers.”

“Ah, I see.”

He rolls his eyes. “Don’t pity me, Brianna. Most people have it much worse.”

“Do they?”

“Yes. Much better to grow up with a silver spoon in one’s mouth than an empty one.”

“What about a regular stainless-steel spoon served by people who love you?”

“Like how you’re raising Isabelle?”

“No, my life probably seems awful to you,” she says. “I meant somewhere more in between. Not broke, but not disconnected either.”

“Your life in no way seems awful to me. You have Izzy and your aunt, who would do anything for either of you,” he says. “And my entire family isn’t disconnected. My mother tries when she’s not too busy getting spa treatments. My brother Pierce and I get on quite well, for the most part.”

“Oh, well that’s good at least.”

“Take what you can get, right?” He deftly lifts his roasting stick away from the fire and pulls a bun out of the bag on the log next to him.

Realizing I’m burning the bottom side of my wiener, I remove it from the fire, and Leo quickly gets a bun out for me and uses it to remove my wiener from the stick.

“Hmm. That’s a little charred. Why don’t we switch dogs?”

“That’s very kind of you, but I don’t mind it a little black.”

“Ah! Improv rules,” he says, holding his perfectly cooked hot dog out to me.

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