Unleashed: A Bad Boy Stepbrother Romance Part 15

"But Deborah is fine, no need to be so formal." She smiles. "How about a gla.s.s of water, honey? I'm so thirsty! You know how planes dry you out."

I sigh, and run a gla.s.s, hand it to her.

"Thank you, Catherine."

"It's Ca.s.sie," I say.

"I never did like shortened names," Deborah sniffs.

I just blink. Whatever, Deb.

Dad walks out to Chance, a hand extended. "Kyle Shannon," he says. "Ca.s.sie's father. Chance is it? Can you please tell me what are you doing in my kitchen?"

I feel the tension in the room grow almost immediately. Before it was just awkward, but now Dad and Chance are already having some kind of mental c.o.c.kfight.

Chance sets down the now-empty plate, grips Dad's hand. I see Dad wince a little as they shake hands.

"Ask Ca.s.sie why I'm here," he tells Dad.

"I'm asking you, young man."

Chance laughs, shakes his head. "Where do you get off using that tone with me? Who are you to me?"

"You're in my house, and I'd like to know why."

"Kyle!" Deborah says, approaching them. "Is this really necessary?"

"He's a fighter, isn't he? Wrestling champ, isn't that what you said?"

"Yes, but-"

"I know his type, and most of them would be a bad influence on Ca.s.sie."

"My type?" Chance echoes.

"Dad, he's just my friend, okay?"

"You never told me he had tattoos," Dad says to Chance's mother.

"What has that got to do with anything?"

"You ever fight underground MMA, Chance?"

"Yes," Chance says, stepping closer to Dad. "Is that something you have a problem with? "

"As a matter of- "Kyle!" Deborah yells, her voice strained. "Come with me right now!"

They leave the kitchen and go to the living room, and I can hear them yelling at each other. I look to Chance, but he just pushes his lips together.

"Well, this is off to a good start, isn't it?" He checks his pockets. "I think your dad doesn't like me very much."

"You didn't have to be so combative with him."

"Did you hear how he talked to me?" Chance asks. "It's because he's your dad that I-"

"That you what?" I ask, leveling a challenging glare at him. "That you stopped short? Short of what?"

He licks his lips. "Let's go," he says to me.

"Where?" I ask.

"The f.u.c.k out of here."

"Why?"

"You really want to stay here with them? Right now? Fresh off a plane, grumpy, already at each other's throats?"

I consider it. No, I certainly don't.

"What about you? What about your mother?"

"What about her?" Chance says. "It's her life, she can do what she wants."

"Don't you care?"

"Your father is not the first man she's shacked up with."

"But marriage?"

He shrugs. "No idea about that, don't much care right now, either. So you coming with me, or staying here?"

I haven't even begun to fully comprehend the implications of Dad getting married again, and to Chance's mother no less!

This is insane.

Getting out is the only palatable choice at the moment.

"Hold up," I tell him, making up my mind. "I'm coming with you. Wait here."

I sprint up the steps, quickly get into some outside clothes, and then run down past Dad and Deborah.

"Where are you going?" he asks me.

"I have stuff to do at school, Chance is driving me!"

I whip into the kitchen, nod at Chance, and together we leave, both our parents staring wide-eyed at us as we shut the door.

Now... well, now things just got very complicated.

Chapter Seventeen.

We walk together along the beach, not really talking, just thinking.

To me, it's pretty crazy, all of this, but it doesn't bother me as much as it bothers Ca.s.s. Maybe it's the ick-factor for her, but I just don't feel it.

We had no way of knowing... and even if we did know, would it have stopped anything?

"What happened to your mother?" I ask, breaking the quiet. She snaps her head at me. I figure I'd better go first. "My father left while my mother was pregnant. I met him once, couple of years ago. He was back in town, looked me up. Told me he was my dad."

"And?" she asks me.

"I told him to f.u.c.k off."

"You know, he might have realized he made a mistake."

"Like I give a s.h.i.+t about giving him absolution."

"Did he say anything?"

"Yeah, tried to tell me not to behave the way I was. He got up in my face about it, too."

"Oh," she says, and she wrings her hands. "It was like that."

"He tried to grab my arm when I turned to leave, tried to ask me to reconsider. It was a bit pathetic."

"But maybe he really did make a mistake. Maybe he had regrets."

"People got to own their mistakes, and own their regrets. I wasn't about to make his life easier for him. What's in it for me?"

"You could have formed a relations.h.i.+p with your real father."

"Twenty years too late for that, Ca.s.s."

I pull out a cigarette and light it, and we continue walking for a bit in silence. The sounds of sail lines slapping metal masts on catamarans rings in the air.

"My mother died when I was seven. She had a cancerous tumor on her spine. It came really quickly, like, one minute she's healthy and fine and it's like nothing is wrong, and the next she's in hospital, weak and withering away. From the moment she was diagnosed to the day she died was only a little over six months."

I feel a thump in my chest. "I'm sorry, Ca.s.s."

"To be honest, I don't really think about it that much."

"So it's just been you and your dad ever since, huh?"

"Yeah... until now. I don't know why he's suddenly married your mother. They only just met. It's crazy, if you ask me."

"Right time, right place, right drinks, right atmosphere, anything can happen. Hey, they were in Vegas, right?"

"That doesn't mean anything."

I shrug. "I don't understand it, either."

"You know, technically, last night we were already... family."

"That doesn't bother me," I say truthfully. "It's just a technicality. You're not my real sister, we had no way of knowing. s.h.i.+t, why f.u.c.king waste time worrying about it?"

She doesn't reply, so we just keep on walking.

"I'm going to England in a few days. It's something of a holiday. Dad and I sorted it out before he went to Vegas. I'm going to see my campus."

I'm not sure why she's telling me this, so I just listen.

"Now I just can't wait to get away. From you, from here, from this."

I lick my lips.

"It would be so much simpler. I would have less to worry about, less to consider."

"Can't run away."

"I want to. I'm thinking about just staying there, in the UK, for summer. Somehow, you know? Make it work. So I don't have to come back here. So I don't have to come back home."

My phone vibrates in my pocket, and I pull it out. It's a text from my mother: Chance, pack a suitcase. We'll be joining Kyle and Ca.s.sie for their trip to England. Ciao!

I can't help the grin from parting my lips.

Ca.s.sie looks at me, and says, "What?"

I hand her my phone, shaking my head. This day just keeps getting better and better.

"Looks like you and me are stuck together for a little while yet, Ca.s.s."

She just looks completely horrified.

"Oh my G.o.d," she groans.

Chapter Eighteen.