Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 136425 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 682(@200wpm)___ 546(@250wpm)___ 455(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 136425 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 682(@200wpm)___ 546(@250wpm)___ 455(@300wpm)
Devi sat down, thinking seriously about letting this line of gossip begin and when her cousins were thoroughly involved in arguing, she could sneak out and go yell at her uncle for trying to take this time from her.
She could tell Zach she would run with him. She could leave it all behind and be with him. Until they ran out of luck.
“Nope, this is a discussion for another time,” Kenzie announced. “We have to figure out why our cousin is so freaked out.”
Uhm, because she spent several unintended weeks in a foreign country wearing underwear bought at a mini-mart in the Welsh countryside. Because she was in love with a man for the first time, and it was perfect except for all the fucking things that were wrong. Because she’d been kidnapped twice in one year. Because she didn’t have a job and she was going to have to make decisions soon. Ones she didn’t want to make. Ones she didn’t have the money to make. And she would make them alone because Zach would be gone. Either on the run or in a box of one kind or another. He would be gone. Gone. Fucking gone.
“I think she’s going to blow.” Kala sat up and sighed. “We might need a fight club.”
Tash and Kenzie and Lou turned on her at the same time. “No fight club.”
How long had Kala been talking about fight club? Which she was not going to do.
“I’m only saying she either needs to punch something or get laid, and I can only help with one of those things,” Kala admitted and then seemed to consider. “Or…and hear me out…we trick Zach and tie his ass up and let Devi go at him.”
“I’m the menace?” Kenzie pointed a thumb her sister’s way. “We are not sexually assaulting Zach.”
“I don’t think it would actually be assault. More like a fun way to start a night,” Kala argued. “Look, it worked for me and Coop, though he still complains about the flowers on his dick. Apparently dudes are real sensitive.”
“Devi, are you scared?” Lou sat down next to her. “Because you’ve been through a lot in the last couple of weeks. Do you want to be here or do you want to go home?”
“She’s not leaving Zach,” Tasha said. “Oh, she can talk about how this is all sex, but she’s not leaving him, and I doubt Dad is trying to convince him to leave her. He’s probably talking about condoms.”
Devi felt her whole body heat with embarrassment. “He doesn’t need the condom talk. He uses one, but he doesn’t have to. I’m on birth control.”
“Oh, the condom talk can go a couple of different ways,” Tasha assured her. “But it’s more about talking about the heart. You see the condom is… Oww.” Tasha reached over and picked up the hair tie her sister had lobbed her way. “Very mature, Kala.”
“Well, you were talking about hearts and condoms, and I couldn’t let you embarrass yourself,” Kala replied, completely comfortable with her older sister shooting daggers her way. With her eyes, of course, although Devi had to admit if Tash had a couple of daggers, Kala would likely see it as a fun exercise. “Devi is freaking out but it’s fine. We all freak out a little when we do this thing.”
“This thing?” Tash asked.
Kenzie shrugged. “Yeah, that’s what she calls epic love stories. She’s not very romantic, and I’m with Tash. Dad’s really talking about the condom we put around our hearts to protect them. Sometimes you leave that…” Kenzie ducked the flying hair tie her sister sent her way and continued as though it hadn’t happened. “…off. Sometimes you have to take the leap and go with the flow.”
“The flow is him being dead or in prison.” Her cousins could joke all they liked, but she was still stuck. Stuck. Was that how it would always be? Would every man she met be put up against Zach and found wanting?
“Dad isn’t going to let that happen.” Kala seemed to get serious.
“Your dad isn’t some magical god who can wave his hand and make this go away.” She was on the edge. So close to it, and this wasn’t where she expected to be today. She was supposed to have dinner and drink tea, and Lacey was supposed to be Lacey and they would argue about what to watch on telly and then she would go to bed with Zach and he would be all over her and she would sleep like a baby in his arms and pretend that every day would be exactly like that one.
“Don’t tell him that.” Kenzie sat down beside her twin. “Devi, it’s going to be okay. If you want Zach, we can make it happen. I know I rejected the idea of tying Zach up, but it could work. We lock him in a room with a nice bed and then indoctrinate him with rom-coms. This is something I’ve been thinking about for a while. If all that’s available to him is sex and rom-coms, he won’t have anything better to do than fall in love. It’s like brainwashing but for his dick.”