Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 48730 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 244(@200wpm)___ 195(@250wpm)___ 162(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 48730 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 244(@200wpm)___ 195(@250wpm)___ 162(@300wpm)
“Do you have to argue with everything?”
“This is important!”
“Yeah, it is,” he replied, frustration bleeding into his voice. “But you’re already paying for groceries and clothes and all the other shit five people need. You know what I pay for? Our dates and anything to do with my truck. That’s it. My shampoo gets low, my mom buys more. I want something from the grocery store? She picks it up when she goes shopping. You see the difference?”
“You should be buying your own shampoo,” I spat dumbly, laying back down with a huff.
Richie scoffed, but his hand found my back again and continued its trail up and down my spine.
“Property,” he said firmly after a few moments. “Room for a couple of apple trees or something.”
“What if she won’t let them go?” I asked quietly, the thought of it making me a little sick. “What if she says they have to stay?”
“We’ll ignore her,” Richie replied firmly. “What’s she gonna do? Stay sober enough to try and force them back?”
“Good point,” I mumbled.
“You worry too much.” He gently yanked a piece of my hair. “It’ll all work out. You’ll see.”
I nodded against his shoulder, but to say I was skeptical that things would all work out was a massive understatement. Richie had grown up with two normal parents and a couple of older brothers who gave him shit but clearly loved him. He had no idea what it was like to wake up every morning wondering what the next disaster would be. For him, things did work out. They always had.
I loved that for him. I loved that he was always full of so much optimism.
Sometimes, I thought we worked so well because he was my complete opposite. When I was cautious, he was full speed ahead. When I only saw the downside of things, he always found the silver lining. I was panicked and he was calm, and on good days, I felt like we evened each other out. My pragmatism kept him from flying too close to the sun, and his positivity kept me from seeing catastrophe in every situation.
“Cian told me today that he always wears a condom,” I said after we’d been quiet for a while. The comment earlier had made me really fucking nervous. My baby brother was going into his freshman year of high school. He wasn’t only way too young to be having sex, but if he got someone pregnant, I was pretty sure I would never get out of bed again.
Richie laughed.
“It’s not funny,” I snapped.
“Baby, he’s not having sex.”
“How the hell would you know?”
“You can tell when a guy’s had sex.”
“Bullshit.”
“Not kidding,” he said seriously. “I’m sure Cian’s fooled around with girls—”
“Fucking gross,” I groaned.
“But he definitely hasn’t had sex with anyone but himself.”
“Richard Anthony Lewis, shut up right now!” I shuddered in disgust.
His chest shook with mirth. “You want me to give him the condom talk?”
“I want you to give him the abstinence talk.”
“Yeah, I’m sure that’ll work.”
“I’ll talk to him,” I muttered.
“Can I be there?” he asked jokingly. “That’s something I’d like to see.”
“I just don’t want him to be a manwhore,” I sighed. “We both knew those guys in high school, racking up the notches on their bedposts and leaving a line of heartbroken girls in their wake. They were all assholes. Every one of them.”
“I can’t see Cian acting like that.”
“I don’t know,” I argued. “That kid has more charm than he knows what to do with and very little self-preservation.”
“He’s also got three sisters that he’d die for,” Richie said quietly. “I think that will inform his decisions, don’t you?”
“Maybe.”
We lay there in the bed of his truck for a long time, talking about anything and everything. It was one of the parts of our relationship that I loved so much. I saw Richie almost every day, but we never ran out of things to discuss. It was so easy being with him, and listening to him rattle off about something he’d seen online or some old high school friend he’d run into at the gym was like a balm. He quieted the constant stream of worries and lists in my head.
As the sun was finally setting, we packed up and climbed back into the cab to head home.
“You think Mandy will be there when we get back?” he asked, reaching out to lace his fingers with mine.
“Who knows,” I replied. “She started drinking pretty early so she might have already passed out.”
“One could hope,” he murmured.
“I’m going to start working longer hours at the store starting on Wednesday,” I reminded him. “Do you think you could check in on the kids once in a while? I know you’ll be working too, but you could just text Cian or something.”
“Cian got a phone?”
“I told him he could get one for high school.” I nodded. “I brought home one of those prepaid ones from the store. He practically shit himself, he was so excited.”