Some Girls Do (Outback Heat Book 1) by Amy Andrews Read Free Book Online Page A

for the rest of this year and next year and recommence the following year.”
    “No.”
    Ethan’s voice brooked no argument. Lacey took a breath. “You can’t stop me.” She was so proud of how calmly it came out.
    “You wanna bet?” Marcus said.
    Lacey sighed. “What are you going to do, Marcus? Are you going to physically stay with me twenty-four-seven and drag me to every class?”
    “No, but Coop will,” he said.
    Lacey glanced at Coop who looked like he’d rather take another bullet to the chest. Coop caught in the middle of all her crap again. “He’s not my damn babysitter,” Lacey snapped, her patience just about run out, “And he’s not at your beck and call. He has his own life.”
    “Lacey,” Jarrod said, “we promised Mum you’d go to college. That you’d finish. On her deathbed . You know that. She knew how much you wanted to go to that college and she knew you’d refuse to go after she died, so she made each of us promise out loud that you’d see it through.”
    God, here it came. The deathbed guilt trip. She remembered it well, her mother sending her out of the room that last day so she could talk to her sons. She understood the effect that had on her brothers. She did . And she understood why her mother had done it, but she’d been wrong and Lacey wasn’t going to let her brothers emotionally blackmail her anymore.
    Do it for Mum … Mum wanted this … Mum believed in you … Mum was so proud of you.
    “None of you asked me what I wanted.”
    “You wanted this, ” Ethan said, exasperated.
    Tears stung Lacey’s eyes. “Not right after my mother had died, I didn’t,” she implored, looking at her brothers, trying to make them see. “I wanted time with my family and people who knew and loved me. Who knew and loved her . I wanted to be here in this place that she loved so much. Where every street holds a memory.”
    A tear escaped and trekked down her cheek and she dashed it away, angry at herself for getting upset. She promised herself she wouldn’t do this, she wouldn’t cry.
    “Where people would know what I’d been through and would stop and ask me how I was doing and hug me and tell me a story about my mother . Tell me how great she was and how much they missed her. Missed her like I did. I just needed time to grieve amongst people who understood, who loved Mum too. I needed my brothers .”
    All Lacey’s old anger and unresolved grief bubbled to the surface and lodged in her throat, threatening to choke her.
    “Oh quit it, Lace …” Marcus said, squirming in his chair. “You know we’re shit at that kind of thing.”
    As a paramedic, Marcus was exceptionally good at that kind of thing but when it came to his emotional needs, to his family’s … not so much.
    “Mum warned us you’d ask for time,” Jarrod said. “But she was worried you wouldn’t go at all if you didn’t go straight away. She didn’t want us to be swayed.”
    “Well she was wrong,” Lacey muttered feeling shitty and disrespectful to be talking this way about her much-adored mother who’d known her daughter so well and had only had her best interests at heart.
    But Elizabeth Weston had got it wrong.
    “ Of course I would have gone. I just wanted to grieve first. I just needed a year. Was that really too much to ask for? I needed that year to be sad but none of you would listen.”
    “Okay fine,” Ethan said, scrubbing his hands through his hair. “We’re sorry, okay. We’re sorry we let you down when you needed us to be there for you. We thought we were doing the right thing.”
    Ethan’s apology was unexpected but she believed him. She believed that he and Marcus and Jarrod had done what they thought was right even if they had been completely one-eyed about it. “But, there’s nothing we can do about that now, is there?”
    “Yes there is,” Lacey said gently. “I’m coming back home and you could all be happy for me.”
    “Lacey,” Jarrod placated again. “Surely it