26 Kisses by Anna Michels Read Free Book Online Page A

often. Are your dad and Lila going on vacation this summer? Do they need a house sitter?”
    “Yeah, right. They never go anywhere.” I check to make sure Jeffrey is following us. “Got those pictures posted yet?”
    “Yeah, duh. Seventeen likes so far. It’s not possible to take a bad picture in that place.”
    I stare up at the brick facade of my dad’s mansion, the edge of Lake Michigan just visible through the carefully pruned shrubs and trees that crowd the yard. It’s a few miles and a world away from my mom’s small three-bedroom, one-bath house with the peeling paint and matted carpet.
    I shake my head as Jeffrey pushes past me to climb into the car. Dad always made it pretty clear we weren’t good enough. Even when I got an A on my report card, he wanted an A+. The dishes were never done to his satisfaction; our rooms were never quite clean. Mom used to tease him, call him Mr. OCD. She thought it was funny that they were total opposites, that he used vacuuming as a stress-relieving activity while she could go for weeks without remembering to make the bed.
    Everything he’s got looks pretty perfect now. As we’re walking past the manicured flower beds, I step off the path, letting my flip-flop come down on one flawless marigold, smashing its golden petals into the dirt.

CHAPTER SEVEN
    As we pull into the driveway at home, Jeffrey slides out of the car and slams the door too hard behind him.
    “Hey!” Mel calls out the window. “Show some respect!”
    He rolls his eyes and saunters up the driveway, his shorts barely clinging to his hips and showing off a generous amount of his blue plaid boxers.
    “Remind me why guys are supposedly so great?” I say.
    Mel waves her hand. “Come on. You know Jeffrey doesn’t count. He’s not really a guy yet. He’s still a boy.” She glances up into the rearview mirror—checking to see if Seth is home?
    I clear my throat, and her eyes flick away. “Hey, do you want to come over to my house?” she asks. “My mom’s making tamales for lunch.”
    “Definitely.” It’s a sin to turn down Manuela’s tamales. “Let me just run in and get my phone off the charger.”
    I push open the car door and jog up the driveway. Jeffrey has already installed himself on the couch in the living room, the TV blaring and his eyes glued to his phone as his thumbs move over the screen.
    “Mom!” I go into the kitchen and find her sitting at the table, still wearing her Prancercise clothes from this morning and eating a bowl of oatmeal.
    “Hey,” she says, scraping her spoon across the china. “Everything okay?”
    “Yeah, fine,” I say, unplugging my phone and glancing at the screen. No new texts. I’m relieved and then annoyed. It would have been nice for Adam to at least make the effort, so I could be the one to decide whether to respond. I do, however, have a new friend request on Facebook. From Killian.
    Mom pushes the bowl away and reaches for a banana. “Jeffrey was grumbling about something when he came in. He mentioned a party?”
    “Oh.” I shove my phone into my pocket. “Dad was just telling us all this stuff we have to do with him this summer. Lila’s having some dumb work thing at their house, and then there’s Kaylee’s birthday, which is fine, obviously. And then Dad’s family reunion.”
    “Family reunion?”
    “Yep. Next month.” As if it’s not awkward enough that I don’t really get along with my dad as it is, I’ll have to go hang out with him in front of all the relatives I barely know and pretend to be a big, happy family.
    “Gosh, already? How often do they do those things, every five years? It seems like we were just there, our eyeballs burning when Uncle Eddie took his shirt off to get into the pool.”
    Mom sounds lighthearted, but she puts the banana down, and her smile dims. Five years ago it was becoming obvious—even to twelve-year-old me—that my parents weren’t going to be together for much longer. Dad must have moved out