Beautiful Life: The Carpino Series by Brynne Asher Read Free Book Online

junk food isn’t normal junk food.  She made a layered hummus dip with pita chips, miniature baked ham and cheese buttery biscuit sandwiches and a jalapeno jelly she made herself and dumped it over cream cheese to spread on crackers.  She told me she considers it junk food because it lacks fruits and vegetables.  I guess she didn’t consider the chopped tomatoes, cucumbers and onions on the layered hummus dip, but I wasn’t going to be the one to point the nutritional value of her junk food. 
    And two:  I started out on one end of Gabby’s big sectional snuggled in with a toss pillow at the beginning of our movie marathon.  Paige stretched out on the other end.  That left the middle for Tony.  But instead of taking the middle like a normal person would have done, he decided to torture me further and came straight to me picking up my legs to plop himself down where he tucked his hip right into my bottom.  Then he slouched in his seat to prop his long legs on the coffee table with my legs draped over him.  I immediately tried to sit up and yank my legs away, but he held on tight not allowing me to move.  “Tony!” I yelled.  “Leigh,” he drawled back, sort of lazy-like.  I glared at him.  He smiled back at me.  I looked over at Paige who was watching the entire exchange while raising an eyebrow at me in question.  I gave my head a tiny shake and sighed.  Then I turned to the TV and tried to get as comfortable as I could, which really wasn’t hard since it was pretty comfortable stretched out with my legs draped over his lap.  It was even more comfortable when he would randomly run his hands over my legs and feet, a touch so light but significant, I felt it down to my bones. 
    Pure torture. 
    But I decided not to think about that at the moment.
    This was all after the big decision of what to watch.  Watching Tony and Paige duke it out over our viewing selection was interesting to say the least.  I’ve never had much of an adult relationship with my sister and we never got along as kids, degenerating into a miserable relationship as teenagers.  It all started with Paige going through Gabby’s collection of eighties movies she collected during her eighties phase.  Paige insisted we watch Breakfast Club.  Tony said he was absolutely not watching a Brat Pack movie and suggested the Bourne Trilogy.  Paige threw me under the bus and said there was no way I would want to watch anything violent.  I mean, really.  Everyone knows Jason Bourne is the bomb, but I didn’t get to express this because Paige suggested the entire Star Wars collection to which Tony said, “No fucking way.  You recite every line out loud and it’s obnoxious.  Just because you’re the size of Yoda doesn’t make you a Jedi and the master of all things Star Wars.” 
    Turning back to study the library of movies, Paige all of a sudden screams and says, “Sex in the City!  Gabby has the whole series, if we start tonight, I bet we can finish by Christmas.  Gabby will be pissed we started without her, but she’ll just have to deal with it.”
    “I’m not watching that shit, Paige,” Tony replies, as Paige starts putting in the first disc.
    Paige turns around, puts her hand on her hip and with attitude, a-gain, throws me under the bus with, “But it’s Leigh’s favorite.  Ask her.  It will make her happy.”
    Tony turns to me, only to raise his eyebrows in question.  My only answer was to tip my head to the side while shrugging my shoulders because Sex in the City is absolutely my favorite.  Those four women are amazing (not to mention a lot naughty) and I wish I could have just a teensy-weensy bit of their amazingness.  Don’t even get me started on their clothes.  But what I say is, “I like Jason Bourne, too.”
    Tony grins at me and turns back to Paige to say, “Put it in.”
    “Like I needed your permission,” Paige mutters under her breath, but loud enough for us all to hear. 
    I breathe a sigh of